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1. Promoting Uncertainty in Science Classrooms through Cognitively Demanding Tasks

   Vande Zande, D.; Ozlem Akcil-Okan, O.; & Tekkumru-Kisa, M. (January 2021, Annual meeting program American Educational Research Association)

   null (Ed.)

   The reform vision brought forth by the Framework for K-12 Science Education emphasizes the integration of scientific knowledge with scientific practices as students try to figure out a phenomenon. During this process of making sense of phenomenon, students experience moments of uncertainty which is important because scientific activity is driven by this need to manage uncertainty. Using cognitively demanding tasks in science classrooms presents a means to integrate uncertainty into students’ experiences. Our analysis of video records of science lessons during the implementation of chemistry tasks at different cognitive demand levels revealed how types of uncertainty that students experienced differed in these lessons and the ways in which uncertainty was evoked during the implementation of cognitively demanding science tasks. 

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2. Uncertainty and Cognitive Demand on Students’ Thinking in Science Classrooms.

   Vande Zande, D.; Akcil-Okan, O.; & Tekkumru-Kisa, M. (January 2021, 2020 Marvalene Hughes Research in Education Conference)

   null (Ed.)

   The reform vision brought forth by the Framework for K-12 Science Education emphasizes the integration of scientific knowledge with scientific practices as students try to figure out a phenomenon. During this process of making sense of phenomenon, students experience moments of uncertainty which is important because scientific activity is driven by this need to manage uncertainty. Using cognitively demanding tasks in science classrooms presents a means to integrate uncertainty into students’ experiences. Our analysis of video records of science lessons during the implementation of chemistry tasks at different cognitive demand levels revealed how types of uncertainty that students experienced differed in these lessons and the ways in which uncertainty was evoked during the implementation of cognitively demanding science tasks. 

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3. Integrating Technology in the Classroom to Engage Students

   Aji, C. A. (January 2019, 2019 ASEE 126th National Confere)

   null (Ed.)

   This paper will share the design of a learning environment that uses flight simulator-based activities designed to cognitively engage middle school students. The flight simulator provides an exciting, realistic, and engaging learning experience. It allows students to recognize the linkage between the concepts and application in real-world. Lesson plans were developed for several math and physics concepts integrating the flight simulator activities. To ensure buy-in for classroom implementation, the topics of these lessons were identified in consultation with the local middle school STEM teachers. Professional development on using the pedagogical approach was then provided to teachers from the middle schools that serve primarily underrepresented populations. Middle school students experienced the learning environment as part of a summer camp to deeply understand some science and math concepts. A quasi experimental between-subjects research design was used. Pre-post content and attitude instruments were utilized to collect data for determining the effectiveness of the approach. This paper provides an updated analysis (N = 50) combining the previously reported data from the 2017 camp and the implementation results of the summer 2018 camp. Results indicated statistically significant gains in students’ content knowledge and positive changes in attitudes of mainly female students towards science, technology, engineering and math. 

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4. Fostering Students’ Epistemic Agency For Rigorous Science Instruction

   Akcil-Okan, O.; Tekkumru-Kisa, M. (January 2022, Annual meeting program American Educational Research Association)

   Reform-based rigorous instruction which fosters all students’ thinking and sensemaking is possible; however, it is not yet prevalent in science classrooms. This study explored promoting rigorous instruction by enhancing students’ intellectual work through cognitively demanding tasks. We examined instruction during the five lessons in a science classroom. We found variations in students’ intellectual work across the lessons. Our analysis revealed that the instructional practices associated with promoting students’ engagement in rigorous thinking were consequential for promoting students’ epistemic agency. Thus, we argue that maintaining and enhancing demand on students’ intellectual engagement in cognitively demanding tasks requires the work of providing opportunities for students to learn science-as-practice by acting as epistemic agents. These findings can inform professional efforts regarding rigorous instruction. 

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5. Enacting rigorous lessons: Leveraging students’ ideas for enhancing demand on student thinking

   Akcil-Okan, O. & (January 2021, National Association for Research in Science Teaching Annual Meeting 2021)

   null (Ed.)

   Recent instructional reforms in science education emphasize rigorous instruction where students’ engage in high-level thinking and sensemaking as they try to explain phenomena or solve problems. This study aims to investigate how students’ intellectual engagement can be promoted through design and implementation of cognitively demanding science tasks. Specifically, we aim to unpack instructional practices that can help to enhance students’ engagement in high-level thinking and sensemaking as they work in science classrooms. In our analysis, we focused on the implementation of five lessons across three different science classrooms that two middle school science teachers collaboratively designed as a part of a professional development about promoting productive student talk in science classrooms. Our analysis revealed the changes in students’ intellectual engagement across the trajectory of these lessons and three instructional practices associated with enhancing opportunities for students’ thinking: (a) Holding students intellectually accountable to develop explanations of how and why a phenomenon occurs through collaborative work, (b) Leveraging students’ ideas to advance their thinking, (c) Initiating just-in-time resources and questions to problematize students’ intellectual engagement. The study findings provide implications for how to generate opportunities to enhance students’ thinking in the service of sensemaking. 

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