Science

In this study, we investigated how an experienced fourth-grade teacher responded to her students’ thinking as part of her teacher noticing practice in a formative assessment context. Our primary purpose in doing this work was to decompose the responding component of teacher noticing and use our findings to present an emerging framework characterizing the multidimensional nature of this practice. We present two key outcomes based on the findings of this work. First, we show how a formative assessment context situated outside of instruction can engage teachers in practice-based noticing.

This report describes initial findings from a study of middle school science curriculum materials that were designed to promote learning as called for by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

WestEd led an independent randomized controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of the NGSS-designed Amplify Science Middle School (ASMS) curriculum. This study examined the impact of the materials in 7th grade classrooms across three school districts in two states.

The construct of active learning permeates undergraduate education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), but despite its prevalence, the construct means different things to different people, groups, and STEM domains. To better understand active learning, we constructed this review through an innovative interdisciplinary collaboration involving research teams from psychology and discipline-based education research (DBER).

Schwarz, C., Ki, L., Salgado, M., & Manz, E. (2022). Beyond assessing knowledge about models and modeling: Moving towards expansive, meaningful and equitable modeling practice. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 1-11.

A central goal of both professional and classroom-based scientific communities is building and testing explanatory models of the natural world. The process of modeling a complex phenomenon often requires working across representational systems of differing scales, modalities, and purposes.

Since March 2020, in-person science competitions have been cancelled or moved to a virtual space. This reality has encouraged teachers and students to find alternative ways to disseminate student research and participate in a scientific community. Participating in the peer review and publication of one’s research offers one such alternative. The Journal of Emerging Investigators (JEI) is a free, online, peer-reviewed science journal specifically for middle school and high school students.

Scientists spend a substantial amount of their time engaging with the primary literature: reading, constructing, reviewing and revising it. Yet, the role of primary literature is generally absent from the development of scientific inquiry skills in the pre-college science classroom, thus undermining a true understanding of what it means to do science. In this study, we examined middle and high school student perceptions of scientific inquiry and the role of disciplinary literacy practices after engaging in scientific review and publication of their research papers.

Developing knowledge about science instruction is critical for preservice teachers. This study explores how 79 elementary preservice teachers perceive the relevance and importance of assessment task scenarios designed to elicit information about content knowledge for teaching (CKT) about matter and its interactions—a foundational topic for teaching physical science.

Butcher, K. R., Larson, M., Lane, M., & Power, M. (2022). Rethinking Online Science Learning: Creating Virtual Research Experiences using Digitized Museum Specimens. Connected Science Learning, 4(2).

This chapter discusses the capabilities of extended reality technology in informal learning environments, such as museums and cultural heritage sites. Recent developments in extended reality technologies have led to increased integration into these informal learning spaces and have heightened the need for a systematic investigation into the affordances of modern multimedia representations spanning tangible to virtual mediums.