Session Information
10 ONLINE 46 A, Research on Professional Knowledge & Identity in Teacher Education
Paper Session
MeetingID: 941 7680 8389 Code: 91HAZN
Contribution
STEM education commonly refers to the integration of two or more of the four STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) contextualized within a real-world problem (i.e., integrated STEM) (Moore et al., 2020). Despite its benefits such as developing effective problem-solving skills, and increased learning and interest in STEM related careers (Guzey et al., 2016), STEM education has been criticized for being a deficit framework for the 21st century.
One of the major criticisms is the STEM-centric view of the current policy documents which lacks a framework that considers students’ epistemological and psychological growth, and character development (Zeidler, 2016). Zeidler (2016) argued that STEM education needs to be framed within sociocultural contexts with the aim to promote students’ decision-making skills and moral development. Supporting Zeidler’s argument, according to Owens and Sadler (2020), the way STEM education has been conveyed in today’s classrooms does not necessarily situate it within a relevant context. Therefore, it has been suggested that designing integrated STEM instruction within the context of socioscientific issues (SSI) could help to raise future generations as knowledgeable on each of the STEM disciplines and at the same time informed decision makers who can negotiate and find solutions for today’s complex SSI (Owens & Sadler, 2020). SSI are “controversial social issues with conceptual, procedural, or technological ties to science” (Sadler & Donnelly, 2006, p. 1493). Gene cloning, vaccination, climate change, and genetically modified foods are some examples of SSI.
The main motivation for the present study is to design and develop an integrated STEM curriculum unit with teachers within the context of a local SSI so that students are supported not only for developing disciplinary knowledge and practice but also for skills and practices such as perspective taking, recognizing the complexity of the issues, being skeptical for biased information (i.e., socioscientific reasoning). The theoretical frameworks that were used for the design and development of the curriculum unit are integrated STEM education frameworks (e.g., Bybee, 2013; Moore et al., 2014; NRC, 2014) and SSI teaching and learning framework (Hancock et al., 2019). Common aspects in different conceptualizations of integrated STEM education guided the unit design process. The common aspects are 1- STEM problems and lessons should be based on the real world, 2- STEM disciplines are connected by ideas and skills, 3- Student centered pedagogies, and 4- An emphasis on teamwork and communication (Moore et al., 2020). Moreover, SSI teaching and learning framework informed to design lesson plans in the three phases of 1- encountering focal issue, 2- develop (i.e., science ideas, science practices, and socioscientific reasoning), and 3- synthesize (ideas, practices, and reasoning) (Hancock et al., 2019). Specifically, the present study aims to investigate the research question: What are the main characteristics of an integrated STEM curriculum unit designed and developed in the context of a controversial SSI?
Method
Methods This study is a single case study (Yin, 2014) which aims to examine contextualizing integrated STEM education in controversial SSI. Study group is a team of four middle school teachers from a Midwest city in the US. Teachers are from different discipline areas (i.e., science, mathematics, social studies, engineering) and are given a semester-long professional development (PD) program (15 weeks long) in which they learn about the characteristics of integrated STEM education, SSI-based education, and experience collaboratively designing and developing a curricular unit, and implementing it in real classroom settings. The case is the developed integrated STEM curriculum unit in the context of SSI by the four middle school teachers. The developed unit is expected to be used for middle grade students and throughout the unit, teachers will be teaching a common theme (the SSI chosen). Video recordings of PD sessions and classroom implementation of the curricular unit, and the developed curriculum unit plan itself will be the primary data sources. The curriculum unit is expected to include at least eight single lesson plans. Teachers have been designing the unit collaboratively but will be teaching both individually and as a team in different times of the unit.
Expected Outcomes
Expected findings In this study, the developed curriculum unit is expected to involve both of the characteristics of integrated STEM education and SSI-based teaching and learning. We already know about the phases of SSI-based science instruction; however, the findings of the present study will shed light on how teachers from different disciplines co-design a curriculum unit and teach different subject areas in the context of SSI. It is reasonable to expect that what teachers do to enact teaching individually in accordance with the three phases of SSI teaching and learning framework would be enhanced when it comes to curriculum designing and teaching as a team. For instance, our findings will inform what type of teaching practices teachers will use to develop students’ socioscientific reasoning competencies (which has been commonly used in science classrooms) in mathematics, social studies, and engineering. Another expected finding could be how teachers from different disciplines connect the disciplinary ideas to the SSI context in the curriculum unit.
References
References Bybee, R. W. (2013). The case for STEM education: Challenges and opportunities. NSTA Press. Guzey, S. S., Moore, T. J., Harwell, M., & Moreno, M. (2016). STEM integration in middle school life science: Student learning and attitudes. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 25(4), 550–560. Hancock, T. S., Friedrichsen, P. J., Kinslow, A. T., & Sadler, T. D. (2019). Selecting socio-scientific issues for teaching: A grounded theory study of how science teachers collaboratively design SSI-based curricula. Science & Education, 28(6), 639–667. Moore, T. J., Johnston, A. C., & Glancy, A. W. (2020). STEM integration: A synthesis of conceptual frameworks and definitions. In C. C. Johnson, M. J. Mohr-Schroeder, T. J. Moore, & L. D. English (Eds.), Handbook of research on STEM education (pp. 3–16). Routledge. Moore, T. J., Stohlmann, M. S., Wang, H. H., Tank, K. M., Glancy, A. W., & Roehrig, G. H. (2014). Implementation and integration of engineering in K-12 STEM education. In S. Purzer, J. Strobel, & M. Cardella (Eds.), Engineering in precollege settings: Research into practice (pp. 35–60). Purdue Press National Research Council (NRC). (2014). STEM integration in K-12 education: Status, prospects, and an agenda for research. National Academies Press. Owens, D. C., & Sadler, T. D. (2020). Socio-Scientific Issues as Contexts for the Development of STEM Literacy. In C. C. Johnson, M. J. Mohr-Schroeder, T. J. Moore, & L. D. English (Eds.), Handbook of research on STEM education (pp. 210–222). Routledge. Sadler, T. D., & Donnelly, L. A. (2006). Socioscientific argumentation: The effects of content knowledge and morality. International journal of science education, 28(12), 1463-1488. Yin, R. K. (2014). Case study research: Design and Methods (5th Ed.). Sage Publishing. Zeidler, D. L. (2016). STEM education: A deficit framework for the twenty first century? A sociocultural socioscientific response. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 11(1), 11–26.
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