Guiding teachers to customize curriculum has shown to improve science instruction when guided effectively. We explore how teachers use student data to customize a web-based science unit on plate tectonics. We study the implications for teacher learning along with the impact on student self-directed learning. During a professional development workshop, four 7th grade teachers reviewed logs of their students’ explanations and revisions. They used a curriculum visualization tool that revealed the pedagogy behind the unit to plan their customizations. To promote self-directed learning, the teachers decided to customize the guidance for explanation revision by giving students a choice among guidance options. They took advantage of the web-based unit to randomly assign students (
Enhancing student explanations of evolution: Comparing elaborating and competing theory prompts
In this study, we explore how two different prompt types within an online computer‐based inquiry learning environment enhance 392 7th grade students’ explanations of evolution with three teachers. In the
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10239466
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Research in Science Teaching
- Volume:
- 53
- Issue:
- 9
- ISSN:
- 0022-4308
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 1341-1363
- Size(s):
- p. 1341-1363
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract N = 479) to either a guidance Choice or a no-choice condition. We analyzed logged student explanation revisions on embedded and pre-test/post-test assessments and teacher and student written reflections and interviews. Students in the guidance Choice condition reported that the guidance was more useful than those in the no-choice condition and made more progress on their revisions. Teachers valued the opportunity to review student work, use the visualization tool to align their customization with the knowledge integration pedagogy, and investigate the choice option empirically. These findings suggest that the teachers’ decision to offer choice among guidance options promoted aspects of self-directed learning. -
Sharing ideas can strengthen students’ science explanations. Yet, how to guide uses of peers’ ideas, and what the impacts of those ideas are on students’ learning, are open questions. We implemented a web-based cell biology unit with 116 grade 7 students, and explored how peers’ ideas are used during explanation building, and how prompts to draw on peers to either diversify or reinforce existing ideas impacted the quality of students’ written explanations. Among other findings, exchanging ideas with peers led to all students improving their explanation quality upon revision; and students prompted to diversify their ideas showed greater learning gains by the end of the unit, while students prompted to reinforce ideas, who used more peer-generated ideas in preparation to write their explanations, produced higher quality explanations. This study builds our understanding of the influence of peer ideas on learning, and offers insight into supporting students in engaging effectively with peers’ ideas.more » « less
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When integrated into online curriculum modules for students, educative curriculum materials (ECMs) can enhance teachers’ enactment of these modules. This study investigated (1) the use of digitally enhanced ECMs built into an online plate tectonics curriculum module by teachers with different backgrounds and teaching experience, (2) the relationship between teachers’ use of ECMs and student learning gains, and (3) teacher reflections on the value of the ECMs they used. We studied 26 teachers who taught middle and high school students (n = 1,098) by analyzing teacher log files automatically generated by the ECMs, teacher reflections collected with post-implementation surveys and interviews, student log files, and student learning gains from pretest to posttest. Results indicate that (1) there were large variations in the amounts and types of ECM features teachers accessed, (2) middle school teachers accessed significantly more ECM features than high school teachers p < .01, (3) students of teachers who used ECMs during class time made significantly higher learning gains than students of teachers who used them only before and/or between class time, p < .05, and (4) teachers most valued ECM features on student assessment. An overall non-significant, but positive, correlation between the total teacher interactions with ECMs and student learning gains was observed, r = 0.20, p = .32.more » « less
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Prompted self-explanation, in which learners are induced to explain how they have solved problems, is a powerful instructional technique. Self-explanation can be prompted within learning technology by asking learners to construct their own self-explanations or select explanations from a menu. The menu-based approach has led to the best learning outcomes in the relatively few cases it has been studied in the context of digital learning games, contrary to some self-explanation theory. In a classroom study of 214 5th and 6th graders, in which the students played a digital learning game, we compared three forms of prompted self-explanation: menu-based, scaffolded, and focused (i.e., open-ended text entry, but with a focused prompt). Students in the focused condition learned more than students in the menu-based condition at delayed posttest, with no other learning differences between the conditions. This suggests that focused self-explanations may be especially beneficial for retention and deeper knowledge.more » « less
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