Elementary Education and Teaching Commons^™

Teacher Candidate Perceptions Of Stem Following An Informal Learning Experience, Megan Rismiller

Honors Projects

In this study, six teacher candidates are interviewed to discover their perceptions of teaching integrated STEM following an informal learning experience. As team leaders at a summer STEM camp, teacher candidates make observations and connections to STEM content areas and practices. Teacher candidates reflect on the behaviors of themselves and their students throughout the process, and note their discoveries about STEM in the classroom setting. They report these findings through a series of questions during a semi-structured interview. Findings show teacher candidates perceive STEM education as a method for engaging learning experiences, as a route to engage students in social-emotional …

The Impact Of Teacher Preparedness And Professional Development On Fourth-Grade Students' Science Achievement, Craig L. Mayo, Faye Bradley

Journal of Research Initiatives

Science scores among US fourth-grade students have declined compared to their international counterparts in recent years. Recent results show that teachers are the most impactful influence on student success and accountability. Teacher preparedness and professional development are two key areas that serve as indicators of providing relevant and essential information for students' success. A correlational quantitative study was conducted to assess the relationship between teacher preparedness and professional development on fourth-grade students’ science achievement. The TIMSS 2019 data were secured from the Boston College, TIMSS, and PIRLS International websites. The data was evaluated using the SPSS 27 Hierarchical Linear Regression. …

The Sci – Dot: A New Dimension Of Scientific Innovation For Persons With Blv., Ashley N. Nashleanas Ph.D.

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

Throughout history, students with blindness and low vision (BLV) have been vastly underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines with regards to both K-12 education and post-secondary endeavors (Burgstahler, 1994; Supalo, 2010). This underrepresentation of students with BLV in STEM is due to limitations in technology that allow them to access data in a laboratory setting, thus inhibiting their abilities to partake actively in data acquisition with their peers. The Sci-Dot, a multiline, refreshable braille and tactile graphics display capable of logging scientific data in real time with the support of Vernier Science Education’s (VSE) Go-Direct Bluetooth sensors, …

Using Way-In And Stay-In Scientific Picturebooks To Learn About Science And Scientists, William P. Bintz

Michigan Reading Journal

The power and potential of literature to learn science has long been recognized by both science and literacy specialists. Literature is often a child's first introduction to science and the first encounter with the concept of science and the role of scientists. The problem is that much science literature focuses mostly on the scientist or the science. This article responds to the imbalanced portrayal between science and scientist in children’s literature. It also discusses the value of scientific picturebook biography to teach science, introduces the notion of Way-In and Stay-In texts, and provides examples of both types of texts along …

Assessing Teachers’ Pedagogical Practices And Students’ Learning Outcomes In Science And Mathematics Across Primary And Secondary School Level: A Nationwide Study (2018-21), Sadia Muzaffar Bhutta, Nusrat Fatima Rizvi

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

An Investigation Of The Effects Of Self-Efficacy On Stem Implementation, Caroline Buechel

Curriculum and Instruction Undergraduate Honors Theses

In order to equip students with the 21^st Century skills necessary for today’s society, STEM education must be properly implemented in school curricula (Lamb, Akmal, & Petrie, 2015). To do so, it is important for teachers to possess both proficient knowledge of the subject matter and confidence towards the implementation of STEM. A person’s beliefs about their ability is known as their self-efficacy (Bandura 1997). Related to education, Bandura notes that this self-efficacy affects a teacher’s views on their ability to handle tasks, obligations, and challenges related to a challenge (1997). Additionally, numerous studies indicate that this self-efficacy in …

Publishing Successful Practitioner (Teaching Techniques) Manuscripts For The Journal Of Science Education For Students With Disabilities, Jonte C. Taylor

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

The Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities (JSESD)d is the premier journal focusing on the intersections of science education for students with disabilities. JSESD provides valuable content and context for teachers and researchers on what works in advancing science access, practices, and knowledge for all students across settings, grades, ages, and exceptionality. One way in which JSESD supports teachers and researchers is through publication of practitioner manuscripts also referred to as Teaching Techniques. These manuscripts focus on the how-to portion of science education. That is, JSESD practitioner publications give detailed information on how-to provide science instruction or how-to …

Online Education Practices And Teaching Team Compositions In Australian Preservice Primary Science Education, James Deehan

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Australian Initial Teacher Education (ITE) has long been marred by instability, scrutiny and high academic workloads. University wide workforce changes and the proliferation of online education require ongoing consideration as these factors have the potential to both enrich ITE and exacerbate existing issues. As subsect of ITE, preservice primary science education faces unique hurdles as establish student-centred, authentic practices have historically been delivered by tenured staff in traditional face-to-face settings. This paper aims to explore online teaching practices and teaching team composition in Australian preservice primary science education via interview and survey data collected from 17 academics in a Type …

Exploring Stem Kit Diagrams For Braille Readers In Inclusive Classrooms, Sariat A. Adelakun Dr

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

Diagrams appears in many school subjects but more prominent in science and mathematics taught in schools. Accessing these diagrams in an inclusive classroom has been identified to be problematic for blind students partly due to the teaching resources available and personnel type, support and sufficiency. Diagrams are mostly omitted by teachers leaving the blind person out in such classroom to access portion of education received by their peers. In many instances, questions with diagrams are treated as bonus for blind students in some countries which is not fair to them. This study explored the efficacy of STEM Kit diagrams on …

How Vocabulary Notebooks Change Student Knowledge Of Science Concepts And Vocabulary, Justin Wheeler

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

This study was conducted to determine the effect that an explicit vocabulary strategy, the use of vocabulary notebooks, may have on students in an upper elementary science classroom. The study was conducted in a small mid-western town of approximately 14,000 people in an elementary school with approximately 415 students. The study was conducted in a science classroom of fifth-grade students in which the primary investigator was the teacher. The research question for this study was: How does student’s vocabulary knowledge of science concepts change when students create vocabulary notebook entries including definition, science concept, examples, and non-examples? Data sources collected …

Students With Visual Impairments' Access And Participation In The Science Curriculum: Views Of Teachers Of Students With Visual Impairments, Karen E. Koehler, Tiffany A. Wild

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

Science is a core curricular area of instruction for all students and the federal mandates of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004) and No Child Left Behind (2001) require that students with disabilities are educated in the least restrictive environment and have access to general education science content, based upon rigorous standards. While, most students with visual impairments are educated in the general science classroom, few studies have been done to determine whether appropriate accommodations and modifications are being made in those classrooms to meet the specialized needs of these students. A 35 question survey instrument was disseminated to …

Science Instruction For Secondary Students With Emotional Or Behavioral Disorders: A Guide For Curriculum Development, Tal Slemrod, Leah Wood, Shelley Hart, William Coleman

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

This article provides a step-by-step guide for the organization and development of science lessons and units, to support the academic and behavioral performance of secondary students with challenges with related disabilities. This clinical practice guide provides a process for curriculum development for students with emotional or behavior disorders (EBD) in the science classroom. Steps include recommendations, goals, and examples for administrators and educators to discover appropriate plans and interventions to promote engagement and learning, including supporting success on State mandated High Stakes Assessments.

Teaching Science Through Inquiry Based Field Experiences Using Orientation And Mobility, Danene K. Fast, Tiffany A. Wild

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

Instruction in science can be difficult for students with visual impairments due to the use of visual instruction that is often used for conceptual understanding. Pedagogical approaches to teaching science continue to evolve, with inquiry-based science instruction as a primary instructional method used in current classrooms.

In teaching students with visual impairments, inquiry is a strategy that has been traditionally been used in orientation and mobility (O&M) instruction, in an effort to teach students with vision loss to explore and make conclusions about their environments through the use of all senses.

The purpose of this review is to outline how …

Elementary Students’ Attitudes Toward Social Studies, Math, And Science: An Analysis With The Emphasis On Social Studies, Sahin Dundar, Anatoli Rapoport

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

The purpose of the study was to compare upper elementary students' attitudes towards social studies, science, math, and to find out whether there si a significant difference between 4th and 5th grade students' attitudes towards social studies. The participants of the study were 4th and 5th grades students (n=348) from three elementary schools in a Midwestern state. Results showed that students held less positive attitudes towards social studies than science and mathematics, and fourth graders hold more positive attitues toward social studies than fifth graders.

Science Education For The Future: Five Recommendations A Policy Brief For Pakistan, Nelofer Halai

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

High quality education and particularly in the area of what is generally called STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) is the greatest indicator of quality of life. Sustainable human development, eradication of poverty and removing unequal distribution of resources all depend on high quality education. High quality education in the area of science has been defined as far back as 1962 by Schwab and Brandwein as teaching through inquiry-based methods. Continuing to teach science content through rote memorization produces teachers who know of no better method to teach other than memorization. These teachers themselves lack conceptual understanding of science content …

Reconciling The Divide: Common Processes In Science And Arts Education, Lori A. Fulton, Jamie Simpson-Steele

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Many see the sciences and arts as two distinct fields – one objective the other subjective; however, we see the two having more in common than different. These commonalities formed the basis for a STEAM framework, which examines the intersections of five processes: noticing, wondering, visualizing, exploring, and communicating. This framed a professional development workshop on STEAM for elementary teachers. Here we define and explore these processes through both science and art perspectives, and share examples of how each of these processes were integrated to support learning. We believe that STEAM provides a well-rounded experience, allowing learners to make connections …

An Examination Of Accessible Hands-On Science Learning Experiences, Self-Confidence In One’S Capacity To Function In The Sciences, And Motivation And Interest In Scientific Studies And Careers., Mick D. Isaacson, Cary Supalo, Michelle Michaels, Alan Roth

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

This study examined the potential relationship of accessible hands-on science learning experiences to the development of positive beliefs concerning one’s capacity to function in the sciences and motivation to consider science as a college major and career. Findings from Likert survey items given before and after engaging in accessible hands-on science laboratories show that students who were blind or had low vision (BLV) were more likely to agree with the following items after engaging in accessible science experiences: 1) I plan on enrolling as a science major in college; 2) My educational experiences, so far, have given me the …

Family-Friendly Science: Increasing Family Engagement In Stem Education, Alison Bixler

Honors Projects

Family engagement is vital to a child’s success in his or her academic career. Current research has focused more specifically on the relationship between parent engagement in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education and a student’s success in his or her STEM education. This paper is a summary of present research pertaining to this topic, as well as a summary of the results of a field-based study the author and faculty mentors completed to learn more about methods for engaging families in STEM education, particularly in the area of science. Present research indicates that a successful method for engaging …

Building Resilience & Life Skills For At-Risk Military Youth Through A Science Mentoring Program, Kasey L. Bozeman

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

Since the events of Sept 11, 2001, military service members have experienced frequent war-zone deployments, causing issues of separation, anxiety, and stress in military youth. Using established learning models and curriculum development tools, learn how to plan, implement, and evaluate after-school programming for military youth, enabling them to build resiliency and develop life skills to deal with these challenges.

Conexiones: Fostering Socioscientific Inquiry In Graduate Teacher Preparation, Krista Glazewski, Michele I. Shuster Phd, Thomas Brush, Andrea Ellis

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

Socioscientific Inquiry (SSI) represents one approach designed to target interest and knowledge in science. In this context, students consider scientific issues that have social implications and require a range of trade-offs, concepts, and considerations in order to arrive at informed conclusions (Sadler, 2004). However, inquiry tasks in general and SSI projects in particular are not widely adopted in K-12 settings, despite strong beliefs among teachers that these types of activities are valuable (Marshall, Horton, Igo, & Switzer, 2009). We suggest Collaborative Action Research may provide an important platform for enabling teachers to experience success through systematic investigations of their practice …

Cultivating Primary Students’ Scientific Thinking Through Sustained Teacher Professional Development, Roxanne Greitz Miller, Margaret Sauceda Curwen, Kimberly A. White-Smith, Robert C. Calfee

Education Faculty Articles and Research

While the United States’ National Research Council (NRC 2012) and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS 2013) advocate children’s engagement in active science learning, elementary school teachers in the US indicate lack of time to teach science regularly because of (1) school and district pressure to focus on English language arts and mathematics assessment scores in response to the country’s No Child Left Behind (2001) mandates; (2) a lack of preparation in teacher science content knowledge; and (3) a lack of science professional development opportunities. In response to these needs and focusing on the primary (Kindergarten–first–second) grade levels, the Project SMART …

Teachers' Perceptions About The Types, Quality, And Impact Of Their Job-Embedded Professional Development Experiences, Delilah Mitchell

Dissertations

This study was designed to determine eighth grade teachers’ perceptions of the impact, quality, and types of job-embedded professional development activities they have participated in and the relationship to student achievement in language arts, math, or science. The researcher identified school districts with 50% or more of their eighth grade students scoring proficient or advanced on all three areas of Mississippi’s Curriculum Test, Second Edition (MCT2). Sixty-four eighth grade language arts, math, or science teachers who had been at their current school at least two years completed a questionnaire created by the researcher. Multiple Linear Regression and Pearson’s Correlation were …

Personality And Science Training As Predictors Of Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs, Holly Saint

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Various factors have been researched over the past decade related to teaching efficacy under NCLB. Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) guided this correlational study with 13 Alabama and 10 Tennessee public school districts to examine 114 K-4 teachers' personality measured by the Big Five Inventory (BFI) personality factors; science pre-service training and school-district professional development training measured by an unpublished Science Training Survey; and science teaching efficacy beliefs measured by the Science Teacher Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI). The BFI's personality factors and science training were examined in combination using a hierarchical linear regression in an eight-step model while controlling for …

Theory Guided Professional Development In Early Childhood Science Education, Soo-Young Hong, Julia C. Torquati, Victoria J. Molfese

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

The importance of early and developmentally appropriate science education is increasingly recognized. Consequently, creation of common guidelines and standards in early childhood science education has begun (National Research Council (NRC), 2012), and researchers, practitioners, and policy makers have shown great interest in aligning professional development with the new guidelines and standard. There are some important issues that need to be addressed in order to successfully implement guidelines and make progress toward accomplishing standards. Early childhood teachers have expressed a lack of confidence in teaching science and nature (Torquati, Cutler, Gilkerson, & Sarver, in press) and have limited science and pedagogical …

Inquiry, Efficacy, And Science Education, Heather Christa Scott

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Developing learners who are equipped to think critically about the vast information circulating around them is essential in their preparation for a role in society today. The use of effective inquiry-based instruction is not a widespread practice among K-12 classrooms. Many secondary and post-secondary science instructors see the valuable link between students asking questions and the development of critical thinking. Inquiry-based instruction provides student opportunities to ask questions, design methods of investigation, gather information, and finally reach conclusions based on evidence. However, this instruction style is rarely used in the classroom, particularly in elementary classrooms. This study examines the relationships …

Third Grade Hands On Science Curriculum, Douglas Ray Cornwell

All Graduate Projects

In 2009, Washington State issued a new set of science standards. These new standards focus on building scientific literacy. With the emphasis now on scientific literacy rather than the traditional emphasis on fact memorization, many teachers must now find new ways to teach their science programs that reinforce understanding in science concepts rather than simple fact recollection. A science program that focuses on the constructivist learning philosophy and that offers students "hands on" activities as well as teacher led demonstrations is offered here to fill the role as an example of one of these new programs.

Earth And Moon [5th Grade], Trinity University, Canyon Ridge Elementary School (San Antonio, Tex.)

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

Students will understand that… -there are similarities and differences in physical characteristics between the earth and moon -force of gravity keeps planets and moon in orbit -difference between revolution and rotation - the sun has specific features -moon phases.

Matter [2nd Grade], Trinity University, Canyon Ridge Elementary School (San Antonio, Tex.)

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

Students will understand that… • Everything is made of matter, and all matter occupies space. • Matter is neither created nor destroyed but can change state. • Each type of matter has it’s own specific physical properties.

Natural World [5th Grade], Trinity University, Canyon Ridge Elementary School (San Antonio, Tex.)

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

Students will understand that… • forces change land • the same force can be both destructive and constructive • you can learn the history of the earth by reading things like tree rings and sedimentary layers.

Animals [2nd Grade], Trinity University, Canyon Ridge Elementary School (San Antonio, Tex.)

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

Students will understand that… • All living things are producers or consumers. • Animals have different external characteristics (structures) that allow their basic needs to be met. • All animals depend upon each other and their environment to survive. o Animals are either carnivore, herbivore, omniivore o Know temperature and rainfall of desert, oceans, woodlands, plains or prairie, rain forest • Animals develop and change over time in different ways such as in: color, size, mass, creating sounds, and movement. • Animals usually grow in a predictable way and usually grow to look like their parents. Possible misunderstandings or confusions: …