skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


Title: Scoping deliberations: scaffolding engagement in planning collective action
Most social challenges fall outside of the authority of any single individual and therefore require collective action—coordinated efforts by many stakeholders to implement solutions. Despite growing interest in teaching students to lead collective action, we lack models for how to teach these skills. Collective action ostensibly involves design: the act of planning to change existing situations into preferred ones. In other domains, instructors commonly scaffold design using an instructional model known as studio critique in which students strengthen their plans by exchanging arguments with peers and instructors. This study explores whether studio critique can serve as the basis for an effective instructional model in collective action. Using design-based research methods, we designed and implemented scoping deliberations, a new instructional model that augments studio critique with domain-specific templates for planning collective action and repeats weekly to enable iterations. We used process tracing to analyze data from field notes, video, and artifacts to evaluate causal explanations for events observed in this case study. By implementing scoping deliberations in a 10-week undergraduate course, we found that this model appeared effective at scaffolding engagement in planning collective action: students articulated and refined their plans by engaging in argumentation and iteration, as expected. However, students struggled to contact the community stakeholders with whom they planned to work. As a result, their plans rested on implausible, untested assertions. These findings advance instructional science by showing that collective action may require new instructional models that help students to test their assertions against feedback from community stakeholders. Practically, scoping deliberations appear most useful for scaffolding thoughtful planning in conditions when students are already collaborating with stakeholders.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2008450
PAR ID:
10461935
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Instructional Science
ISSN:
0020-4277
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; ; (, Online Learning)
    With the rapid growth of online learning at community colleges and the low course completion and performance associated with it, there has been increasing need to identify effective ways to address the challenges in online teaching and learning at this setting. Based on open-ended survey responses from 105 instructors and 365 students from multiple community colleges in a state, this study examined instructors’ and students’ perceptions of effective and ineffective instructional practices and changes needed in online coursework. By combining structural topic modelling techniques with human coding, we identified instructional practices that were perceived by both instructors and students as effective in supporting online learning as well as ineffective and needing improvement. Moreover, we identified a handful of misalignments between instructors and students in their perceptions of online teaching, including course workload and effective ways to communicate. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; (, The International Network for the Science of Team Science (INSciTS))
    Broadband infrastructure in urban parks may serve crucial functions including an amenity to boost overall park use and a bridge to propagate WiFi access into contiguous neighborhoods. This project: SCC:PG Park WiFi as a BRIDGE to Community Resilience has developed a new model —Build Resilience through the Internet and Digital Greenspace Exposure, leveraging off-the-shelf WiFi technology, novel algorithms, community assets, and local partnerships to lower greenspace WiFi costs. This interdisciplinary work leverages: computer science, information studies, landscape architecture, and public health. Collaboration methodologies and relational definitions across disciplines are still nascent —especially when paired with civic-engaged, applied research. Student researchers (UG/Grad) are excellent partners in bridging disciplinary barriers and constraints. Their capacity to assimilate multiple frameworks has produced refinements to the project’s theoretical lenses and suggested novel socio-technical methodology improvements. Further, they are excellent ambassadors to community partners and stakeholders. In BRIDGE, we tested two mechanisms to augment student research participation. In both, we leveraged a classic, curriculum-based model named the Partnership for Action Learning in Sustainability program (PALS). This campus-wide, community-engaged initiative pairs faculty and students with community partners. PALS curates economic, environmental, and social sustainability challenges and scopes projects to customize appropriate coursework that addresses identified challenges. Outcomes include: literature searches, wireframes, and design plans that target solutions to civic problems. Constraints include the short semester timeframe and curriculum-learning-outcome constraints. (1) On BRIDGE, Dr. Kweon executed a semester-based Landscape Architecture PALS 400-level-studio. 18 undergraduates conducted in-class and in-field work to assess community needs and proposed design solutions for future park-wide WiFi. Research topics included: community-park history, neighborhood demographics, case-study analysis, and land-cover characteristics. The students conducted an in-Park, community engagement session —via interactive posterboard surveys, to gain input on what park amenities might be redesigned or added to promote WiFi use. The students then produced seven re-design plans; one included a café/garden, with an eco-corridor that integrated technology with nature. (2) From the classic, curriculum-based PALS model we created a summer-intensive for our five research assistants, to stimulate interdisciplinary collaboration in their research tasks and co-analysis of project data products: experimental technical WiFi-setup, community survey results, and stakeholder needs-assessments. Students met weekly with each other and team leadership, exchanged journal articles, and attended joint research events. This model shows promise for integrating students more formally into an interdisciplinary research project. An end-of-intensive focus group highlighted, from the students’ perspective, the pro/cons of this model. Results: In contrasting the two mechanisms, our results include: Model 1 is tried-and-trued and produces standardized, reliable products. However, as work is group based, student independence is limited —to explore topics/themes of interest. Civic groups are typically thrilled with the diversity of action plans produced. Model 2 provides greater independence in student-learning outcomes, fosters interdisciplinary, “dictionary-building” that can be used by the full team, deepens methodological approaches, and allows for student stipend payments. Lessons learned: intensive time frame needed more research team support and ideally should be extended, when possible, over the full project-span. UMD-IRB#1785365-4; NSF-award: 2125526. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; ; (, Relating Systems Thinking and Design Symposium proceedings)
    We describe a framework for deploying agent-based models as a tool for decision-making during resilience planning, with an emphasis on flood mitigation. Prior work has demonstrated that agent-based models can be effective tools for modelling evolving community flood resilience and risk perception when they incorporate elements of individual decision-making. We argue for extending this methodology and incorporating it into regional infrastructure and resilience planning in order to 1) create more distributed and robust green infrastructure implementations and performance management systems; 2) provide a critique and alternatives to existing planning and delivery processes based on public sector jurisdictional boundaries; and, 3) validate and improve the modelling process by connecting it directly to stakeholder decision-making processes. This final point will effectively merge these systems-centric modelling approaches with human-centred community organising that employs various co-design methods. In regard to the ABMs, co-design methods can be a useful source of real-world data about individual decision-making that can inform and validate iterations of the models. For stakeholders, they can be a valuable source of information and education about flood risk and climate-related impacts that might not be available through other channels. And finally, hands-on workshops coupled with potential small implementation grants can be effective ways of providing skills and incentives to stakeholders who may wish to undertake projects on their own property, reshaping the way green infrastructure planning and implementation can be accomplished. 
    more » « less
  4. (, University of Nebraska Digital Commons)
    Quantitative reasoning (QR) is the ability to apply mathematics and statistics in the context of real-life situations and scientific problems. It is an important skill that students require to make sense of complex biological phenomena and handle large datasets in biology courses and research as well as in professional contexts. Biology educators and researchers are responding to the increasing need for QR through curricular reforms and research into biology education. This qualitative study investigates how undergraduate biology instructors implement QR into their teaching. The study used pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and a QR framework to explore instructors’ instructional goals, strategies, and perceived challenges and affordances in undergraduate biology instruction. The participants included 21 biology faculty across various institutions in the United States, who intentionally integrated QR in their instruction. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data focusing on participants’ beliefs, experiences, and classroom practices. Findings indicated that instructors adapt their QR instruction based on course level and student preparedness. In lower-division courses, strategies emphasized building foundational skills, reducing math anxiety, and using scaffolded instruction to promote confidence. In upper-division courses, instructors expected greater math fluency but still encountered a wide range of student abilities, prompting a focus on correcting misconceptions in integrating math knowledge and fostering deeper conceptual understanding in biology. Many instructors reported that their personal and educational experiences, especially struggles with math, often shaped their inclusive and empathetic teaching practices. Additionally, instructors’ research backgrounds influenced instructional design, particularly in the use of authentic data, statistical tools, and real-world applications. Instructors’ teaching experiences led to refinement in lesson planning, pacing, and active learning strategies. Despite their efforts, instructors faced both internal and external challenges in implementing QR, including discomfort with teaching math, time limitations, student resistance, and institutional barriers. However, affordances such as departmental support, interdisciplinary collaboration, and curricular flexibility helped to overcome some of these challenges. This study highlights the complex relationships between instructors’ experiences, beliefs, and contextual factors in shaping QR instruction. This calls for professional development that supports reflective practice, builds interdisciplinary competence, and promotes instructional strategies that bridge biology and mathematics and will help instructors design a learning environment that better support students’ development of QR skills. These findings offer valuable guidance for professional development aimed at helping biology instructors incorporate quantitative reasoning into their teaching. Such efforts can better equip students to meet the quantitative demands of modern biology and promote their continued engagement in STEM fields through more inclusive and integrated instructional approaches. 
    more » « less
  5. ; ; ; ; (, Online Learning Research Center)
    null (Ed.)
    Little is known regarding the use of, and factors related with, interaction-oriented practices. In this study we investigate instructors’ use of interaction-oriented practices in online college courses. We begin by drawing on several strands of literature to offer a person-purpose interaction framework for categorizing interaction-oriented practices. The framework’s six sub-domains integrate for whom students are interacting (instructor, student, content) with the interaction’s pedagogical purpose (academic, social, managerial). Subsequently, we examine factors that predict instructors’ use of these six domains of practices, including instructors’ characteristics and their perceptions of online learning, using a sample of (n = 126) community college instructors teaching online courses. The results show that instructors using more interaction-oriented practices consistently have greater employment status and teaching load, greater self-efficacy for using learning management systems, and greater perceived benefits of online learning for students, with subtle distinctions found across sub-domains. The findings have several implications for future research examining pedagogical behavior, as well as the design of professional development activities aimed at enhancing the use of effective online instructional practices among college instructors. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email