Andrea Carneal Burrows

This quantitative study examined the impact of teachers’ self-reported use of instructional practices for conceptual understanding, teaching experience, and parental education on eighth-grade students’ science achievement scores in Australia, England, Japan, South Africa, and the United States, using data from TIMSS 2015 and TIMSS 2019. The data were subjected to descriptive statistical analyses and multiple regression modeling to investigate the extent to which teachers’ use of conceptual understanding practices, teaching experience, and parental education affects students’ science achievement. The findings revealed that teaching for conceptual understanding practices did not always contribute to improved students’ science achievement scores. However, teachers’ teaching experience and parental education could have a positive effect on students’ science achievement scores. The findings also showed that science teachers’ teaching for conceptual understanding practices weakly accounted for differences in students’ science achievement scores in the five countries, although a large percentage of teachers self-reported using conceptual understanding practices in their classrooms. The authors posit that such practices are beneficial for students’ achievement in science and STEM and that establishing a universal characterization of “teaching for conceptual understanding” would enhance the conduction of cross-national studies.

Despite the large body of research showing that students in STEM classes at all levels learn better via active learning than they do via lecture, post-secondary physics and astronomy (P&A) faculty members continue to primarily use teacher-focused, lecture pedagogy in their classes. Methods include answers from eight faculty members, and interviews with five faculty members who self-identified as primarily using lecture were conducted to determine their perceptions of why they use lecture. During analysis coding, results show that an unanticipated theme not sufficiently represented in the pre-existing literature rose to the forefront: that many of these faculty members feel the decision of pedagogy is out of their control. In conclusion, a grounded theory was developed and is proposed herein that these faculty feel a sense of powerlessness. Reasons offered include administrators often make decisions based on the financial needs of the school, which then force the faculty into using lecture as their primary pedagogy. Implications include that providing professional development in active pedagogies may not be sufficient to help faculty members change pedagogy, as they may need to be convinced that they have the power to make change and use student-centered, active learning pedagogies within their own individual constraints and settings. Understanding that some instructors may feel powerless in choosing how to teach is an important step for professional development providers toward ensuring that faculty have a voice and can choose the best teaching methods for their classrooms.

This article presents a comparison of two qualitative case studies. The first case study is a partnership group involving two urban secondary school teachers working with one engineer and one education faculty member where they implemented several science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) lessons over the course of an academic year. The second case study is a partnership group involving undergraduate college students working together to build a data collection device attached to a high-altitude balloon to answer a scientific question or solve an engineering problem and translate the project into engaging lessons for a K-12/secondary student audience. The studies employed a socio-cultural theoretical framework as the lens to examine the individuals’ perspectives, experiences, and engineering meaning-making processes, and to consider what these meant to the partnership itself. The methods included interviews, focus groups, field notes, and artifacts. The analysis involved multi-level coding. The findings indicated that the strength of the partnership (pre, little p, or big P) among participants influenced the strength of the secondary engineering lessons. The partnership growth implications in terms of K-12/secondary and collegiate engineering education included the engineering lesson strength, partnership, and engineering project sustainability The participant partnership meanings revolved around lesson creation, incorporating engineering ideas into the classroom, increasing communication, and increasing secondary students’ learning, while tensions arose from navigating (not quite negotiating) roles as a team. A call for attention to school–university partnerships and the voices heard in engineering partnership building are included since professional skills are becoming even more important due to advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies.

Partnerships among professionals within collegiate teacher preparation programs and school districts are needed to address current teacher shortages, especially critical in urban, high-needs schools. This research study showcases a collaborative model of teacher recruitment, preparation, and support that envisions and co-constructs reconceptualized roles, opportunities, and responsibilities for university faculties, supervising teachers, and teacher candidates. The concept is supported through a continuum of professional learning and reflection. The enhanced partnership model (EPM) for internship requires a partnership between faculties in teacher preparation programs and school districts to develop, engage, and evaluate an EPM for urban-school teacher preparation in multiple urban school sites in the southeastern United States. The goals of this innovative EPM revolve around recruiting diverse teacher candidates, collaboratively preparing them to focus on rigorous academic coursework as well as practical, classroom-based experiences, and retaining the new teachers. Employment data were accessed via administrative sources. A chi-square test of association was used to examine the relationship between participation in the EPM and employment (n = 158). The findings highlight that pre-service teachers participating in the EPM are 4.5 times as likely to be employed in a high-needs school, and 75% of those employed are still employed three years later. The implications of these results are shared.

A computer science camp for pre-collegiate students was operated during the summers of 2022 and 2023. The effect the camp had on attitudes was quantitatively assessed using a survey instrument. However, enrollment at the summer camp was small, which meant the well-known Pearson's Chi-Squared to measure the significance of results was not applied. Thus, a quantitative analysis method using a multinomial probability distribution as a model of a multilevel Likert scale survey was used. Exact calculations of a multinomial probability model with likelihood ratio were performed to quantitatively analyze the results of questionnaires administered to participants in two cohort groups (combined N=17). Probabilities per Likert categories were determined from the data itself using Bayes theorem with a Dirichlet prior. Each cohort functioned as part of a homogenous sample, thus allowing cohorts to be pooled. Post-test revealed significant changes in participants’ attitudes after camp completion. Using this technique has implications for studies with small sample sizes. Using exact calculation of the multinomial probability model with the use of likelihood ratio as a statistical test of evidence has advantages: a) it is an exact value that can be used on any size sample, although it offers a quantitative analysis option for small sample size studies; b) depends only on what was observed during a study; c) does not require advanced calculation; d) modern spreadsheet and statistical package programs can calculate the analysis; and e) likelihood ratio employed in Bayes theorem can update prior beliefs according to evidence. Utilizing small sample size quantitative analysis can strengthen insights into data trends and showcase the importance of this quantitative technique. Keywords: multinomial probability model, likelihood ratio, small sample study, survey research, quantitative analysis, summer camp

This paper investigated the effect of using LEGO EV3 robots to teach Newton’s second law with conceptual understanding to a group of 14 to 18-year-olds in an after-school STEM education program. 74 teenagers participated in this research study. A quantitative methods approach involving descriptive analyses, paired-sample t-test, and repeated measures ANOVA were used to answer the research questions. The results showed that the LEGO EV3 robots positively affected participants’ understanding of Newton’s second law of motion and their interest in pursuing STEM education and careers. In addition, the descriptive analyses from the pre- and post-interest questionnaire revealed that participants were more confident and willing to learn with robotic devices after the activity than before. Repeated measures ANOVA analysis indicated that scaffolded programming tasks affected participants’ computational thinking skills. Implications include the purposeful use of LEGO EV3 robotics and potentially other educationally focused programmable devices (e.g., micro:bit, Spheros, Arduinos, etc.).

New curriculum reform across the United States requires teacher educators to rapidly develop and implement professional development (PD) for K-12 teachers, newly assigned to teach computer science (CS). One of the many inherent challenges in providing valuable PD is knowing what it is that novice CS teachers most need. This quantitative research study was designed to inform the iterative development of a K-12 CS Teaching Endorsement program offered at a small college in the rural Rocky Mountain west, based on participants’ perceptions of the program, before and after attempting to teach the CS curriculum provided by the endorsement program. The overarching research question guiding this study is: What differences might exist between teachers’ perceived needs for CS-based professional development before and after actual classroom teaching experiences with CS? To pursue this question, the following null hypothesis was tested: H₀: No measurable change exists in teachers’ perceptions regarding the impact of PD before and after teaching. The research study used a 29-item Likert-style survey, organized into categories to measure participants’ perceptions across five subscales. Thirteen teachers completed the targeted K-12 CS Endorsement program in May and July 2021, seven of whom subsequently taught CS in K-12 schools for the first time. Of these seven, 100% participated in this research study. After gaining classroom experience, the survey results showed very few differences before and after the endorsement program. These results suggest that CS-based PD can be more effective if the PD better targets enhancing teachers’ confidence in teaching actual students and providing more useful classroom-ready instructional materials rather than targeting improving teachers’ knowledge of CS concepts.

This research investigated the effectiveness of the conceptual change model (CCM) in addressing pre-service elementary teachers’ misconceptions and promoting their conceptual understanding of electrostatics. The participants were 55 pre-service elementary teachers enrolled in an elementary physical science course, 44 females and 11 males. An embedded mixed-methods approach was employed to help answer the two research questions put forward in this research. The results showed that the CCM moderately correlated with participants’ conceptual understanding of electrostatics. The data from the three open-ended questions showed that the CCM positively affected participants’ conceptions of the topic of electrostatics. The results of this research contribute to the literature on the effect of the conceptual change model in building conceptual understanding and minimizing pre-service teachers’ misconceptions about electrostatics. The results also showed that the phases of the CCM did not have the same effect on participants’ conceptual understanding of electrostatics. This information brings to the fore a discussion about the optimal approach to using the conceptual change instructional model.

Teaching science concepts for conceptual understanding has its challenges. Bringing about conceptual change in the science classroom can be difficult because most concepts are complicated and often counter-intuitive in the teaching and learning of science concepts. A review of the literature indicates that the conceptual change model, CCM can be an effective teaching technique in addressing misconceptions and improving conceptual understanding when it comes to science instruction. The aim of this research was to find out the effect of the conceptual change model on pre-service teachers’ conceptual understanding regarding the topic of forces and motion. Using data from tests and questionnaires, the research questions were answered by quantitatively analyzing the collected data. The analysis revealed that there is a statistically significant correlation between the conceptual change model and the conceptual understanding of the pre-service teacher participants. Overall, the results provide evidence in support of the effectiveness of the conceptual change model, CCM in addressing misconceptions and promoting conceptual understanding of forces and motion among the pre-service teacher participants that volunteered for this research. The results also indicate that the CCM is a teaching model which must be considered by science educators and teachers as they seek to address issues related to misconceptions and conceptual understanding in the teaching of science topics. Keywords: conceptual change, conceptual change model, conceptual understanding, misconceptions, pre-service teachers, science education