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Shining Light on Preschool Science Investigations: Exploring Shadows and Strengthening Visual Spatial Skills
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Young children are naturally interested in light and shadows, thus providing a meaningful context to introduce preschool science investigations. As children explore how shadows are made and change, they also have…
Toward a Better Understanding of the Nature of Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Fractions: The Role of Experience
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Mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) is a professional knowledge crucial for effective mathematics instruction, encompassing both content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The purpose of this…
Using Simulations to Support Students’ Conceptual Development Related to Wildfire Hazards and Risks from an Experiential Learning Perspective
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From the experiential learning perspective, this study investigates middle and high school students (n = 1009) who used an online module to learn about wildfire hazards, risks, and impacts through computational simulations…
Communities of Practice and the Elevation of Urban Elementary Teacher Discourse About Critical Pedagogy of Place
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Children who live in under-resourced communities and attend under-resourced schools deserve access to high-quality teachers and educational opportunities to support their success and well-being. This study emerged from a…
“I Really Got to Think About My Background, Their Background, and How Do We Come Together on Something?”: One Emergent Mathematics Teacher Leader's Reflexive Journey with Social Justice Mathematics
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This 2-year qualitative case study focuses on one emergent mathematics teacher leader, Mr. Miller, and his conceptualization of Social Justice Mathematics (SJM). SJM is a justice-oriented pedagogical approach where…
Investigating the Complexity in Elementary Teachers’ Noticing of Children’s Mathematical Thinking in Written Work
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This study investigated upper elementary teachers’ framings of their students’ mathematical thinking in written across the three component skills of noticing. Drawing on a situated perspective, the research examines the…
Learning About Science Topics of Social Relevance Using Lower and Higher Autonomy-Supportive Scaffolds
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Evaluation of plausible alternative explanations of scientific phenomena is an authentic scientific activity. Instructional scaffolding can facilitate students’ engagement in such evaluations by facilitating their…
Supporting Students’ Participation in Collective Argumentation: Use of Displays in a Secondary Mathematics Classroom
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Thoughtful and purposeful displays can support students’ participation in argumentation. This report addresses how displays are used within collective argumentation. We examined a secondary mathematics teacher’s and her…
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In conversations about pedagogy, researchers often overlook how physical space and movement shape teacher sensemaking. This article offers a comparative case study of classroom videos using a dynamic visual method to map…
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This list includes STEM education-related conferences that may be of interest to DRK-12 grantees.
This file contains a listing of STEM education-related conferences that may be of interest to DRK-12…
Legitimation Code Theory as an Analytical Framework for Integrated STEM Curriculum and Its Enactment
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In this paper, we describe Legitimation Code Theory as an analytical framework and provide an analysis of semantic patterns of an integrated STEM unit (written discourse) and a middle school teacher’s …
Examining How Using Dichotomous and Partial Credit Scoring Models Influence Sixth-Grade Mathematical Problem-Solving Assessment Outcomes
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Determining the most appropriate method of scoring an assessment is based on multiple factors, including the intended use of results, the assessment's purpose, and time constraints. Both the dichotomous and partial credit…
Mathematics and Science Teacher Educators' Use of Representations of Practice: A Mixed Methods Study
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This study sought to explore math and science teacher educators' use of various media to represent practice within methods courses. There is little understanding of why certain media is used over other representations and…
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This article introduces a new framework for articulating how educational assessments can be related to teacher uses in the classroom. It articulates three levels of assessment: macro (use of standardized tests), meso (…
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Science teacher leaders have been identified as an important lever for the implementation of science education reform. However, science reform implementation is locally controlled and not uniform across districts;…
Increasing Student Confidence in Writing: Integrating Authentic Manuscript Writing into an Online 8-Week Research Program
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In various formats, students at the secondary and postsecondary levels participate in multiweek authentic science research projects. There have been many papers explaining the operations of such programs, but few have…
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The Socioscientific Issues Teaching and Learning (SSI-TL) framework is a guide for developing an instructional approach to learning experiences focused on socioscientific issues (SSI). Despite the potential benefits of SSI…
Unpacking Response Process Issues Encountered When Developing a Mathematics Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) Assessment
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It is essential for items in assessments of mathematics’ teacher knowledge to evoke the desired response processes – to be interpreted and responded to by teachers as intended by item developers. In this study, we sought…
Vygotskian Hybridizing of Motion and Mapping: Learning About Geometric Transformations in Block-based Programming Environments
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Research on geometric transformations suggests that early learners possess intuitive understandings grounded in motion metaphors, transitioning to mappings. The processes through which students transition between these two…
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In many schools across the world, students experience mathematical concepts as ideas empty of wisdom and possibility. In this paper the authors analyze a philosophical conversation in which fifth-grade students were caught…
Investigating the Presence of Mathematics and the Levels of Cognitively Demanding Mathematical Tasks in Integrated STEM Units
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Effective K-12 integrated STEM education should reflect an intentional effort to adequately represent and facilitate each of its component disciplines in a meaningful way. However, most research in this space has been…
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Review of the recent literature on integrated STEM curriculum development and implementation. Included are frameworks for integrated STEM curriculum development and research assessments to evaluate curriculum quality.…
Secondary Chemistry Teacher Learning: Precursors for and Mechanisms of Pedagogical Conceptual Change
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Despite years of research and practice inspired by chemistry education research, a recent report shows that US secondary instruction is not aligned with current national reform-based efforts. One means to mitigate this…
Investigating the Mangle of Teaching Oxidation–Reduction with the VisChem Approach: Problematising Symbolic Traditions that Undermine Chemistry Concept Development
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Specific to the topic of oxidation–reduction (redox), teachers are obligated by the discipline to prioritise symbolic traditions such as writing equations, documenting oxidation states, and describing changes (e.g., what…
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We need STEM knowledge programs in formal and informal settings that guide learners in applying STEM learning to the creation of solutions.
We need STEM knowledge programs in formal and informal…
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To best support students in developing competence, assessments that allow students to use knowledge to solve challenging problems and make sense of phenomena are needed. These assessments need to be designed and tested to…
Flip It: An Exploratory (Versus Explanatory) Sequential Mixed Methods Design Using Delphi and Differential Item Functioning to Evaluate Item Bias
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The Delphi method has been adapted to inform item refinements in educational and psychological assessment development. An explanatory sequential mixed methods design using Delphi is a common approach to gain experts'…
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Students need “critical data literacy” skills to help make sense of the multitude of information available to them, especially as it relates to high-stakes issues of social justice. The authors describe two curriculum…
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Civic Statistics by its nature is highly interdisciplinary. From a cross-curricular perspective, teaching and learning Civic Statistics faces specific challenges related to the preparation of teachers and the design of…
Leading for Justice, Leading for Learning: Conceptualizing Urban School Leadership for Antiracist Mathematics Teaching and Learning
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Urban school leaders can support mathematics instruction that acknowledges and sustains students’ racialized and cultured ways of knowing and being. Yet, leadership for racial justice is often discussed separately from…
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Adopting a pretest–posttest experimental design with repeated measures, this study examined the effects of three types of game-based learning supports in the form of modeling on knowledge development that contributed to…
Exploring Students’ Learning Support Use in Digital Game-based Math Learning: A Mixed-Methods Approach Using Machine Learning and Multi-cases Study
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Digital game-based math learning environments (math DGBLE) are promising platforms that provide students with opportunities to master conceptual understanding and cultivate mathematical thinking, on which the contemporary…
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Big ideas in science education are meant to be interpretive frameworks that empower student learning. Unfortunately, outside of the broad conception of scientific evaluation, there are few theoretical explanations of how…
Socio-Scientific Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Comparing In-person and Virtual Science Learning Using Model-Evidence Link Diagrams
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Science learning is an important part of the K-12 educational experience, as well as in the lives of students. This study considered students’ science learning as they engaged in the instruction of scientific issues with…
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The new DRK-12 solicitation (NSF 23-596) introduces several changes and updates compared to the previous solicitation (NSF 20-572). Proposal writers should take note of the differences outlined in this document…
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This webinar provided early career data science education researchers with information on the state of the field; tools, curricula, and other resources for researchers; and insight into funding opportunities and proposal…
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Resources from the NSF-led webinars on the new DRK-12 Solicitation 23-596.
Resources from the NSF-led webinars on the new DRK-12 Solicitation 23-596.
2023 NSF Information Session on DRK-12…
A Remote View into the Classroom: Analyzing Teacher Use of Digitally Enhanced Educative Curriculum Materials in Support of Student Learning
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When integrated into online curriculum modules for students, educative curriculum materials (ECMs) can enhance teachers’ enactment of these modules. This study investigated (1) the use of digitally enhanced ECMs built into…
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This article pilots ChatGPT in tackling the most challenging part of science learning and found it successful in automation of assessment development, grading, learning guidance, and recommendation of learning materials…
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Explaining phenomena associated with a system involves describing a system’s structure and articulating the process through which the system’s structure changes over time. This paper defines geo-sequential reasoning in the…
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is prevalent in nearly every aspect of our lives. However, recent studies have found a significant amount of confusion and misunderstanding surrounding AI. To develop effective educational…
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Questions regarding the construction of mathematical authority have implications for learning, specifically for students’ views of themselves as mathematics learners and doers with valuable contributions. We consider the…
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This report takes stock of what we currently know as well as what we need to know to make classroom assessment maximally beneficial for the teaching and learning of STEM subject matter in K–12 classrooms…
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A 10-week, energy literacy curriculum unit for 6th grade students. Students will study energy use and transfer in their own school buildings. They will explore how Earth systems supply renewable and nonrenewable energy,…
Comparing How College Mathematics Instructors and High-School Teachers Recognize Professional Obligations of Mathematics Teaching when Making Instructional Decisions
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This paper investigates how mathematics instructors' recognition of the professional obligations of mathematics teaching varies based on their institutional environment, specifically whether they teach high school or…
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Teachers must know how to use language to support students in knowledge generation environments that align to the Next Generation Science Standards. To measure this knowledge, this study refines a survey on teachers’…
‘If You Wanted to Take this Model and Throw Nitrogen at It, It Would Fit’: Synthesis Approach to Modelling to Learn About Biogeochemical Cycles
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This qualitative study examines how a group of undergraduate and graduate students in an upper-level ecosystem ecology course at a research university in the southeastern part of the United States engage in a task that…
‘Me Hizo Sentir Como Científica’: The Expressed Science Identities of Multilingual Learners in High School Biology Classrooms
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Science identity development begins in school-aged years, when multilingual students (MLs) are often marginalised in the classroom due to language challenges and low expectations placed on them. This descriptive multiple…
Student Outcomes of Teaching About Socio-scientific Issues in Secondary Science Classrooms: Applications of EzGCM
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Science education literature has highlighted socio-scientific issues (SSI) as an effective pedagogy for teaching science in a social and political context. SSI links science education and real-world problems to engage…
Supporting Secondary Students’ Understanding of Earth’s Climate System and Global Climate Change Using EzGCM: A Cross-Sectional Study
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Global climate change (GCC) is one of the greatest challenges of our age and a highly significant socio-scientific issue (SSI). Developing secondary students’ understanding about the Earth’s climate and GCC is critical for…