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Full-Text Articles in Education
Examining Spaces For Integrating Physics And Computing Through Classroom Inquiry, Colby Tofel-Grehl, Kristin Searle, Douglas Ball, Soojeong Jeong
Examining Spaces For Integrating Physics And Computing Through Classroom Inquiry, Colby Tofel-Grehl, Kristin Searle, Douglas Ball, Soojeong Jeong
Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications
As computing becomes an essential component of professional practice across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, integration of computing across content areas in K-12 classrooms is also becoming important. Particularly within science classrooms, computer science and computational thinking (CS/CT) are novel and necessary skills for modeling, working with data, and other foundational science skills. Finding ways to engage students in practicing and learning CT within authentic science learning is challenging for most teachers. In this article, the authors report on one teacher’s efforts to engage high school students in maker-based physics education, integrating computational thinking by designing and building …
Rural Teacher Attitudes And Engagement With Computing And Technology, Melissa P. Mendenhall, Colby Tofel-Grehl, David Feldon
Rural Teacher Attitudes And Engagement With Computing And Technology, Melissa P. Mendenhall, Colby Tofel-Grehl, David Feldon
Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications
The purpose of this sequential Case Study-Mixed Methods research is to explore rural teacher attitudes toward, approaches to, and engagement with making and computational thinking during STEM professional development and co-teaching learning experiences. Specifically, we examine the professional learning needs of two rural, middle school teachers as they engage technology. Using the lens of cultural historical activity theory, this paper examines the ways in which teacher attitude about computing shifted throughout professional learning and instructional practice. Findings show three broad themes that emerge surrounding teacher attitudes, approaches, and engagement with technology: Anxiety, Independent Learner, and Integration. Additionally, findings suggest that …
Cookie-Jar Alarms: An Analysis Of First-Grade Students’ Gendered Conceptions Of Engineers Following A Programming Design Task, April Mitchell, Kimberly H. Lott, Colby Tofel-Grehl
Cookie-Jar Alarms: An Analysis Of First-Grade Students’ Gendered Conceptions Of Engineers Following A Programming Design Task, April Mitchell, Kimberly H. Lott, Colby Tofel-Grehl
Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications
Women remain underrepresented in engineering and broadening participation has recently become the focus of education reform efforts. Increased emphasis on K-12 engineering education calls for the design of learning environments and curricula that increase interest and conceptual understanding of engineering work, beginning in the early years of childhood. We seek to understand what works, for whom, in what contexts, how it works, and how engineering curricula can be improved to promote social justice. Here, we evaluate the impact of a curricular intervention designed to promote equity in elementary engineering education. The integrated STEM curriculum unit engages first-grade students in programming …
Rural Teachers' Cultural And Epistemic Shifts In Stem Teaching And Learning, Colby Tofel-Grehl, Kristin A. Searle, Andrea Hawkman, Beth L. Macdonald, Mario I. Suárez
Rural Teachers' Cultural And Epistemic Shifts In Stem Teaching And Learning, Colby Tofel-Grehl, Kristin A. Searle, Andrea Hawkman, Beth L. Macdonald, Mario I. Suárez
Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications
This article focuses on the ways in which integrated curriculum can improve STEM teaching and learning within rural spaces. Using a design-based research approach, this study focuses on rural teachers' experiences of professional learning and development training as they learn to engage computing and maker technologies in their elementary classrooms as tools for teaching students about difficult histories of immigration, migration, and forced relocation across the United States.
Electrifying: One Teacher’S Discursive And Instructional Changes Through Engagement In E-Textiles To Teach Science Content, Colby Tofel-Grehl, Eliza Jex, Kristin Searle, Douglas Ball, Xin Zhao, Georgia Burnell
Electrifying: One Teacher’S Discursive And Instructional Changes Through Engagement In E-Textiles To Teach Science Content, Colby Tofel-Grehl, Eliza Jex, Kristin Searle, Douglas Ball, Xin Zhao, Georgia Burnell
Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications
This paper shares findings from the first of its kind quasi-experimental mixed methods study exploring the potential impacts on teacher instruction through engagement with making and e-textiles. Because engagement in hands-on inquiry has demonstrated strong promise for increasing student interest and engagement in STEM careers, finding curricular approaches that engage students in project-based learning remains important. As such, the Maker Movement and making has gained traction as a possible effort to improve such outcomes. This study shares outcomes from analyses of one teacher’s first engagement with teaching eighth-grade science through e-textiles. Four of his classes were taught using his traditional …
An Examination Of The Role Of First-Year College-Level Mathematics In Stem Field Major Persistence At A Hispanic-Serving Institution, Jaimi Paschal, Amanda Taggart
An Examination Of The Role Of First-Year College-Level Mathematics In Stem Field Major Persistence At A Hispanic-Serving Institution, Jaimi Paschal, Amanda Taggart
Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications
This study examined the influence of mathematics course-taking on Latina/o science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) major persistence utilizing data from first-year STEM majors at a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI). Findings indicated that students who passed a first-term college-level mathematics course had significantly greater odds of persisting in STEM majors than those who did not, demonstrating the importance of early mathematics support to increased STEM major persistence.
Critical Reflections On Teacher Conceptions Of Race As Related To The Effectiveness Of Science Learning, Colby Tofel-Grehl, Kristin Searle
Critical Reflections On Teacher Conceptions Of Race As Related To The Effectiveness Of Science Learning, Colby Tofel-Grehl, Kristin Searle
Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications
The Maker Movement’s current traction in education revolves around the notion that constructing artifacts improves student interest and engagement. Often touted as a new and important way for students to access STEM content, “making” activities offer a unique opportunity to disrupt the traditional perceptions of who can successfully “do” STEM. Blending familiar materials and practices (e.g. sewing with a needle and thread) with atypical materials (e.g., conductive thread and sewable LED bulbs), electronic textiles, or e-textiles, allow makers to create working circuits in ways that connect with their out-of-school lives, including heritage and vernacular cultural practices. This article describes the …
Stem School Discourse Patterns, Colby Tofel-Grehl, Carolyn M. Callahan
Stem School Discourse Patterns, Colby Tofel-Grehl, Carolyn M. Callahan
Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications
In a cross case analysis of six specialized STEM schools across the United States selected on the basis of varied geographic location and school model type, the authors explore the ways in which classroom discursvive strutures established by teachers impact students' perceptions of their own agency and authority as relates to their science learning within specialized STEM schools. As national interest in specialized STEM schools grows, a deep need to understand the instructional practices that impact students motivation and interest has arisen. By better understanding how teachers drive classroom discourse through questioning techniques, student responses and reflections can be understood …