To learn more, visit: http://www.asanet.org/AM2016/AM_2016.cfm
DR K-12 Presenters:
Ball, C., Huang, K., Cotten, S. R., Rikard, R. V., & Coleman, L. O. (2016). Invaluable values: an expectancy-value theory analysis of youths’ academic motivations and intentions. Information, Communication & Society, 19(5), 1-21.
While Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields have increased in importance over the past decade, minorities have remained traditionally underrepresented in these fields. In this study we seek to better understand some of the factors that might contribute to or potentially mitigate early STEM pipeline leaks, specifically, high school graduation and college entrance leaks. Student interest formed in the early school years has an impact on future course selections and persistence in school. These choices can have long-term repercussions on the future career options and the financial security of students. We apply expectancy-value theory (EVT) in order to examine the factors that may influence students’ motivations and intentions to complete high school and attend college. Specifically, we investigate if EVT can help to explain change in students’ academic intentions and motivations after a computing intervention. We hypothesize that changes in students’ expectancies for success and subjective task values will be positively associated with changes in students’ intentions and motivations to persist in academia. Data were gathered from a sample of elementary students within an urban, high poverty, and predominately minority school district located in the southeastern USA. Changes in students’ expectancies for success and subjective task values over the course of the intervention played an important role in students’ academic motivations and intentions to both finish high school and attend college. These findings demonstrate that EVT is useful in explaining general academic motivations in young children, which could potentially increase the structural integrity of the STEM pipeline.
Coleman, L. O., Gibson, P., Cotten, S. R., Howell-Moroney, M., & Stringer, K. (2015). Integrating Computing Across the Curriculum: The Impact of Internal Barriers and Training Intensity on Computer Integration in the Elementary School Classroom. Journal of Educational Computing Research.
This study examines the relationship between internal barriers, professional development, and computer integration outcomes among a sample of fourth- and fifth-grade teachers in an urban, low-income school district in the Southeastern United States. Specifically, we examine the impact of teachers’ computer attitudes, computer anxiety, and computer training on the quality of computer integration in their classrooms. Using data from the Integrating Computing Across the Curriculum project, we utilize a mixed-methods approach to explore these relationships. Our results indicate that teacher attitudes and participation in an intensive computer-based training have a positive effect on computer integration practices. Findings from this study support providing teachers with more computer-based training which aims to improve the quality of classroom integration. This may lead to improvements in teacher attitudes toward computing and an increase in levels of computer integration in the elementary school classroom.
Inquiry-based educative curricula and teachers who use these curricula as intended are major factors in achieving successful student learning outcomes in science. Educative curricula can also bring about significant change in teacher practice. Educative curricula are generally accompanied by carefully designed print teacher guides that facilitate the implementation of curricula, encourage new instructional strategies, and accommodate curriculum modifications while retaining fidelity to the developers’ content sequencing and pedagogy.
An electronic teacher guide (eTG) was developed to determine whether a digital guide could better support teachers in implementing an inquiry-based curriculum and in enhancing their practice. Developed as a proof-of-concept exemplar, features of the eTG support high school teachers in planning, implementing, and modifying innovative instructional materials and in developing more ambitious teaching practices.
