Background
Given the growing interest in, and relevance of, integrated approaches to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education, there is an urgent desire to understand the ...challenges and obstacles to developing and implementing integrated STEM curricula and instruction. In this article, we present phase 1 of a two-phase needs assessment study to identify challenges and needs of promoting integrated approaches in STEM education. Utilizing a key informant approach, 22 K-12 teachers and four administrators selected as potential leaders in STEM education in an unidentified state on the East Coast of the USA were interviewed. Participants were asked to identify challenges and perceived supports to conduct integrated STEM education. Questions were open-ended in order to inform a larger, state-wide questionnaire study in phase 2 to be reported subsequently and were qualitatively coded.
Results
Several distinctive themes were identified as described by teacher participants when discussing challenges and obstacles of implementing integrated STEM education, as well as supports that would be most helpful in overcoming them. Participants also provided specific suggestions for teacher education needed to support integrated STEM education.
Conclusions
Preliminary findings suggest that many teachers are interested in integrated approaches to STEM, but do not believe they are well prepared to implement them. Teachers and administrators also suggest that adequate preparation in integrated STEM would entail a considerable rethinking and redesigning of pre-service courses and in-service workshops. Findings provide a starting point for better understanding teacher needs in integrated STEM and a springboard for further study.
Previous research using collaborative mobile augmented reality games in science education revealed that such games can be used to promote learner engagement and have found that engagement in such ...mobile games is related to flow. This study investigated whether player's flow experience differed by achievement track, gender, or gender composition of working groups. In an urban school district, 202 students from two eighth‐grade science classes participated in a collaborative mobile science game. Data included a self‐report survey collected after the game that measured player's flow experience. Using a regression model, the relationship of flow experience with achievement track and gender was explored while controlling for group composition and teacher effects. The study found that gender was related to flow experience; specifically, girls reported higher flow experience scores (d = 0.30). Flow experience did not have a statistically significant relationship with achievement track showing that the activity engaged all observed students similarly.
Lay Description
What is already known about this topic:
Achievement level tracking is a known problem for discouraging student success.
Girls lack interest in science; they are more anxious and enjoy it less than boys.
Girls and low achievers are more engaged if science is taught in a meaningful way.
Game‐based learning can be engaging and facilitates social construction of knowledge.
What this paper adds:
The collaborative mobile game model engages low‐achievement students in a similar fashion to other students.
The collaborative mobile game model engages girls more than boys.
Implications for practice and/or policy:
Playing collaborative mobile games may help low‐achieving students achieve more success in science.
Playing collaborative mobile games may help girls become more interested in science.
Overall, this study demonstrates a way to engage under‐represented populations with science.
This exploratory study uses epistemic network analysis (ENA) to examine the use of extended reality (XR) technologies embedded in post-secondary classes, one in a traditional setting and the other a ...place-based setting, to examine climate change while utilizing a socioscientific issues (SSI) approach. One group used a virtual reality (VR) application on their smartphones in a traditional class setting to explore four different locations on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, USA (OBX). A second group used an augmented reality (AR) application on their smartphones while visiting the same four locations. Qualitative data was collected after each experience. Analysis of each group’s networks indicated that both forms of technology engaged students in the SSI and were beneficial to their learning. However, differences in the networks revealed that virtual reality students made stronger connections between the technology, the physical impacts of climate change, and the political/socioeconomic aspects of climate change. In contrast, the augmented reality students made stronger connections between the technology and learning in general. Implications for practice and future research will be discussed.
According to the National Research Council, the ability to collaboratively solve problems is of the utmost importance in scientific careers, yet students are not exposed to learning experiences that ...promote such expertise. Recent studies have found that interdependent roles used within collaborative mobile games are an effective way to scaffold collaborative problem solving. School Scene Investigators: The Case of the Mystery Powder, a collaborative mobile game, incorporated interdependent roles in order to foster collaborative problem solving and promote scientific practice. Using epistemic network analysis (ENA), this study examined the conversational discourse of game teams to determine what connections exist between communication responses, language style, and scientific practice. Data included audio transcripts of three teams that played through the game. Transcripts were qualitatively coded for five types of scientific practice aligned to the National Research Council framework for K-12 science education, three types of communication responses (accept/discuss/reject), and an emergent language style (communal). ENA revealed that students developed scientific practices during gameplay. ENA also identified engaged communication responses and communal language style as two types of collaborative discourse used within School Scene Investigators: The Case of the Mystery Powder that fostered key linkages to effective data analysis and interpretation.
Society needs creative problem solvers to work towards solutions of complex global issues such as climate change. Design thinking is a way to solve problems creatively. Unfortunately, in-service ...teachers are largely unfamiliar with design thinking and their students rarely engage in design thinking during class. To familiarize teachers with design thinking, this study provided three teacher cohorts with a game design experience. Utilizing a predefined game design document, participants designed an educational game. To experience a thorough design cycle, teachers worked through two iterations of their design. Using a pre- and post-survey, this exploratory study empirically examined whether teachers gained an understanding of design thinking. Results indicated that the game design experience worked well to improve overall design perceptions; the results showed a consistent, positive trend. Specifically, two of the three cohorts had statistically significant differences (
p
< .05) while the third cohort had a marginally significant difference (
p
< .10) from pre- to post-survey. More importantly, after the intervention, teachers from all three cohorts reported an increase in their familiarity with design thinking. Implications for the findings are discussed.
We report on a design-based research study that was conducted over three iterations. It chronicles the design, development, and implementation of School Scene Investigators, a forensic science game ...series for middle school students that utilizes mobile augmented reality. Played on mobile devices while exploring the school environment, School Scene Investigators embeds scientific practices in a real-world context. Students work collaboratively playing unique, interdependent roles as they collect and analyze scientific data in order to solve a mystery. School Scene Investigators aims to (1) engage students through the experience of flow, a positive psychological state often experienced during well-designed games and (2) trigger science interest. In order to better understand how to design mobile game environments that engage students in flow and trigger their interest in science, we analyzed students’ self-reports of flow and interest after playing the game. Previous research demonstrated that each iteration of School Scene Investigators engaged students in a substantive flow-like experience. In this study, since engagement does not guarantee interest, we tested whether such engagement, measured as flow, was predictably related to triggered science interest. Data were pooled from all three iterations into a Bayesian multilevel model. Findings demonstrated that students with higher flow had a higher probability of triggered interest. Implications for the findings are discussed.
In this study, we conducted a model of teacher professional development (PD) on the alignment of middle and high school curricula and instruction to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSSs), and ...evaluated the impact of the PD on teacher participants' development. The PD model included a 4-day summer academy emphasizing project-based learning (PBL) in the designing of NGSS-aligned curricula and instruction, as well as monthly follow-up Professional Learning Community meetings throughout the year providing numerous opportunities for teachers to develop and implement lesson plans, share results of lesson writing and implementation (successes and challenges), provide mutual feedback, and refine curricula and assessments. Following the summer academy, six female teachers were interviewed about their current conceptualizations of NGSS, the extent of curricular shifts made that are required by NGSS, their self-perceptions regarding their level of accomplishment in curriculum writing, and the benefits of the PD in reaching their goals related to NGSS. Interviews were supplemented with an analysis of lesson plans written while participating in the PD program. The interviewed teachers suggested that they had made important conceptual and pedagogical shifts required by NGSS as they participated in the PD, and also noted a variety of challenges as they made this shift. While all teachers were relative novices at NGSS curriculum writing before the PD, most of the teachers interviewed felt that they had achieved the status of an "accomplished novice" following the summer academy. An analysis of their written lessons suggested a great range in the extent to which teachers effectively applied their understanding of NGSS to write lessons aligned to NGSS. Interviewed teachers believed that the PD model was helpful to their development as science teachers, and all reported that there were no aspects of the PD that were not helpful. Even though most teachers obtained a basic understanding and conceptualization of NGSS and PBL, their application of this understanding in their curriculum writing varied. The present study may help to inform future efforts to support teachers to align curricula and instruction to NGSS through teacher PD.
Mobile serious educational games (SEGs) show promise for promoting scientific practices and high engagement. Researchers have quantified this engagement according to flow theory. This study ...investigated whether a mobile SEG promotes flow experience and scientific practices with eighth-grade urban students. Students playing the game (n = 59) were compared with students in a business-as-usual control activity (n = 120). In both scenarios, students worked in small teams. Data measures included an open-ended instrument designed to measure scientific practices, a self-report flow survey, and classroom observations. The game players had significantly higher levels of flow and scientific practices compared to the control group. Observations revealed that game teams received less whole-class instruction and review compared to the control teams. Game teachers had primarily a guideon-the-side role when facilitating the game, while control teachers predominantly used didactic instruction when facilitating the control activity. Implications for these findings are discussed.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate a model for considering general and specific elements of student experience in a gateway course in undergraduate Financial Accounting in a large university ...on the East Coast, USA. Specifically, the study evaluated a bifactor analytic strategy including a general factor of student classroom experience, conceptualized as student engagement as rooted in flow theory, as well as factors representing specific dimensions of experience. The study further evaluated the association between these general and specific factors and both student classroom practices and educational outcomes. The sample of students (
= 407) in two cohorts of the undergraduate financial accounting course participated in the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) measuring students' classroom practices, perceptions, engagement, and perceived learning throughout the one-semester course. Course grade information was also collected. Results showed that a two-level bifactor model fit the data better than two traditional (i.e., non-bifactor) models and also avoided significant multicollinearity of the traditional models. In addition to student engagement (general factor), specific dimensions of classroom experience in the bifactor model at the within-student level included intrinsic motivation, academic intensity, salience, and classroom self-esteem. At the between-student level, specific aspects included work orientation, learning orientation, classroom self-esteem, and disengagement. Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling (MSEM) demonstrated that sitting in the front of the classroom (compared to the sitting in the back), taking notes, active listening, and working on problems during class had a positive effect on within-student variation in student engagement and attention. Engagement, in turn, predicted perceived learning. With respect to between-student effects, the tendency to sit in front seats had a significant effect on student engagement, which in turn had a significant effect on perceived learning and course grades. A significant indirect relationship of seating and active learning strategies on learning and course grade as mediated by student engagement was found. Support for the general aspect of student classroom experience was interpreted with flow theory and suggested the need for additional research. Findings also suggested that active learning strategies are associated with positive learning outcomes even in educational environments where possibilities for action are relatively constrained.
Background
According to the Committee on STEM Education, K-12 science students need access to learning experiences that promote collaboration and engagement. To fill that void, we need to develop ...activities that stimulate engaged learning and scaffold effective collaboration. K-12 teacher candidates see value in utilizing games for this purpose. Specifically, tabletop science games can help teachers engage students in science learning and scaffold collaboration.
Aim
For this study, we designed a collaborative, STEM-themed card game called MOUNTAIN RESCUE and explored its capacity to promote engaged learning and collaboration.
Method
Four groups of STEM campers (n = 14) in a suburban Mid-Atlantic region played MOUNTAIN RESCUE. All groups had a mix of boys and girls. Play-testers ranged from 10–13 years old. The tabletop game took approximately 30-minutes. During gameplay, players embodied unique STEM roles: physicist, chemist, structural engineer, and electrical engineer. They collaborated to solve challenges related to electricity, physics, chemistry, and engineering design. Discourse was audio-recorded throughout gameplay. Immediately after gameplay, self-report survey data were collected to assess flow and perceptions of collaborative learning.
Results
Findings demonstrated that the game promoted engagement and collaboration. Specifically, students had a flow-like experience and felt positively about the game's value for collaborative learning. Utterances demonstrating active engagement and constructive thinking became more group-focused over time.
Conclusion
This study contributes to science education by demonstrating potential benefits of a well-designed, low-tech, science learning environment or—in other words—a tabletop game.
PDF
