Science & Education最新文献

{"title":"Legitimate Peripheral Participation in Observational Astronomy: Insights From an Ethnography of Undergraduate Research Experiences","authors":"Brendan H. O'Connor","doi":"10.1002/sce.70043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.70043","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>A robust body of literature supports the value of undergraduate research experiences (UREs) for improving undergraduates' understanding of science, increasing their confidence to conduct research, and encouraging their graduate school aspirations, among other benefits. However, most of this work is survey- and interview-based and very few studies have directly examined students' experiences with UREs from an ethnographic perspective including observational methodology. In this article, I report findings from an ethnographic study of undergraduates' long-term involvement with research in two different university-based astronomy research groups. I focus on undergraduates' emic, or insider, understandings of the process of socialization they undergo as they move from peripheral to more central forms of participation in the research community of practice. Undergraduates identified four main stages of socialization: getting connected, starting out, improving one's skills, and doing “science.” I examine the behaviors and dispositions associated with each of these stages in detail, documenting undergraduates' trajectory from “getting thrown in the deep end” of group meetings to generating publishable findings. Almost without exception, the undergraduate participants reported uniformly positive experiences within the research groups and a high sense of belonging; they credited the UREs with giving them the knowledge and cultural capital required to gain acceptance to, and succeed in, graduate school. Given the profound impact of longer-term UREs on undergraduate researchers, it is imperative to consider how to extend their benefits to a larger and more diverse student population.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":771,"journal":{"name":"Science & Education","volume":"110 3","pages":"895-910"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147715162","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Perspectives of University Students Working With Rural Schools: Developing a Virtual Science Role Models and Mentors Framework","authors":"Beverly J. Irby,&nbsp;Cindy L. Guerrero,&nbsp;Kara L. Sutton-Jones,&nbsp;Henan Zhang,&nbsp;Rafael Lara-Alecio,&nbsp;Fuhui Tong,&nbsp;Huiwen Pang,&nbsp;Abbey Bachmann","doi":"10.1002/sce.70036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.70036","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of university science majors who served in the Science Role Models and Mentors (SRM²) program through virtual participation in science classroom visits with high-needs, third-grade rural students across Texas, United States. After the science mentors completed the virtual classroom visits, their individual responses were collected via Flip. Using thematic analysis, we detected the following themes: (a) creating real-world science connections, (b) making connections and establishing relationships, and (c) emphasizing and featuring science careers and interests. Additionally, we found that the virtual science mentors perceived the mentoring experience positively, and they enjoyed sharing their passion for science with the third-grade students. These findings led to the development of a Virtual SRM² Framework.</p>","PeriodicalId":771,"journal":{"name":"Science & Education","volume":"110 3","pages":"879-894"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/sce.70036","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147715183","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Manifesto for Critical-Feminist Science Education","authors":"Katerina Pia Günter,&nbsp;Rie Hjørnegaard Malm,&nbsp;Sarah El Halwany,&nbsp;Elena Vasiliou,&nbsp;Aswathy Raveendran,&nbsp;Tatiane Russo-Tait,&nbsp;Sara Tolbert","doi":"10.1002/sce.70016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.70016","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Feminist science education is not a new endeavor but part of a long-standing intergenerational struggle against exclusion, marginalization, and epistemic violence within science and science education institutions and practices. Despite decades of critical feminist scholarship and activism, science and science education continue to operate through patriarchal, colonial, and neoliberal structures that uphold cisheteronormativity, racism, and ableism, often under the guise of objectivity, neutrality, or equity. This special theme calls for a radical reimagining of science education through feminist praxis that is intersectional, transdisciplinary, and transnational. Drawing on foundational feminist scholars and feminist and critical science education researchers, we center practices grounded in care, collectivity, community, relations, dissensual engagement, and the co-construction of knowledge that challenges dominant norms. We advocate for science education that foregrounds relational ethics, joy, and critical consciousness, and that supports students and educators in becoming agents of collective social transformation. This theme emerges from a geographically and generationally diverse, interdisciplinary community of feminist scholars committed to confronting the limitations of diversity rhetoric and pushing beyond representational politics. We critique extractive and damage-based research paradigms and instead invite contributions that make visible “little justices,” resist neoliberal resilience discourses, and imagine feminist kin-making across borders. We aim to create brave, caring spaces that resist censorship and silencing, especially of scholars whose work engages explicitly with questions of power and oppression. In doing so, we continue the legacy of feminist science education as a field that not only questions how science is taught and by whom, but that redefines what science education can be—politically, pedagogically, and imaginatively. Inspired by bell hook's thoughts, this special theme is an invitation to rethink how we think, teach, write, and speak about science and science education, and to collaboratively construct more just and inclusive futures in and through science.</p>","PeriodicalId":771,"journal":{"name":"Science & Education","volume":"110 3","pages":"717-725"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/sce.70016","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147715173","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Attending to Preservice Teachers' Assets: Beliefs and Practices for Supporting Expansive Sensemaking in Elementary Science","authors":"Jessica Bautista,&nbsp;Elizabeth A. Davis","doi":"10.1002/sce.70038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.70038","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Preservice elementary science teachers' beliefs and practices influence the kinds of adaptations they make to curriculum materials and the extent to which they are able to enact justice-oriented science lessons. Through this qualitative study, we explored the beliefs and practices of five focal preservice teachers through an analysis of their lesson plans, recorded enactments, and interviews about their science teaching throughout their student teaching experience. We developed a conceptual framework for <i>expansive sensemaking</i> that explores beliefs and practices related to four key themes, each of which work to center approaches to justice and equity in the context of sensemaking: (1) believing in children's brilliance, (2) building a collaborative classroom culture, (3) expanding what counts as science, and (4) positioning children as epistemic agents. While teachers varied in their beliefs about and approaches to each of these themes, they demonstrated strengths that illustrate what may be possible for early career teachers, like working to integrate many ways of knowing and being into science lessons, connecting to embodied knowledge, or supporting children to be scientific decision-makers. We discuss implications for teacher preparation programs and for theory development related to justice-oriented teaching in general and expansive sensemaking in particular.</p>","PeriodicalId":771,"journal":{"name":"Science & Education","volume":"110 3","pages":"756-779"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/sce.70038","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147715184","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Inviting Conversations in Discipline-Based Science Education","authors":"Julia Svoboda,&nbsp;Hannah Sevian,&nbsp;Ben Van Dusen","doi":"10.1002/sce.70045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.70045","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;A scholarly journal is a space for a community of researchers and practitioners to engage in conversations that expand knowledge, practice, and impact of a field. The new section of &lt;i&gt;Science Education&lt;/i&gt; entitled “Discipline-Based Science Education” invites conversations within and among science education research communities that identify as “discipline-based.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Connections with disciplinary subfields such as biology, chemistry, physics, environmental science, and geosciences have long informed research in science education. In the United States, over the past century, interest and expertise in education research emerged and grew from within each discipline, especially as faculty from disciplinary departments transitioned to studying teaching and learning in colleges and universities (NRC &lt;span&gt;2012&lt;/span&gt;). Over the past decades, these discipline-specific communities, which have been grouped under the term “Discipline-Based Education Research” (DBER), have formed new scholarly societies, developed graduate programs, and launched new journals (Cooper and Stowe &lt;span&gt;2018&lt;/span&gt;; NRC &lt;span&gt;2012&lt;/span&gt;). In many other countries, education scholars often have primary appointments in disciplinary departments because this is where science teacher preparation is located. This structure allows education researchers to build and maintain strong disciplinary connections. What unites these communities is a combination of disciplinary expertise in the sciences and knowledge of the theory, methodologies, and analytical frameworks of education research. We use the term discipline-based science education (DBSE) research to refer to these communities.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The growth of DBSE research has produced new knowledge about learning and teaching in specific disciplines and has expanded research on education at the post-secondary level. DBSE researchers, with their disciplinary expertise and positions in disciplinary departments, are well-positioned to study learning specific to disciplines and to lead departmental reforms (Coppola and Krajcik &lt;span&gt;2014&lt;/span&gt;). At the same time, specialization in DBSE has contributed to partitioning and isolation both from other disciplines and from the broader science education community (Talanquer &lt;span&gt;2014&lt;/span&gt;). This isolation is maintained by the location of DBSE researchers in disciplinary units, the independent origins and separate growth of each community within each sub-discipline, and the emphasis on disciplinary learning in higher education.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Calls for increased communication among DBSE communities argue for the need to bring diverse perspectives into contact, negotiate areas of consensus, and identify open questions and areas of contention (Henderson et al. &lt;span&gt;2017&lt;/span&gt;; Peffer and Renken &lt;span&gt;2016&lt;/span&gt;). For example, Dolan (&lt;span&gt;2015&lt;/span&gt;) called on the biology education research community to move beyond promoting active learning strategies to investigating the mechanisms of learning in bot","PeriodicalId":771,"journal":{"name":"Science & Education","volume":"110 3","pages":"711-716"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/sce.70045","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147715259","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"What Happens When Early Childhood Science Teachers Value Student Authorship?","authors":"Catherine Lammert,&nbsp;Brian Hand,&nbsp;Alison Warren","doi":"10.1002/sce.70034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.70034","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This study investigates the impact of generative learning environments on early childhood students’ language development and scientific understanding through the lens of student authorship. Focusing on three second-grade teachers, we explore how generative and replicative practices influence the degree of multimodality in students’ science writing. Prior research indicates that learning environments characterized by knowledge generation encourage students to leverage their linguistic and cognitive resources and promote the development of representational fluency. However, few studies on this topic have been conducted with early childhood students. Findings of the current multiple case study reveal that students in generative environments tend to express their scientific ideas through more diverse modalities (i.e., representational and extensional rather than decorational) than those in replicative environments. Further, educators who adhere to replicative practices overlook the potential of students’ varied linguistic resources, which reinforces educational inequities for marginalized students. The study underscores the necessity for early childhood educators to deepen their knowledge of language as an epistemic tool and value student authorship opportunities in science.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":771,"journal":{"name":"Science & Education","volume":"110 3","pages":"726-738"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147715082","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Adaptive, but Equitable? Exploring the Impact of Machine Learning-Based Adaptive Support on Educational Debts in Undergraduate Chemistry","authors":"Paul P. Martin,&nbsp;Marcus Kubsch,&nbsp;Brandon J. Yik,&nbsp;Benjamin T. Burlingham,&nbsp;Nicole Graulich","doi":"10.1002/sce.70042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.70042","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Students' diverse levels of knowledge and competence—shaped by individual interests and educational debts, including structural, systemic, and institutional barriers—create substantial cognitive heterogeneity in instructional settings. Adequately addressing this heterogeneity is challenging. Emerging studies applying artificial intelligence (AI) in education claim that advanced AI techniques like machine learning (ML) can mitigate educational debts by providing adaptive support. However, previous research offers limited clarity on how learning outcomes vary following AI-based adaptive instruction and which students improve their learning outcomes. To address these issues, this article quantitatively examines the extent to which ML-based adaptivity influences students' learning outcomes over time and identifies which students, considering their intersectional identities, benefit most from this adaptive support. Specifically, we illustrate a semester-long study conducted within an undergraduate organic chemistry course, where an ML model adaptively supported 266 students across four interventions on mechanistic reasoning. We identified five learning trajectories throughout these adaptive interventions. Our findings show that students with higher prior knowledge made greater progress than their peers. Additionally, men without an underrepresented minority (URM) status majoring in chemistry benefited more than URM women who are not chemistry majors. This indicates that the adaptive support maintained and partly exacerbated educational debts. Our study contributes to the literature by analyzing how ML-based adaptivity affects educational debts in undergraduate organic chemistry. In doing so, it adopts a theoretical framework—the <i>enhanced educational debt framework</i>—to assess when different aims of adaptive support are most appropriate in undergraduate education, informing an equity-centered design of adaptive support.</p>","PeriodicalId":771,"journal":{"name":"Science & Education","volume":"110 3","pages":"928-946"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/sce.70042","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147715157","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Teachers' Customizations of Storyline Science Curriculum: Adapting for Their Students and Instructional Contexts","authors":"Katherine L. McNeill,&nbsp;Caitlin G. Fine,&nbsp;Benjamin R. Lowell,&nbsp;Renee Affolter","doi":"10.1002/sce.70035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.70035","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Curriculum materials can play an essential role to help teachers shift their instruction. However, curricular enactment does not look identical in every classroom, because teachers need to be responsive to their students. In this study, we investigated the customizations teachers made while enacting storyline science curriculum. Specifically, we collected two data sources: a teacher survey and interviews. The survey was completed by 169 participants and included 20 follow-up interviews with middle school science teachers enacting the OpenSciEd curriculum across the United States. Teachers reported frequently making changes to the curriculum, particularly small changes, which were made daily or almost daily. The frequency of these changes illustrates that enactment is jointly constructed by the curriculum, teacher and students in a specific context. The teachers’ goals motivating these changes stemmed from wanting to be more responsive to their students and constraints within their school systems. In terms of being responsive, the customizations focused on the goals of student engagement and participation as well as more support for students. While many of these changes aligned with the overarching vision of the curriculum, others appeared to potentially be in tension, particularly in relation to student epistemic agency and coherence. The other two most frequent goals for customizations were a lack of time and logistics (e.g., space, resources) highlighting the importance of the organizational context. Future research needs to develop tools, examples and professional learning experiences to support teachers in customizing for their students and context while aligning with the overarching instructional vision in curriculum.</p>","PeriodicalId":771,"journal":{"name":"Science & Education","volume":"110 3","pages":"739-755"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/sce.70035","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147715158","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Identity Play: Middle School Youths' Provisional Self-Making in Horizon-Expanding STEM Spaces","authors":"Heidi B. Carlone,&nbsp;Alison K. Mercier","doi":"10.1002/sce.70047","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.70047","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study introduces identity play as an analytic construct for science education to explore improvisational dimensions of middle school students' STEM identity development in multiple out-of-school learning experiences focused on environmental problem-solving. Tracking identity affiliations across time scales (weeks and years), we observed playful, unpredictable, nonlinear, and dynamic narratives of self. Their identities did not progress stably or incrementally, prompting our theorizing about identity play. Identity play refers to the exploratory process of trying out various narratives and performances of provisional selves in novel, low-stakes, horizon-expanding activities. Using grounded theory methodology with interview and video data, we asked: What are generative spaces for identity play? How do youth engage in identity play within those spaces? With illustrative cases of three youths' participation, we identified three types of spaces that encouraged identity play: not-like-me, like-me, and let-me-see spaces. The cases demonstrated how youth shifted their perceptions and performances of self in contexts that acknowledged and celebrated the exploration of new identities, where curiosity and enjoyment organized aims and previously unthinkable identities became plausible. STEM identity play complements the construct of identity work; it illuminates under-explored facets of identity development, such as identity discovery, reinvention, and expansion. This reframing broadens what counts as learning in identity development and reflects the expansive, plural nature of science identities. This research offers promising strategies for designing experiences that nurture these processes. Notably, identity play thrives in horizon-expanding contexts that prioritize exploration over correctness and recognition, encourage buffered risk-taking, and offer multiple interest hooks and pathways.</p>","PeriodicalId":771,"journal":{"name":"Science & Education","volume":"110 3","pages":"780-802"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/sce.70047","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147714984","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From Everyday Thinking to Systems Thinking: An Asset-Based Introduction to Dynamical Systems Theory in Middle School Science","authors":"Hillary Swanson,&nbsp;Michael Leitch,&nbsp;Sarah Schwartz","doi":"10.1002/sce.70041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.70041","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Despite its broad relevance to science and society, <i>dynamical systems theory</i> (DST), which mathematically models patterns of change in system behavior, is largely absent from K–12 science education. This study introduces the <i>Patterns Game</i>, a model-based approach that enables middle school students to engage with DST without relying on advanced mathematics. Using a design-based research methodology, we investigated the outcomes and processes of 8th grade students' engagement with the <i>Patterns Game</i>. Quantitative analysis of student work assessed the development of models of threshold and equilibration patterns. Qualitative analysis of classroom discourse explored how the game leveraged students' everyday thinking and lived experiences to support model construction. Students showed statistically significant improvements in their models. Qualitative findings revealed that reflecting on familiar examples helped students articulate, examine, and refine their intuitive reasoning, leading to more precise models. Together, these results demonstrate how the <i>Patterns Game</i> draws on students' existing resources to support meaningful engagement with DST. While prior research has lowered barriers to systems thinking, this study is among the first to introduce DST to younger learners. It advances equity-oriented science education by broadening what counts as modeling and by centering students' everyday thinking and lived experiences as valuable resources for engaging with dynamic systems.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":771,"journal":{"name":"Science & Education","volume":"110 3","pages":"911-927"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147715300","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}