High

Science Education and the Learning Sciences: A Coevolutionary Connection

In this chapter, we argue that the learning sciences and science education have coevolved, a co-evolution that began with the emergence of the learning sciences in the 1990s and that continues today. Our chapter begins with a discussion of four areas of educational scholarship in which the learning sciences and science education have worked in mutually beneficial ways to shape each other’s scholarship, resulting in advantageous outcomes for both fields.

Author/Presenter

Nancy Butler Songer

Yael Kali

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2022
Short Description

In this chapter, we argue that the learning sciences and science education have coevolved, a co-evolution that began with the emergence of the learning sciences in the 1990s and that continues today.

Exploring the Viral Spread of Disease and Disinformation

The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of mathematical models in predicting the spread of the coronavirus (Srinivas 2020; Stevens & Muyskens 2020) and assessing the effectiveness of various safety measures in reducing that spread (Li et al 2020). These models can be extremely sophisticated, drawing on the expertise of applied mathematicians, epidemiologists, public health experts, and others, but at its core, there is a notion of exponential growth that is relevant for the secondary mathematics curriculum.

Author/Presenter

Samuel Otten

Julia Bemke

Jerred Webb

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2022
Short Description

The tasks described in this chapter are intended to build connections between these real-world dangers of viral spread and some relevant topics from the secondary mathematics curriculum. We also explore a link between mathematical reasoning and media literacy—the ability to discern the commercial, ideological, or political motivations of media and the recognition that receivers negotiate the meaning of messages (Aufderheide, 1993)—so that, just as we know to take safety precautions with regard to an airborne coronavirus, we can also help our students learn to take precautions against the spread of misinformation on social media.

Extractive and Inferential Discourses for Equation Solving

We investigate the algebraic discourse of secondary mathematics teachers with respect to the topic of equation solving by analyzing five teachers’ responses to open-ended items on a questionnaire that asks respondents to analyze hypothetical student work related to equation solving and explain related concepts.

Author/Presenter

Cody L. Patterson

Elizabeth Wrightsman

Mehmet Kirmizi

Rebecca McGraw

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2021
Short Description

We investigate the algebraic discourse of secondary mathematics teachers with respect to the topic of equation solving by analyzing five teachers’ responses to open-ended items on a questionnaire that asks respondents to analyze hypothetical student work related to equation solving and explain related concepts.

We Strive: Initial Explorations of STEM Teachers' Successes and Challenges in Implementing Socioscientific Issues

This study explores two teachers participating in professional development workshops implementing SocioScientific Issues (SSI) into STEM classrooms. Two research questions were investigated: (a) To what extent did teachers implement SSI into their lesson plans and (b) In what ways did lessons change from the beginning of the workshop?

Author/Presenter

Joseph Johnson

Augusto Macalalag

Becky Mathers-Lowery

Gabrielle Ialacci

Year
2022
Short Description

This study explores two teachers participating in professional development workshops implementing SocioScientific Issues (SSI) into STEM classrooms. Two research questions were investigated: (a) To what extent did teachers implement SSI into their lesson plans and (b) In what ways did lessons change from the beginning of the workshop?

We Strive: Initial Explorations of STEM Teachers' Successes and Challenges in Implementing Socioscientific Issues

This study explores two teachers participating in professional development workshops implementing SocioScientific Issues (SSI) into STEM classrooms. Two research questions were investigated: (a) To what extent did teachers implement SSI into their lesson plans and (b) In what ways did lessons change from the beginning of the workshop?

Author/Presenter

Joseph Johnson

Augusto Macalalag

Becky Mathers-Lowery

Gabrielle Ialacci

Year
2022
Short Description

This study explores two teachers participating in professional development workshops implementing SocioScientific Issues (SSI) into STEM classrooms. Two research questions were investigated: (a) To what extent did teachers implement SSI into their lesson plans and (b) In what ways did lessons change from the beginning of the workshop?

What's In a Wave? Using Modeling and Computational Thinking to Enhance Students' Understanding of Waves

Teaching about wave structure and function is a critical element of any physical science curriculum and supported by Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) PS4: Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer. Often, instruction focused on these concepts involves identifying and describing several aspects of wave structure, including amplitude, frequency, and wavelength. To support students’ learning of these ideas, teachers often rely on developing graphic models of a wave with students identifying different aspects of wave structure.

Author/Presenter

Patrick Enderle

Natalie King

Lauren Margulieux

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2021
Short Description

Teaching about wave structure and function is a critical element of any physical science curriculum and supported by Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) PS4: Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer. Often, instruction focused on these concepts involves identifying and describing several aspects of wave structure, including amplitude, frequency, and wavelength. To support students’ learning of these ideas, teachers often rely on developing graphic models of a wave with students identifying different aspects of wave structure. To enhance this experience, some teachers employ readily available simulations from trusted websites, such as PhET or Netlogo. Digital resources are valuable tools that teachers can use to support students’ science understanding through manipulating elements of digitally constructed scientific models. These approaches to teaching promote students’ engagement in the practice of designing (drawing a wave) and using scientific models (working with a simulation). To expand upon these resources, we developed a series of instructional activities that deepen students’ conceptual understanding of waves by engaging in computational thinking while developing and using scientific and mathematical models.

Designing for Mathematical Literacy: Introducing Exponential Growth Using Critical and Meaningful Problem Contexts

This department explores the concept of disciplinary literacy—the conceptual understandings and ways of reading, thinking, and writing involved in critiquing and constructing knowledge in a discipline—and its intersections with aspects of culturally sustaining pedagogy.

Author/Presenter

William Zahner

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2021
Short Description

This department explores the concept of disciplinary literacy—the conceptual understandings and ways of reading, thinking, and writing involved in critiquing and constructing knowledge in a discipline—and its intersections with aspects of culturally sustaining pedagogy.

Principles for Curriculum Design and Pedagogy in Multilingual Secondary Mathematics Classrooms

We introduce and illustrate three principles for designing secondary mathematics classrooms in which multilingual students can benefit from participating in mathematical discussions. Drawing from the Academic Literacy in Mathematics (ALM) framework (Moschkovich, 2015), we developed these principles through a four-year design research collaboration with ninth grade mathematics teachers working in a linguistically diverse urban secondary school in the southwest USA.

Author/Presenter

William Zahner

Kevin Pelaez

Ernesto Daniel Calleros

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2021
Short Description

We introduce and illustrate three principles for designing secondary mathematics classrooms in which multilingual students can benefit from participating in mathematical discussions. Drawing from the Academic Literacy in Mathematics (ALM) framework (Moschkovich, 2015), we developed these principles through a four-year design research collaboration with ninth grade mathematics teachers working in a linguistically diverse urban secondary school in the southwest USA.

Designing Learning Environments to Promote Academic Literacy in Mathematics in Multilingual Secondary Mathematics Classrooms

Emerging multilingual students can develop the dimensions of Academic Literacy in Mathematics (ALM) in classroom discussions. But, there is a need for empirically-validated principles for fostering such discussions. This research used ALM as a framework to create a unit of instruction on linear rates of change for ninth grade mathematics in which multilingual students benefit from discussions. Project-specific design principles are presented along with qualitative analysis of classroom discussions from each phase of the project.

Author/Presenter

William Zahner

Ernesto Daniel Calleros

Kevin Pelaez

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2021
Short Description

Emerging multilingual students can develop the dimensions of Academic Literacy in Mathematics (ALM) in classroom discussions. But, there is a need for empirically-validated principles for fostering such discussions. This research used ALM as a framework to create a unit of instruction on linear rates of change for ninth grade mathematics in which multilingual students benefit from discussions.

Remote Chemistry Teacher Professional Development Delivery: Enduring Lessons for Programmatic Redesign

COVID-19 has thrust educators into a period of uncertainty, complicating conventional ways of teaching and learning. We suspect that the pandemic has magnified the challenges that some high school teachers already experience, particularly when they are the sole chemistry teacher at their school. The pandemic has likely inhibited collegial interactions and access to professional development (PD).

Author/Presenter
Meng-Yang M. Wu

KatieMarie Magnone

Roy Tasker

Ellen J. Yezierski

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2021
Short Description

COVID-19 has thrust educators into a period of uncertainty, complicating conventional ways of teaching and learning. We suspect that the pandemic has magnified the challenges that some high school teachers already experience, particularly when they are the sole chemistry teacher at their school. The pandemic has likely inhibited collegial interactions and access to professional development (PD). Our reflections from redesigning a face-to-face PD program to one that is remotely delivered provide recommendations that advance PD accessibility and interactivity to mitigate isolation and other longstanding challenges teachers may face. In this article, we discuss how the cognitive learning model informed emergent teaching practices that guided the transformation of the PD’s implementation for 20 high school chemistry teachers.