Marco Reggiani, Jessica Dawn Gagnon, Rebecca Jane Lunn
{"title":"A holistic understanding of inclusion in STEM: Systemic challenges and support for women and LGBT+ academics and PhD students","authors":"Marco Reggiani, Jessica Dawn Gagnon, Rebecca Jane Lunn","doi":"10.1002/sce.21899","DOIUrl":"10.1002/sce.21899","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Barriers to equity, diversity, and inclusion remain in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) for historically underrepresented and marginalized individuals. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of women and LGBT+ academics and PhD students in the United Kingdom. Specifically, this article examines systemic challenges and support that 82 participants who identified as women and/or LGBT+ academics and PhD students have experienced in their STEM environments and throughout their careers. In this qualitative study, we employed intersectionality theory to frame a thematic analysis of interviews and focus groups. Our findings indicate that the experiences of participants are characterized more by inequities than by support from colleagues, peers, and higher education institutions. Inequities are widespread and intersectional, and have a cumulative impact whenever individuals endure multiple and potentially escalating challenges—which include hard-to-spot disadvantages, stereotypes, prejudice, as well as harassment, bullying, and discrimination. Participants’ accounts illustrate the benefits of different support mechanisms but also the limitations of initiatives to support marginalized individuals and groups in STEM that are not systematically embedded across institutions. Based on our findings, we present two conceptual models to better understand systemic challenges and their consequences for women and LGBT+ academics and PhD students in STEM, as well as to inform more holistic support mechanisms to create more inclusive STEM environments. Implications from the study highlight institutional accountability as key to improving climates and transformative change.</p>","PeriodicalId":771,"journal":{"name":"Science & Education","volume":"108 6","pages":"1637-1669"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/sce.21899","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141781328","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":"“Trotula” is not an example of the Matilda effect: On correcting scholarly myths and engaging with professional history: A response to Malecki et al. 2024","authors":"Monica H. Green","doi":"10.1002/sce.21897","DOIUrl":"10.1002/sce.21897","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In 1993, historian of American science Margaret Rossiter introduced the concept of the “Matilda Effect,” to describe a common historical pattern of women's achievements in science and medicine being ignored or purloined by male associates. At the same time, she was writing, however, professional work was being done in a variety of areas of women's history, including the medieval period from which Rossiter drew what she thought was her most salient example: the medical figure, “Trotula.” In fact, “Trotula” was not a woman but the title of a book. Extensive research by professional historians has shown that the real historic woman, Trota of Salerno, was widely credited by her contemporaries (and for the next 300 years) not only for her own work but also for the work of two male writers whose texts became attached to hers in the <i>Trotula</i> ensemble. These findings from professional historical research have been known for over 20 years but rarely acknowledged in Science Studies. The present study proposes that a corrected understanding of Trota's story provides a useful example, not of the Matilda Effect, but of the ways gender functions to restrict even famous women to certain roles.</p>","PeriodicalId":771,"journal":{"name":"Science & Education","volume":"108 6","pages":"1725-1732"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/sce.21897","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141781329","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}
Kathryn N. Hayes, Jessica R. Gladstone, Brit Toven-Lindsey, Christine L. Bae
{"title":"How do organizational conditions inform teachers’ equity self-efficacy and implementation during professional development?","authors":"Kathryn N. Hayes, Jessica R. Gladstone, Brit Toven-Lindsey, Christine L. Bae","doi":"10.1002/sce.21892","DOIUrl":"10.1002/sce.21892","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper is part of the special issue on Teacher Learning and Practice within Organizational Contexts. Shifting instructional practices in elementary schools to include more equitable, reform-based pedagogies is imperative for supporting students’ development as science learners. Teachers need high quality professional development (PD) to learn such practices, but research shows considerable variability in the extent to which teachers implement instructional practices learned during PD. Individual teacher characteristics such as self-efficacy may influence teacher learning during PD, but only account for part of the variability. The organizational conditions of teachers’ schools and districts may also play a key role in teachers’ implementation of new instructional practices. However, because systematic research in this area in science education is still nascent, it is difficult for districts and PD providers to address organizational barriers to professional learning. To meet this need, we conducted an explanatory mixed-methods study using surveys (<i>N</i> = 54) and interviews (<i>N</i> = 19) of elementary teachers engaged in equity-focused, reform-based science PD, testing the degree to which a conceptually framed set of organizational conditions predicted teacher equity self-efficacy and instructional practice alignment. Out of the 11 organizational conditions, only teacher professional impact and their sense of autonomy in their instructional practice explained variance in the outcomes. Qualitative findings showed these relationships to be iterative and recursive, rather than linear. Our findings underscore the essential role of teacher professionalism and sense of agency over commonly cited organizational conditions such as materials and labs in supporting teachers to implement more equitable science instructional practices during PD.</p>","PeriodicalId":771,"journal":{"name":"Science & Education","volume":"109 1","pages":"178-211"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/sce.21892","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141781675","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":"Anthropocene Literacy for Science Education","authors":"Seul-gi Lee, Buhm Soon Park","doi":"10.1007/s11191-024-00541-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-024-00541-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p>No scientific concept in the twenty-first century has garnered more attention from scholars outside the scientific community than the Anthropocene. Despite the official rejection by the geological community in March 2024 of the proposal for an Anthropocene Epoch as a formal unit of the Geological Time Scale, it is expected to remain an invaluable descriptor of human impact on Earth. It is also undeniable that it will continue to inspire vigorous studies not only in geology, ecology, and Earth system science but also in the humanities, social sciences, and the arts. How, then, can the Anthropocene be effectively taught in science classrooms? This paper seeks to underscore the value of teaching this novel yet controversial concept to STEM students and proposes an educational curriculum that addresses both scientific content and social issues. The primary pedagogical object is to foster what we call “Anthropocene literacy,” which comprises three key components: understanding the nature of science through the lens of the Anthropocene, embracing a multidisciplinary approach, and gaining insight into the impact of human activities on the Earth. These components serve as the cornerstone of our proposed educational framework, which aims to equip students with the knowledge and critical thinking skills necessary to comprehend the complexities of the Anthropocene and its implications for our planet.</p>","PeriodicalId":771,"journal":{"name":"Science & Education","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141737847","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":"Exploring a New Geometric-mechanical Artefact for Calculus","authors":"Michela Maschietto, Pietro Milici","doi":"10.1007/s11191-024-00547-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-024-00547-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We introduce a geometric-mechanical artefact designed for laboratory activities related to Calculus topics (3D models and construction instructions are freely available online). With new capabilities and a new design, this instrument adopts some mechanisms historically introduced to solve inverse tangent problems (that analytically correspond to solving differential equations). By such an instrument, besides materially revealing the tangent to a curve (tangent mode), it is possible to trace the graph of exponential functions and parabolas starting from the geometrical properties of their tangent (curvigraph mode). Furthermore, one can perform transformations as derivatives and integrals (transformation mode). Our research project aims to study the use of this artefact mainly for secondary school students. In this paper, we present the analysis of its semiotic potential, referring to the instrumental approach and the Theory of Semiotic Mediation. We also focus on a secondary school teacher manipulating the artefact to identify exploration processes and gestures of usage. The analysis supports the choice of starting the exploration in the tangent mode and suggests that the artefact fosters the emergence of the idea of the tangent line.</p>","PeriodicalId":771,"journal":{"name":"Science & Education","volume":"39 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141737849","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":"Preservice Secondary Science Teachers’ Nature of Science Views, Rationales, and Teaching During a NOS Course Guided by RFN: a Multiple Case Study","authors":"Kelsey Beeghly, Su Gao, Jerrid Kruse","doi":"10.1007/s11191-024-00548-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-024-00548-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This multiple-case study investigated the changes in three secondary science preservice teachers’ views of the nature of science (NOS), rationales for teaching NOS, and their NOS teaching at the end of a NOS course guided by the reconceptualized family resemblance approach (RFN). RFN is chosen as a conceptual framework that visualizes science as a cognitive-epistemic and socio-institutional system to guide this study. Data sources included individual interviews as well as each preservice teachers’ lesson plan and teaching video from the lesson they enacted within the course at the end of the semester. Findings showed that there was an overall improvement in preservice teachers’ views of NOS across all RFN categories, but one preservice teacher continued to hold misconceptions about scientific theories and laws after the course. Two preservice teachers developed multifaceted rationales for teaching NOS that transcend the classroom, while one preservice teacher continued to express mainly affective reasons for teaching NOS. Despite all preservice teachers having accurate views, professing multiple rationales for teaching NOS, and in two cases expressing knowledge of effective NOS teaching at the end of the course, only one of the three preservice teachers enacted explicit and reflective NOS instruction in their lesson. This preservice teacher chose to focus on the social-institutional NOS based on the RFN. This study suggests the need to provide extended NOS exposure and teaching experiences for preservice teachers in teacher preparation programs. Recommendations and implications for further research and science teacher education are discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":771,"journal":{"name":"Science & Education","volume":"41 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141737848","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":"‘We Often Forget It Was a Disaster’: Cross-Curricular Teacher Collaboration to Develop a Curriculum Unit on the Titanic Disaster","authors":"Wonyong Park, Neta Shaby, Rachele Newman","doi":"10.1007/s11191-024-00540-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-024-00540-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p>There is a growing emphasis on integrating school subjects and cross disciplinary boundaries to address local and global challenges, particularly when teaching about complex and sensitive issues such as disasters. This study explores how the integration of science and history can facilitate learning about disasters through a cross-curricular teacher professional development project in England. Seven teachers (four history, three science) from state-funded secondary schools and two museum educators in Southampton, UK collaborated with university researchers over eight months to develop a curriculum unit on the Titanic disaster for Key Stage 3 pupils (aged 11–14). Through a qualitative analysis of teacher feedback, workshop recordings and artefacts, and interviews, we illustrate the teachers’ initial excitement at the prospect of cross-curricular integration and how this excitement was then tempered by practical and logistical challenges that prevented their integration ideas from materialising into the curriculum unit. Nevertheless, teachers found that the CPD helped them to see and attend to the connections across the curriculum. Teachers rediscovered Titanic as a tragic event with historical significance for local students, which needs to be taught with reverence and ethical sensitivity. Using the Titanic disaster as an example, the study points to the potential for cross-curricular integration and teacher collaboration in teaching about disasters holistically in secondary schools.</p>","PeriodicalId":771,"journal":{"name":"Science & Education","volume":"162 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141737852","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 Effects of Designing Scientific Experiments with Visual Programming Language on Learning Outcomes","authors":"Jale Kalemkuş, Fatih Kalemkuş","doi":"10.1007/s11191-024-00546-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-024-00546-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p>When the studies on the effectiveness of visual programming language are examined, it is seen that studies on coding teaching have been carried out frequently recently. In this study, Scratch was used as a teaching tool in teaching science lessons. In this way, a new perspective has been brought to Scratch applications. In the related study, the effects of designing science experiments with visual programming language (Scratch) on students’ beliefs of self-efficacy related to computational thinking (CT) skills, metacognitive awareness levels, and motivation levels for science learning are examined. This study was carried out using a single-group research design based on pretest and posttest applications. Students attending the fifth grade participated in this study. Sixty-five students attending the fifth grade participated in the research. Research data were obtained using “Self-Efficacy Perception Scale for CT Skills (SEP_CTS),” “Metacognitive Awareness Scale (MAS),” and “Motivation Scale for Science Learning (MSSL).” The research process is 10 weeks and 3 days in total. It was determined that designing science experiments in visual programming language applications based on Scratch improved students’ CT self-efficacy perceptions, but did not have the expected effect on students’ science learning motivation and metacognitive awareness. This research provides evidence that some skills can be improved by using Scratch as a teaching tool in different courses. With the focus of research on this subject, it can contributed to the development of new understandings of Scratch in teaching processes.</p>","PeriodicalId":771,"journal":{"name":"Science & Education","volume":"74 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141722486","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":"“This isn't school, you know”: Designing for science teachers’ sensemaking of STEM ecosystems","authors":"Sara C. Porter, Carrie D. Allen","doi":"10.1002/sce.21893","DOIUrl":"10.1002/sce.21893","url":null,"abstract":"<p>As part of the special issue on Teacher Learning and Organizational Contexts, this paper explores the collective organizational sensemaking processes of middle school science teachers engaged in a design-based research project focused on supporting science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) identity and interest development of middle school youth with the design of a STEM ecosystem. Most of the literature on STEM ecosystems focuses on the pathways available or not for youth to develop robust STEM identities and interests. Research on STEM teachers in STEM ecosystems generally focuses on teachers’ roles in brokering youth's experiences across learning settings and not on teacher learning. We fill this gap in the literature through an examination of how teachers came to understand STEM ecosystems as a means for supporting youth interest and learning in STEM and their role as educators within STEM ecosystems that include but extend beyond classroom practice. We used interaction analysis of video and audio data collected over two cycles of professional development to describe how designed activities supported STEM teachers to surface and attend to sources of ambiguity between the two learning environments. Our findings suggest that teachers understood the out-of-school environment vis-à-vis their organizational contexts—such as, how valued outcomes of school, like teaching vocabulary, were being addressed. Over time, teachers came to value out-of-school learning as distinct from their classroom and as a space that is “not school” that provided necessary learning opportunities for students. The teachers recognized the unique ways the out-of-school STEM setting surfaced students’ strengths in ways not always afforded by school. Implications for professional learning design for in-service science teachers to work toward providing more cohesive STEM learning experiences for youth are discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":771,"journal":{"name":"Science & Education","volume":"109 1","pages":"212-237"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/sce.21893","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141576108","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}
Ashlyn E. Pierson, Corey E. Brady, Sarah J. Lee, Deborah Shuler, Pratim Sengupta, Douglas B. Clark
{"title":"Intrinsic and instrumental care in pen pal letters: Recognizing care in STEM classrooms","authors":"Ashlyn E. Pierson, Corey E. Brady, Sarah J. Lee, Deborah Shuler, Pratim Sengupta, Douglas B. Clark","doi":"10.1002/sce.21894","DOIUrl":"10.1002/sce.21894","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Studies of both professional science practice and children's science learning show that care is not merely ancillary to disciplinary work but a core and generative constituent of science practice. In science education research, however, students' care is often overlooked. In this paper, we describe the expression of care across two STEM classrooms (6th and 9th grade) studying biology and ecology and participating in a pen pal exchange. We analyze artifacts from the pen pal exchange as well as students' retrospective interviews and written reflections. Two ways of expressing care surfaced in students' letters: caring for guppies and caring for pen pals. We describe each form of care using examples from our data. We find that students' care for guppies and pen pals was both instrumental (in service of their investigations) and intrinsic (positioning guppies and pen pals as inherently valuable). We then connect these findings to studies of care in children's science learning and in professional science. We discuss methodological and practical implications for recognizing and analyzing how students' care manifests in classrooms and for designing learning activities that cultivate care.</p>","PeriodicalId":771,"journal":{"name":"Science & Education","volume":"108 6","pages":"1608-1636"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/sce.21894","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141576116","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}