Biological Sciences Curriculum Study

Abstract While researchers commonly treat humans as having agency—and even define agency as a human property—research on design has long troubled this notion by treating designing as a conversation with materials [1, 2]. In this way, the materials we offer learners might be unalterable, used functionally but unchanged, or modified dramatically in use [3]. This post-humanist stance brings attentions to the relationships between humans and non-human artifacts [4], and in decentering humans, foregrounds the agency imbued in materials by their creation and form [5, 6]. In this poster, we report results related to an NSF EEC CAREER project that characterizes framing agency—making decisions and learning in the process of framing design problems. Specifically, we sought to examine ways learners negotiated their agency with materials in the context of an informal STEM camp focused on learning about past, present, and future of radio frequency communications. The camp, supported by an NSF AISL project, aims to develop student understanding of wireless radio communication through making and playing games [7] . We used micro:bits, the small, BBC-developed microcontroller along with its block-based programming interface [8] and my:Talkies: a pair of paper templates a micro:bit is mounted into and then folded into a box [9]. The established nature of the my:Talkies indicate they have high agency [10] and could be potentially coercive. We posed a design scenario of a community in need of radio communication systems [11], but asked students to provide their own framing. The constraints included needing to communicate to another micro:bit. Students completed a pre-ideation activity focused on supporting creativity and empathy [12] before individually planning their design solution [13]. Following several days of related activities and embodied games, developed their solution over two days. We collected video recordings, interviews, and artifacts of youth participation in a week-long camp. We selected focal students for the current study to highlight variability (N=4). We used interaction analysis to make sense of the arc of framing with materials, then used discourse analysis to characterize students' framing agency. We found that although students received the same problem context, technology, craft materials, and base papercraft form (my:Talkies), they created a divergent set of designs. They initially showed low agency over the base form of the my:Talkies, not altering the paper structure itself. However, they negotiated agency with materials by adding to the my:Talkies and through the coding process [2]. Using the scenario of designing for a city's future, students generated unique pro-social narratives. The inputs and outputs provided on the micro:bit (i.e. accelerometer, LED) also allowed students to make different choices. We illustrate these with vignettes in the poster and offer implications for supporting students to frame design problems with materials.

In this paper, we critically examine the way in which scholars have traditionally defined and problematized attrition. Through a series of examples of large-scale intervention impact studies, we share insights about the sources and consequences of attrition that expand our notion of how and why attrition occurs. We also discuss potential steps for anticipating, mitigating, and responding to attrition in the dynamic context of schooling. By expanding our understanding of attrition, we hope to engage the field in further dialogue that could lead to policies and practices that might lessen the potential impacts not only on our ability to conduct research, but also our ability to advance the learning of teachers and their students.

Abstract Recent reforms in K‐12 science education call for curricular materials that are designed to be “coherent for students.” This form of coherence arises when the classroom community sees their science work as addressing their questions and problems. In enactment, the teacher sometimes has to improvise from the planned trajectory of the storyline to follow students' emergent science work. In this single instrumental case study, I used interaction analysis to identify and describe episodes of whole group storyline discussion where one expert middle school science teacher worked with his students as their science work diverged from the storyline. The descriptive account for each episode documents how the teacher attended to the conceptual, epistemic, and/or interactive facets in the substance of students’ talk. It also traces how collective knowledge objects (i.e., consensus model, driving questions board, and experimental graph) were developed through this attentional work in each episode. The results suggest that the teacher facilitated episodes of principled improvisation (PI) related to the students’ interactive role in the discussion, the science ideas they raised for a consensus model, and the measurement errors they experienced in an investigation. These episodes were principled because the teacher foregrounded particular trajectories in the storyline to mediate and add rigor to the students’ divergent lines of science work. They were improvisational because the teacher backgrounded other storyline trajectories to more effectively address and work with students’ emergent ideas. In each PI, the teacher shared epistemic agency with students to co‐develop each collective knowledge object. These findings show the analytical and practical value in conceptualizing epistemic agency and teachers’ instructional design work in relation to students’ convergent and divergent science work in the curriculum.

Undergraduate genetics courses have historically focused on simple genetic models, rather than taking a more multifactorial approach where students explore how traits are influenced by a combination of genes, the environment, and gene-by-environment interactions. While a focus on simple genetic models can provide straightforward examples to promote student learning, they do not match the current scientific understanding and can result in deterministic thinking among students. In addition, undergraduates are often interested in complex human traits that are influenced by the environment, and national curriculum standards include learning objectives that focus on multifactorial concepts. This research aims to discover to what extent multifactorial genetics is currently being assessed in undergraduate genetics courses. To address this, we analyzed over 1,000 assessment questions from a commonly used undergraduate genetics textbook; published concept assessments; and open-source, peer-reviewed curriculum materials. Our findings show that current genetics assessment questions overwhelmingly emphasize the impact of genes on phenotypes and that the effect of the environment is rarely addressed. These results indicate a need for the inclusion of more multifactorial genetics concepts, and we suggest ways to introduce them into undergraduate courses.

Abstract Technical documentation for educational tests focuses primarily on properties of individual scores at single points in time. Reliability, standard errors of measurement, item parameter estimates, fit statistics, and linking constants are standard technical features that external stakeholders use to evaluate items and individual scale scores. However, these cross‐sectional, “point‐in‐time” features can mask threats to the validity of score interpretations, including those for aggregate scores and trends over time. We use test score data collected before and during the COVID‐19 pandemic to show that longitudinal analyses, not just point‐in‐time analyses, are necessary to detect threats to desired inferences. We propose that educational agencies require and vendors include longitudinal data features, including “match rates” and correlations, as standard exhibits in technical documentation.

Abstract This article describes the effects of a student–teacher–scientist partnership program on high school students' science outcomes. The design was a cluster‐randomized trial with an analytic sample of 36 teachers randomly assigned to teach a photosynthesis‐ and respiration‐focused module including student‐designed investigations supported by online mentoring from scientists. Forty‐nine teachers were randomly assigned to teach photosynthesis and respiration to students as they normally would. The core finding was that implementing the module in combination with the online mentoring resulted in significant effects on student achievement (effect size = 0.284) and attitudes toward scientists (effect size = 0.280). The study sample was highly representative, demographically, to the US population of high schools. Future research should replicate the current study design, with the current and other related interventions, while examining component‐specific costs and efficacy. Related studies should also examine the relationship between the quality of scientist–student dialogue and student outcomes.

Knowledge construction is an essential scientific practice, and undergraduate research experiences (UREs) provide opportunities for students to engage with this scientific practice in an authentic context. While participating in UREs, students develop conceptualizations about how science gathers, evaluates, and constructs knowledge (science epistemology) that align with scientific practice. However, there have been few studies focusing on how students’ science epistemologies develop during these experiences. Through the analysis of written reflections and three research papers and by leveraging methods informed by collaborative autoethnography, we construct a case study of one student, describing the development of her science epistemology and scientific agency during her time participating in a biology education URE. Through her reflections and self-analysis, the student describes her context-dependent science epistemology, and how she discovered a new role as a critic of scientific papers. These results have implications for the use of written reflections to facilitate epistemic development during UREs and the role of classroom culture in the development of scientific agency.

Developing and maintaining a high-quality science teaching corps has become increasingly urgent with standards that require students to move beyond mastering facts to reasoning and arguing from evidence. Effective professional development (PD) for science teachers enhances teacher outcomes and, in turn, enhances primary and secondary student outcomes. What constitutes effective PD? Although proposed features of effective PD have emerged, they have little empirical support. Even when impact studies of PD interventions are conducted, factors unrelated to PD design characteristics can influence effect size estimates. Can we statistically isolate PD design characteristics from factors unrelated to PD design that nevertheless influence effect size estimates? We conducted a meta-regression with robust variance estimation (RVE) of 162 science PD intervention studies. We investigated how effect size estimates for teacher outcomes vary by research design, study context, PD intervention characteristics, and outcomes of interest. Intensity and duration of PD, research design decisions, and researchers’ choice of outcomes of interest significantly influence effect size estimates.