Students Learning Science

This report on teachers' academic preparation and professional development, the amount of emphasis science instruction receives in schools, student course taking, and the availability of school resources that support science learning is intended primarily for policy makers, school administrators, and educators concerned with state- or school-level policies. Data is drawn from the 1996 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and results are presented using the students as the unit of analysis. Appendises present an overview of procedures used for the NAEP 1996 Science Assessment and standard errors. Contains 14 figures and 25 tables. (DDR)

In the USA, the number of college students with limited English proficiency is increasing. Even after successfully completing a course of English as a second language, many face both linguistic and cultural barriers in mainstream classes. This book focuses on both the theory and practice of assisting such students, especially in the sciences. As the number of non-native English speaking students increases at colleges and universities, innovative approaches are needed to successfully educate this population and how science is taught may be crucial. Instruction in the students' native language may become increasingly important in attracting and retaining non-native English speakers in college. This book is aimed primarily at staff who teach science to LEP undergraduates, but others who should be interested include staff involved with postgraduate students and high school science teachers.

Science educators in the United States are adapting to a new vision of how students learn science. Children are natural explorers and their observations and intuitions about the world around them are the foundation for science learning. Unfortunately, the way science has been taught in the United States has not always taken advantage of those attributes. Some students who successfully complete their Kâ€"12 science classes have not really had the chance to "do" science for themselves in ways that harness their natural curiosity and understanding of the world around them. The introduction of the Next Generation Science Standards led many states, schools, and districts to change curricula, instruction, and professional development to align with the standards. Therefore existing assessmentsâ€"whatever their purposeâ€"cannot be used to measure the full range of activities and interactions happening in science classrooms that have adapted to these ideas because they were not designed to do so. Seeing Students Learn Science is meant to help educators improve their understanding of how students learn science and guide the adaptation of their instruction and approach to assessment. It includes examples of innovative assessment formats, ways to embed assessments in engaging classroom activities, and ideas for interpreting and using novel kinds of assessment information. It provides ideas and questions educators can use to reflect on what they can adapt right away and what they can work toward more gradually.

This highly-readable book addresses how to teach effective communication in science. The first part of the book provides accessible context and theory about communicating science well, and is written by experts. The second part focuses on the practice of teaching communication in science, with ‘nuts and bolts’ lesson plans direct from the pens of practitioners. The book includes over 50 practice chapters, each focusing on one or more short teaching activities to target a specific aspect of communication, such as writing, speaking and listening. Implementing the activities is made easy with class run sheets, tips and tricks for instructors, signposts to related exercises and theory chapters, and further resources. Theory chapters help build instructor confidence and knowledge on the topic of communicating science. The teaching exercises can be used with science students at all levels of education in any discipline and curriculum – the only limitation is a wish to learn to communicate better! Targeted at science faculty members, this book aims to improve and enrich communication teaching within the science curriculum, so that science graduates can communicate better as professionals in their discipline and future workplace.

How can educators bridge the gap between "big" ideas about teaching students to think and educational practice? This book addresses this question by a unique combination of theory, field experience and elaborate educational research. Its basic idea is to look at science instruction with regard to two sets of explicit goals: one set refers to teaching science concepts and the second set refers to teaching higher order thinking. This book tells about how thinking can be taught not only in the rare and unique conditions that are so typical of affluent experimental educational projects but also in the less privileged but much more common conditions of educational practice that most schools have to endure. It provides empirical evidence showing that students from all academic levels actually improve their thinking and their scientific knowledge following the thinking curricula, and discusses specific means for teaching higher order thinking to students with low academic achievements. The second part of the book addresses issues that pertain to teachers' professional development and to their knowledge and beliefs regarding the teaching of higher order thinking. This book is intended for a very large audience: researchers (including graduate students), curricular designers, practicing and pre-service teachers, college students, teacher educators and those interested in educational reform. Although the book is primarily about the development of thinking in science classrooms, most of it chapters may be of interest to educators from all disciplines.

First Published in 1991. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

"This timely and innovative book encourages us to ‘flip the classroom’ and empower our students to become content creators. Through creating digital media, they will not only improve their communication skills, but also gain a deeper understanding of core scientific concepts. This book will inspire science academics and science teacher educators to design learning experiences that allow students to take control of their own learning, to generate media that will stimulate them to engage with, learn about, and become effective communicators of science." Professors Susan Jones and Brian F. Yates, Australian Learning and Teaching Council Discipline Scholars for Science "Represents a giant leap forward in our understanding of how digital media can enrich not only the learning of science but also the professional learning of science teachers." Professor Tom Russell, Queen’s University, Ontario, Canada "This excellent edited collection brings together authors at the forefront of promoting media creation in science by children and young people. New media of all kinds are the most culturally significant forms in the lives of learners and the work in this book shows how they can move between home and school and provide new contexts for learning as well as an understanding of key concepts." Dr John Potter, London Knowledge Lab, Dept. of Culture, Communication and Media, University College London, UK Student-generated Digital Media in Science Education supports secondary school teachers, lecturers in universities and teacher educators in improving engagement and understanding in science by helping students unleash their enthusiasm for creating media within the science classroom. Written by pioneers who have been developing their ideas in students’ media making over the last 10 years, it provides a theoretical background, case studies, and a wide range of assignments and assessment tasks designed to address the vital issue of disengagement amongst science learners. It showcases opportunities for learners to use the tools that they already own to design, make and explain science content with five digital media forms that build upon each other— podcasts, digital stories, slowmation, video and blended media. Each chapter provides advice for implementation and evidence of engagement as learners use digital tools to learn science content, develop communication skills, and create science explanations. A student team’s music video animation of the Krebs cycle, a podcast on chemical reactions presented as commentary on a boxing match, a wiki page on an entry in the periodic table of elements, and an animation on vitamin D deficiency among hijab-wearing Muslim women are just some of the imaginative assignments demonstrated. Student-generated Digital Media in Science Education illuminates innovative ways to engage science learners with science content using contemporary digital technologies. It is a must-read text for all educators keen to effectively convey the excitement and wonder of science in the 21st century.

This book examines educational semiotics and the representation of knowledge in school science. It discusses the strategic integration of animation in science education. It explores how learning through the creation of science animations takes place, as well as how animation can be used in assessing student’s science learning. Science education animations are ubiquitous in a variety of different online sites, including perhaps the most popularly accessed YouTube site, and are also routinely included as digital augmentations to science textbooks. They are popular with students and teachers and are a prominent feature of contemporary science teaching. The proliferation of various kinds of science animations and the ready accessibility of sophisticated resources for creating them have emphasized the importance of research into various areas: the nature of the semiotic construction of knowledge in the animation design, the development of critical interpretation of available animations, the strategic selection and use of animations to optimize student learning, student creation of science animations, and using animation in assessing student science learning. This book brings together new developments in these research agendas to further multidisciplinary perspectives on research to enhance the design and pedagogic use of animation in school science education. Chapter 1 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

The achievement gaps in science and the under-representation of minorities in science-related fields have long been a concern of the nation. This book examines the roots of this problem by providing a comprehensive, 'state of the field' analysis and synthesis of current research on science education for minority students. Research from a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives is brought to bear on the question of how and why our nation's schools have failed to provide equitable learning opportunities with all students in science education. From this wealth of investigative data, the authors propose a research agenda for the field of science education - identifying strengths and weaknesses in the literature to date as well as the most urgent priorities for those committed to the goals of equity and excellence in science education.

At a time when scientific and technological competence is vital to the nation's future, the weak performance of U.S. students in science reflects the uneven quality of current science education. Although young children come to school with innate curiosity and intuitive ideas about the world around them, science classes rarely tap this potential. Many experts have called for a new approach to science education, based on recent and ongoing research on teaching and learning. In this approach, simulations and games could play a significant role by addressing many goals and mechanisms for learning science: the motivation to learn science, conceptual understanding, science process skills, understanding of the nature of science, scientific discourse and argumentation, and identification with science and science learning. To explore this potential, Learning Science: Computer Games, Simulations, and Education, reviews the available research on learning science through interaction with digital simulations and games. It considers the potential of digital games and simulations to contribute to learning science in schools, in informal out-of-school settings, and everyday life. The book also identifies the areas in which more research and research-based development is needed to fully capitalize on this potential. Learning Science will guide academic researchers; developers, publishers, and entrepreneurs from the digital simulation and gaming community; and education practitioners and policy makers toward the formation of research and development partnerships that will facilitate rich intellectual collaboration. Industry, government agencies and foundations will play a significant role through start-up and ongoing support to ensure that digital games and simulations will not only excite and entertain, but also motivate and educate.

In this ground-breaking book science education is explored as a learning continuum across all years of schooling from Foundation to Year 12. The expert authors, members of Monash University's Science Education Research Group, seek to build pedagogical and content expertise by providing both a level of support and challenge for all teachers based on current research and best practice. The text considers key issues including: what the learner brings to the science classroom; what primary and secondary teachers can learn from each other; the constructivist perspective and its value in learning science; context-based science education; the structure of the Australian curriculum and science education policy; teacher identity; the nature of scientific knowledge; principles of assessment and understanding the role of ICT in science teaching and learning. Featuring case studies and practical examples in each chapter, this book provides pre-service teachers with the understanding and tools to ensure their students are engaged and inspired in science education throughout their school years.

Provides extensive standards-based examples for assessing science teaching and learning, including the use of portfolios, formative assessments, student self-evaluations, rubrics, and science notebooks.

This readable and informative survey of key ideas about students’ thinking in science builds a bridge between theory and practice by offering clear accounts from research, and showing how they relate to actual examples of students talking about widely taught science topics. Focused on secondary students and drawing on perspectives found in the international research literature, the goal is not to offer a comprehensive account of the vast literature, but rather to provide an overview of the current state of the field suitable for those who need an understanding of core thinking about learners’ ideas in science, including science education students in teacher preparation and higher degree programs, and classroom teachers, especially those working with middle school, high school, or college level students. Such understanding can inform and enrich science teaching in ways which are more satisfying for teachers, less confusing and frustrating for learners, and so ultimately can lead to both greater scientific literacy and more positive attitudes to science.

Now more than ever, as a worldwide STEM community, we need to know what pre-collegiate teachers and students explore, learn, and implement in relation to computer science and engineering education. As computer science and engineering education are not always “stand-alone” courses in pre-collegiate schools, how are pre-collegiate teachers and students learning about these topics? How can these subjects be integrated? Explore six articles in this book that directly relate to the currently hot topics of computer science and engineering education as they tie into pre-collegiate science, technology, and mathematics realms. There is a systematic review article to set the stage of the problem. Following this overview are two teacher-focused articles on professional development in computer science and entrepreneurship venture training. The final three articles focus on varying levels of student work including pre-collegiate secondary students’ exploration of engineering design technology, future science teachers’ (collegiate students) perceptions of engineering, and pre-collegiate future engineers’ exploration of environmental radioactivity. All six articles speak to computer science and engineering education in pre-collegiate forums, but blend into the collegiate world for a look at what all audiences can bring to the conversation about these topics.

Science in secondary schools has tended to be viewed mainly as a 'practical subject', and language and literacy in science education have been neglected. But learning the language of science is a major part of science education: every science lesson is a language lesson, and language is a major barrier to most school students in learning science. This accessible book explores the main difficulties in the language of science and examines practical ways to aid students in retaining, understanding, reading, speaking and writing scientific language. Jerry Wellington and Jonathan Osborne draw together and synthesize current good practice, thinking and research in this field. They use many practical examples, illustrations and tried-and-tested materials to exemplify principles and to provide guidelines in developing language and literacy in the learning of science. They also consider the impact that the growing use of information and communications technology has had, and will have, on writing, reading and information handling in science lessons. The authors argue that paying more attention to language in science classrooms is one of the most important acts in improving the quality of science education. This is a significant and very readable book for all student and practising secondary school science teachers, for science advisers and school mentors.