In this study, I explore the learning opportunities that emerge from ill-structured activities in a university physics course and how collaboration enables performance under different teaching conditions. The study was conducted over two months on three sections of an introductory physics course in a University in Northern Chile. Each section utilized a different variety of teaching strategies and combinations of problems (well and ill-structured) for assessing content on the day of data collection, students were asked to work in groups and ill-structured activity in physics. I gathered audio of students' discussion in four groups for a total of 26 participants, and I collected the generated problems from the whole sample. From the audio, I explored the emergent processes students engaged while solving the problems. Student generated activities were coded to investigate combinations of concepts and problem characteristics, which were later combined into a measure of problem elaboration. Later, I explored students’ social networks to determine how different instructional strategies led to different social configurations and their differences in academic performance. For this, I collected data on students' performance on a physics test designed with well-structured problems and problem elaboration, and I asked students to respond to an on-line peer-nomination survey related to their social interactions engaged for information seeking to solve problems. I tested the effect of different network structures over academic performance on both types of activities by setting statistical linear models.

Generating problems is an opportunity for students to propose ideas and make decisions regarding the content and the contextual details to introduce into their problems, as well as to engage in problem solving strategies. The combination of concepts and attributes for problem elaboration showed students' familiarity with particular portions of the content and characteristics, with differences across sections. Finally, students who actively sought out information from multiple peers were less likely to achieve good performance on well-structured problems, whereas for ill-structured problems, this effect depended on the features of the learning environment enacted in each section. These results suggest that teaching and instructional strategies have a key role in the way cooperation lead to good performance.

In an increasingly globalized world, the ability to engage with science meaningfully to make decisions on small and large scales is essential to be an informed citizen and to create a more equitable world. To engage with science, people need to develop a science identity. In this study, science identity, or feeling like a science person, includes the development of science knowledge (competence), ways of talking about and doing science (performance), an interest or other motivation to engage with science (investment), and recognition of oneself and/or by others as being a science person (recognition). Informal science education institutions, like science museums, are places where learners can follow their curiosities and access science learning in distinctly different ways than they may have experienced in a classroom setting. Informal educators in such spaces play instrumental roles in facilitating these learning experiences and may impact the development of learners’ science identities. While informal educators may influence the way learners develop a science identity (or sense of being a “science person”), informal educators themselves are not frequently the subject of science identity research, researchers choosing instead to focus on young learners in the space, such as students on a field trip visit. However, science identity development of the informal educators is equally important to understand because how an informal educator’s sense of being a science person develops will have a direct impact on how they interact with and facilitate the identity development of museum visitors. Thus, the changes that institutions wish to see in the visitor experience must begin with changes in the informal educators themselves. I was interested to explore how informal educators developed a science identity while participating in a professional development program. I asked two major questions in this study: (1.) How did informal educators’ identities as science people change during participation in an informal science education professional development program? (2.) How did informal educators create or aim to create opportunities for learners to be a science person? In this qualitative study, I focused on four informal educators’ experiences throughout a year-long professional development program at the interactive science museum where they were employed. I conducted five interviews throughout the year with each of the participants and collected written artifacts in the form of blog posts. I found that participants’ science identities did change over the course of the program, and, likewise, their facilitation practice changed over time. Participants ended the program with a more expansive and inclusive definition of science identity than they began the program with, and, as their definitions of “a science person” broadened, participants facilitated experiences with learners that were more inclusive and that increasingly prioritized making sufficient space for learners to lead their own explorations and be recognized as capable of engaging in science. Participants did display discrepancies between their individual definitions of science identity and how they chose to incorporate science identity into facilitation; however, this was partially explained because participants largely drew a distinction between enacting a science identity as individuals and facilitating a learner’s development of a science identity. They interpreted their role as an educator as necessitating a different approach to science identity than they might in other contexts. These findings support the value of investing in informal educators and offering them professional learning opportunities, which are much rarer for informal educators than for formal educators. If institutions can more effectively and meaningfully train their staff by creating opportunities to engage in professional learning, they can more easily achieve their goals and better serve their visitors. This study contributed to the gap in the literature for research on the science identity of informal educators, showing that in fact science identity of the individual educator does affect their facilitation with learners.

Science education is changing. With the release of the Next Generation Science Standards [NGSS], K-12 teachers are expected to engage students in the practices of scientists and engineers to make sense of disciplinary core ideas and crosscutting concepts (NGSS Lead States, 2013). Simultaneously, there is a push to expose students to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) in an integrated manner (Honey, Pearson & Schweingruber, 2014). The Maker Movement is one initiative that has received attention for its potential to transform STEM learning (Vossoughi & Bevan, 2014). This movement has spurred the creation of educative making as a pedagogical approach to engage students in integrated STEM learning experiences while still meeting the NGSS’ performance expectations (Bevan, 2017). Currently, scant research exists on how to prepare teachers to facilitate these types of learning experiences in ways that result in rich learning experiences, especially at the preservice level. This study aims to close that gap.

I investigated how the design and facilitation of two science activities at a Maker Faire impacted opportunities for children’s learning. The activities were designed and facilitated by preservice elementary school teachers enrolled in a university Science Methods course as part of their requirements to earn a Multiple Subjects (Elementary School) Teaching Credential and Master of Education in Teaching degree (M.Ed.). Preservice teachers worked in small groups to design and facilitate their NGSS-aligned activity as the culminating assignment for their Science Methods course. The primary audience for the event was elementary school students enrolled in the preservice teachers’ student-teaching classrooms. Using a case study model, I focused on two preservice teachers who worked in different groups, Ms. Sarah and Ms. Maggie. Ms. Sarah and her group members’ station featured a slime making activity for children to learn about different states of matter. Ms. Maggie and her group members’ station provided opportunities for children to tinker with various materials to develop models of magnetism.

Using previous frameworks (e.g., Bevan, Ryoo, Vanderwerff, Wilkinson & Petrich, 2017), I analyzed the design of activity, facilitation, and resulting indicators of children’s learning through detailed video analysis (Erickson, 2006). The slime station was designed to resemble a factory line, requiring all children to work through the same set of pre-defined steps to create the teacher’s anticipated version of slime. This resulted in Ms. Sarah and her group members emphasizing procedures, providing more direct instruction and asking more close-ended questions. This, in turn, caused children to frequently ask questions to ensure they were following the correct procedures specified by the teachers. In contrast, the magnetism station featured a series of smaller activities, differentiated to allow for multiple pathways based on each child. Ms. Maggie and her group members asked more open-ended questions, used less direct instruction, encouraged risk-taking and experimentation, engaged with observations more often, and frequently changed their instruction based on children’s ideas. This resulted in children demonstrating higher instances of conceptual understanding than was observed at the slime station. Moreover, children who visited the magnetism station showed significantly more indicators of learning than children who visited the slime station, t(22) = 2.5, p = .019. Implications for educators and teacher educators are shared in the discussion, as well as future directions for research.

Scientific literacy is vital for 21st century citizens to have the skills to make informeddecisions based on sound science, and seeing oneself as a science person is important for citizens to feel capable of making such decisions based on science. Science educators are in the best position to encourage these attribute in their students. In particular, undergraduate non-STEM majors make up approximately 55% of college graduates, and college and university faculty are in a particularly important position to offer opportunities for STEM identity work in this population of students to encourage the development of a science person identity, which is intertwined with learning the skills important for scientific literacy like evaluation of science in the news. This mixed-methods study focused on students in a biology course developed primarily for non-STEM majors, and examined their STEM identity work along with evidence of their scientific literacy. Data collected includes surveys, focus groups, observations of group work and final presentations, and final written reflections. Using Wilcoxon Rank Sum tests to compare pre-class and post-class survey responses, student participants felt more like science people following their experiences in this non-STEM majors’ biology course and that their biology professor saw them as science people at the end of the course compared to the beginning of the term. Qualitative analysis supported xi these findings, with participants sharing that they felt like science people when they were successful in school science, had the opportunity to engage with science content in lab or real-life case studies, were recognized by instructors and peers as competent in science, and recognized qualities of scientists that they felt they also shared. In terms of scientific literacy, following their experience in non-STEM majors’ biology, students’ beliefs and attitudes surrounding science became more positive and their self-efficacy and ability to communicate and apply science content to contexts outside of the classroom also were positively impacted. Students were also more confident of their ability to evaluate science as presented in the popular media following the course. While this identity work was taking place, the students also had opportunities to demonstrate and further develop scientific literacy skills, such as the application of content knowledge and communication of scientific ideas, along with highlighting the importance of their evolving beliefs, attitudes, and interests in science. Non-science majors are frequently overlooked when considering research in science education, as research centered around undergraduates tends to focus on STEM major retention or interest, rather than the STEM identity work of those students who have chosen a major in a different field. Therefore, this research contributes to the body of literature with undergraduates in STEM courses, along with literature centered on identity work, which tends to focus on younger age groups (K-12 grades).

This study begins with the belief that the ways in which teachers see and attend to educational encounters matter for their actions in classrooms. Using microethnography as a framework, this dissertation explores the relationship between teacher candidate attention, problem formulation, and action. Through analysis of the M.Ed. inquiry reports of teacher candidates in a boutique teacher education program, this study answers the following questions: 1) What do teacher candidates’ M.Ed. inquiry questions reveal about their attention and problem formulation? 2) How do these questions indicate possibilities for attention and action in a classroom? 3) How does candidates’ attention change over the course of a year in the context of the M.Ed. investigation they complete in a teacher education program? 4) What do candidates’ attention, problem formulations and actions as revealed in their M.Ed. reports indicate about the relationship between attention, problem formulation, and action?

The findings of the analysis reveal the ways in which teacher candidates are attending to the problems of their classrooms and how that attention might shift through the course of inquiry. As teacher candidates’ attention shifts, it broadens possibilities for problem formulation and the actions a teacher might take in a classroom. In its conclusion, this paper ultimately argues that the object of teacher education be to educate teacher candidates’ attention.

This study examines the role of place-based science education in fostering student-driven health interventions. While literature shows the need to connect science with students’ place and community, there is limited understanding of strategies for doing so. Making such connections is important for underrepresented students who tend to perceive learning science in school as disconnected to their experiences out of school (Aikenhead, Calabrese-Barton, & Chinn, 2006).

To better understand how students can learn to connect place and community with science and engineering practices in a village in Kenya, I worked with community leaders, teachers, and students to develop and study an education program (a school-based health club) with the goal of improving knowledge of health and sanitation in a Kenyan village. While students selected the health topics and problems they hoped to address through participating in the club, the topics were taught with a focus on providing opportunities for students to learn the practices of science and health applications of these practices. Students learned chemistry, physics, environmental science, and engineering to help them address the health problems they had identified in their community.

Surveys, student artifacts, ethnographic field notes, and interview data from six months of field research were used to examine the following questions: (1) In what ways were learning opportunities planned for using science and engineering practices to improve community health? (2) In what ways did students apply science and engineering practices and knowledge learned from the health club in their school, homes, and community? and (3) What factors seemed to influence whether students applied or intended to apply what they learned in the health club? Drawing on place-based science education theory and community-engagement models of health, process and structural coding (Saldaña, 2013) were used to determine patterns in students’ applications of their learning.

Students applied learning across health topics they identified as interesting and relevant to their community: hand-washing, disease-prevention, first aid, balanced diet, and water. Students’ application of their learning was influenced by internal, external, and relational factors with the community, science education factors, and cultural factors. Some factors, which may have been barriers for students to apply their learning, were turned into supports via bridging strategies used by the students and teacher. Bridging strategies allowed students to connect between their place and science in meaningful ways in the classroom. These strategies were critical in bringing students’ place into the classroom and enabling students to apply their learning toward place.

The model resulting from the identified factors informed existing models for sociocultural considerations in community-based health interventions. The community-engagement applied practices of science (CAPS) model serves to conceptualize findings in this study and informs an integrated method for using community-engagement education as a stimuli for students to become cultural brokers and improve community health. In addition to focusing on teaching practices of science and encouraging students to apply their learning, this research suggests that bridging strategies can be used to connect science with a students’ place in meaningful ways that serve both students and their local communities.

ABSTRACT

Weaving the Social Fabric of Dialogic Relations:An Investigation and Exploration of the Interactional Accomplishment of “Being With” by Kimberly A. Rudder-Breed

Opportunities to participate in dialogic practices are essential to the co-construction of meaning. Such opportunities not only afford deeper learning for the individual, they open up different kinds of possibilities for the community as a whole. Participating in dialogic practices enables intersubjective understanding across differences of experiences and ideas. While many schooling practices organize students into social relations of a corrosive nature, participating in dialogic practices opens up possibilities for more generative social relations between students – ways of regarding and being with others that generate richer future pathways of social and civic involvement with others. Yet, these opportunities are often rare to nonexistent in many classrooms. The exigencies of the classroom, including many external forces, create barriers to teachers who would otherwise pursue this as an educational aim. When dialogue is conceived as merely technique or method, the investment of time into this approach may feel untenable. But to conceive of dialogue this way is to diminish its full potential. This study conceptualizes dialogue as both encounter and relation, and explores the ingenuity of young children as they navigate high-stakes disputes – in the absence of adult intervention.This study begins with a search for the emergence of “dialogic moments” (Cissna & Anderson, 1998) in one kindergarten classroom. The questions orienting my observations and analysis were: What does a dialogic encounter look like in a kindergarten classroom? Where and under what conditions does it emerge? And what are the barriers? Acting as a participant-observer (Spradley, 1980) in the classroom, I collected approximately 50 hours of video over four months. Using a “natural history” approach (McDermott & Raley, 2011), I conducted slow, fine-grained analysis of video recordings of naturally occurring interaction. In my search for dialogic moments, I discovered a student-generated interactional phenomenon, which I have named “commoning,” to describe the ways that students collectively opened up a shared space to inhabit together. To establish the phenomenon, I drew on a collection of four cases of commoning to identify and describe its constellation of defining features. I then analyzed two episodes in more depth to better contextualize how these features function and interact within the unfolding interaction. Driven by a need to better understand what was happening between students in these commoning encounters, I returned to the literature for new theoretical tools. I drew on work in the fields of Sociology, Social Psychology, Anthropology, and Phenomenology to develop a novel conceptual framework for understanding the social relational processes emergent in the interaction. Returning to one particularly delightful episode, I applied this conceptual framework to the analysis of the micromoments of embodied interaction. I examined the relational messages emerging between participants as they moved into embodied involvement and enacted a fullness of mutually co-present participation in the encounter. Through fleeting micromoments of mutual gaze, students confirmed one another. These moments were infused with vitality and collective effervescence, including moments of shared delight and shared rhythm of movement. Together, students were weaving a shared social tapestry that opened the possibility for the kind of risk-taking and vulnerability that was required to navigate emergent dialogic tensions. Applying the same conceptual framework to the analysis of micromoments in the dialogic encounter, I compare and contrast these two very distinct yet similar interactional modes of “being with” others – both enacted without guidance or intervention from adults. In the final discussion, I further refine my conceptual model in an attempt to develop a vocabulary to describe the interlocking components of embodied mutual involvement in the interactional accomplishment of “being with.”

ABSTRACT

This qualitative research project applies a case study approach to investigating the nature of experience and interactions of four pre-service teachers who took part in facilitating an activity for a School Maker Faire. Additionally, the research looks for evidence of design thinking as a pedagogical practice, manifested by pre-service teachers in this environment. Data was collected in the form of stimulated recall interviews and semi-structured interviews. Analysis of the data was guided by the following three questions:

• What is the experience of pre-service teachers in a Maker Faire environment?

• How do pre-service teachers interact with children in a Maker Faire?

• How do pre-service teachers display their pedagogical understanding of design thinking, in a Maker Faire environment?

Findings reveal the following four phenomena as being important influences on interaction and experience: pre-Maker Faire preparation, types of questions asked, the role of assessment, and the role of parents.

Additionally, evidence suggests relationships between these influences and a pre-service teacher’s level of adopting design thinking, however further research would be necessary in order to substantiate these findings to a degree of applicability for practitioners. This research study contributes to the growing literature on maker education and design thinking, as it applies to teacher education.