Ellie Paulson

Undergrad

Promoting Deep Learning of STEM in the Era of Covid and Beyond

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Promoting Usable Knowledge of STEM

Joe Krajcik

CREATE for STEM

Michigan State University

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Board of the Ohio Mathematics and Science Coalition

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February 12, 2021 

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What we will do today

• Talk about what is new in science education
• Present the results of a study that makes use of those ideas
• Time for questions and discussion.

What’s New In Science Education

How has the Framework for K-12 Science Education changed your teaching?

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What’s different about teaching and learning using the vision of the Framework?

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Science and Engineering for Grades 6-12:

Investigation and Design at the Center

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National Academies of Science, Released in Fall, 2019

Read the first 1 or 2 conclusions.

What do this mean for your science teaching?

What opportunities does it provide?

What challenges does it suggest??

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Framework for K-12 Science Education– Science for All Students�

• Science, engineering and technology are cultural achievements and a shared good of humankind
• Science, engineering and technology permeate modern life and as such is essential at the individual level
• Understanding of science and engineering is critical to participation in public policy and good decision-making

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How can we change classrooms to promote learning environments that foster engagement and innovation?

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Learn Science by Doing Science

Make sense of phenomena

Make informed decisions

Solve Problems

Use knowledge

Content and Practices Work together to Build Understanding

• To form useable knowledge, knowing and doing cannot be separated, but rather must be learned together
• Scientific ideas are best learned when students engage in practices as they makes sense of world in which they live.
• Allows for problem-solving, decisions making, explaining real-world phenomena, and integrating new ideas

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Core

Ideas

Practices

Crosscutting Concepts

Disciplinary core idea in K-12 science…

• Disciplinary significance
• Has broad importance across multiple science or engineering disciplines, a key organizing concept of a single discipline
• Explanatory Power
• Can be used to explain a host of phenomena
• Generative
• Provides a key tool for understanding or investigating more complex ideas and solving problems
• Relevant to peoples’ lives:
• Relates to the interests and life experiences of students, connected to societal or personal concerns
• Usable from K to 12
• Is teachable and learnable over multiple grades at increasing levels of depth and sophistication

How are DCIs Different than Science Concepts

• The Framework move teaching away from a focus on presenting numerous disconnected facts to a focus on a smaller number of disciplinary core ideas which learners can use to explain phenomena and solve problems.
• The ideas in Framework describe what students should be able to explain and be able to solve, rather than providing disconnected facts and definitions.

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Scientific and Engineering Practices

1. Asking questions and defining problems

2. Developing and using models

3. Planning and carrying out investigations

4. Analyzing and interpreting data

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5. Using mathematics and computational thinking

6. Developing explanations and designing solutions

7. Engaging in argument from evidence

8. Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information

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The practices work together – they are not separated!

The multiple ways of knowing and doing that scientists and engineers use to study the natural world and design world.

What are Crosscutting Concepts?�

1. Patterns
2. Cause and effect
3. Scale, proportion and quantity
4. Systems and system models
5. Energy and matter
6. Structure and function
7. Stability and change

Ideas that cut across and are important to all the science disciplines

Provide different lens to examine phenomena

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3-Dimensional Learning

• What is it? Integrates the three dimensions of science knowledge (core ideas, crosscutting concepts and scientific and engineering practices) to focus instruction and assessment

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• Three-dimensional learning shifts the focus of the science classroom to environments where students use core ideas, crosscutting concepts with scientific practices to explore, examine, and use science ideas to explain how and why phenomena occur.

Core

Ideas

Practices

Crosscutting Concepts

• Building core ideas, scientific and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts across time will support learners building scientific dispositions – think like a scientist
• Knowing when and how to seek and build knowledge --
• Hmm, what do I need to know?
• I wonder if?
• I can I explain....?
• Do I have enough evidence?
• Students will learn to think like scientists and understand the purpose of evidence

Build Scientific Disposition

Learning Grows Over Time

Learning difficult ideas

• Takes time
• Develops as students work on a task that forces them to synthesize ideas
• Occurs when new and existing knowledge is linked to previous ideas
• Depends on instruction and experiences

Principles to Promote Learning

Ellie Paulson

Undergrad

• Pursue solution to a meaningful question/contexts – phenomena or design problems.
• Use performance learning goals.
• Explore the question by participating in scientific practices to “figure out” why phenomena occurs and learn important ideas in the discipline.
• Engage in collaborative and discourse activities to find solutions.
• Use learning technologies and other scaffolds to help students participate in activities normally beyond their ability.
• Create artifacts – tangible products – that address the question/problems and represent student knowledge.

Our Challenge

Foster and build learning environments that allow all students to:

• Develop integrated and useable knowledge of science
• Develop motivation to learn science
• Develop scientific practices and competencies
• Solve problems, make decisions & think innovatively

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Our solution: Crafting Engaging Science Environments

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• Engage all students in sense-making
• Use vision of the Framework to develop usable science knowledge
• Design, develop and test a system for advancing science teaching and learning that builds a vision for enacting the vision of Framework for All learners. The system includes:
• Highly developed and specified educative teacher materials (i.e., how to promote discourse, use of the driving questions; scaffolded sequence of lessons)
• Highly developed and specified student materials (i.e., first-hand experiences, readings, writing experiences, model construction)
• Professional learning supports (i.e., face-to-face meeting, video conferences, educative supports)
• 3-dimensional formative and end-of-unit assessments
• Conduct an efficacy study

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With my good colleague – Professor Barbara Schneider from MSU

Crafting Engaging Science Environments

• Pursue solutions to a meaning questions/problem
• Focus on performance learning goals
• Explore the question/problem by participating in authentic, situated inquiry
• Engage in collaborative activities to find solutions
• Use learning technologies and scaffolds to help students participate in activities normally beyond their ability
• Create artifacts – tangible products – that address the driving question
• Focus on all learners

Examples of Units

Crafting Engaging Science Environments

Rachel Marias

Grad Student

Ellie Paulson

Undergrad

RCT - Treatment and Control Conditions.

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Data Collection

• Objective pre and post measures of science achievement
• Observations of teachers
• Surveys of teachers and students
• Measures of social and emotional learning
• Interviews of teachers and students

Randomized Control Trials

Rachel Marias

Grad Student

Ellie Paulson

Undergrad

The treatment group scored 0.21 standard deviations higher than control students on an independently developed summative science assessment.

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Results indicate that “modeling” to make sense of phenomena was an indirect pathway that affected students’ science achievement scores.

Why did we have these effects?�

Rachel Marias

Grad Student

Ellie Paulson

Undergrad

System Model

Rachel Marias

Grad Student

Ellie Paulson

Undergrad

Learning Principles

Meaning Contexts

Exploring and Explaining Phenomena

Artifact Development

Collaboration/Discourse

Community Connections

Equity

3-Dimensional Instruction

Integrating Disciplinary Core, Scientific Practices, Crosscutting Concepts

Outcomes

Academic and Social and Emotional Learning

Enjoyment

Curiosity

Ownership

Engagement: Teacher and Students

Challenge, Interest and Competency

Learning Context

Face-to-Face

Virtual

Hybrid

A System Approach

Teacher and Student Materials

Professional Learning

Assessment

The�The “figuring out” process, driven by phenomena, creates optimal learning moments�

They experience a phenomenon

They figure out some new things (and develop new questions)

This raises questions

This leads to using scientific practices

Events in nature

that we can observe,

investigate

and then try to explain

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Students ask their own questions

Investigating,

developing models, constructing explanations,

analyzing data,

designing solutions,

Using mathematical thinking etc.

Students develop new ideas to help them explain phenomena and ask new questions..

Our Response to COVID

Ellie Paulson

Undergrad

Modifying our Face-to-Face to Virtual

• Use design-based research to modify materials for creative ways to enact our design principles
• Collaboration, Science Practices, Experiencing phenomenon, and Designing physical artifacts
• Contains several configuration to support learning: In-Person, Virtual, Hybrid, Synchronous, Asynchronous.

What we hope to learn:

• What are the principles that can guide adaptation of the essential features design princiles
• What engagement (interest, challenge and skill) and learning outcomes (academic and social and emotional) occur when our system is adapted for virtual contexts?  

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Hands on experiences that some students capture, images to be shared, discussed and manipulated

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Students do experience at home

Students experience phenomena and discuss with students

Engagement of

Students’ interest – thoroughness of response

Students do experience in groups

Students write claim with evidence and reasoning (in groups)

Captured video that can be re-played and images discussed

Engage in Phenomenon to spark interest and questions

Teacher performs demonstration (live) for students

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Shows video of experience

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Students view phenomena developed by third party

Design Feature Face-to-face Adaptations Engagement Activity Measurement Adaptation

Lesson Principle

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An Example from Our Adaptation Work

Discussion

• Students improve in their learning in challenging science ideas and practices tasks as well as in social and emotional constructs
• Potential learning environments as a framework for promoting knowledge-in-use and social and emotional.
• Systematic and research based for curriculum and assessment design
• A system for advancing science teaching and learning that builds a vision for enacting project-based learning and meeting new knowledge-in-use standards:
• Highly developed and specified educative teacher materials (i.e., how to promote discourse, use of the driving questions; scaffolded sequence of lessons)
• Highly developed and specified student materials (i.e., first-hand experiences, readings, writing experiences, model construction)
• Extended professional learning supports (i.e., face-to-face meeting, video conferences, educative supports)
• 3-dimensional formative and end-of-unit assessments

Take Aways

Rachel Marias

Grad Student

Ellie Paulson

Undergrad

• Our system works for all genders, races, ethnicities, and is being piloted in a few countries including China.
• It has been vetted by academic journals, Yale and Harvard University Presses, and is still currently under review.
• The ideas of three-dimensional learning (DCIs, SEPs, CCs) are critical for principled, science reforms.

Unanticipated challenges to scaling

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1. Good plans go awry.
1. Need to use previously validated and reliable tasks. As of today - no 3D large scale assessments available
2. Worked with Kentucky but …
3. Working with Michigan ... just multiple choice and drag and drop
2. Teachers and schools will drop -- attrition.
3. Unanticipated costs - just not enough to purchase all the equipment and hire all the people to do justice to the plan. We can find good people, but they cost.
4. All teachers could not come to the same PD at the same time -- needed four major PDs and make-ups.
5. Each district had idiosyncratic constraints regarding data collection and arranging for PD.
6. No rest for the weary -- need to sleep.

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Questions

Joe Krajcik – Krajcik@msu.edu; Twitter - @krajcikjoe

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This study is supported by the National Science Foundation and the George Lucas Educational Foundation. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the funding agencies.

Learn more about our work in elementary classroom

https://glef.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_OEzgLvU5QSy8Fhp_7BaYTw

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Key References

Krajcik, J., Codere, S., Dahsah, C., Bayer, R., Mun, Kongu (2014). Planning Instruction to Meet the Intent of the Next Generation Science Standards, The Journal of Science Teacher Education, DOI 10.1007/s10972-014-9383-2, open access manuscript.

Krajcik, J.S. & Shin, N., (2014). Project-based learning. In Sawyer, R. K. (Ed.), the Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences, 2nd Edition. New York: Cambridge, pages 275 - 297.

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2019. Science and Engineering for Grades 6-12: Investigation and Design at the Center. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.17226/25216.

National Research Council. (2012). A Framework for K–12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts and Core Ideas. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

Schneider, B., Krajcik, J, Lavonen, J., Salmela-Aro, K. (2019). Learning Science: Crafting Engaging Science Environments. Yale University Press, New Haven and London.

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