Inquiry is featured prominently in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) as a promising pedagogical approach. Building on current conceptions of inquiry, a mixed-methods research design was used to explore the effects of Project-Based Inquiry (PBI) Global on student science content knowledge, motivation, and perspectives related to inquiry in a cross-school collaboration. The data sources included pre-/post-tests on science content and student motivation (n = 75), transcripts from student focus groups (n = 26), and students’ multimodal learning products (n = 18 teams). The quantitative findings indicated School B students were more motivated by the project than School A students, which mirrored student performance. The student focus group findings generated three themes: constructing empathy, learning for impact, and navigating challenges. The discussion focuses on an integrated view of what students gained and did not gain from the PBI Global experience, including a nuanced explanation of how motivation and content knowledge may be influenced by student experiences and school contextual factors during PBI Global. Implications for instructional practice highlight how relationship building, mutual respect, and consensus making are essential components of constructing cross-school collaborations and the importance of integrating instructional frameworks with teachers and students. Future research will focus on investigating the effects of PBI Global on student learning in cross-school partnerships through experimental-designed studies, and the systemic and structural barriers to scaling cross-school inquiry-based learning.
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This content will become publicly available on March 28, 2025
Assimilationist, reformist, and sociopolitical phases of school belonging research: A critical race and optimal distinctiveness review.
Sense of belonging has long been recognized as a fundamental psychological need and essential component of achievement motivation and socioemotional thriving. However, research on school belonging has only recently begun to examine the barriers to, supports for, and experiences of belonging among racially marginalized students of color within U.S. schools and universities. Further, motivation science has a limited understanding of what belonging means, how it is internalized, and what shapes it for such students of color. In this article, we evaluate the developmental trends in school belonging research conducted with racially marginalized student populations. Through our review, we identify and describe three distinct and consecutive trends of school belonging research: assimilationist, reformist, and sociopolitical, as well as the ideological and methodological characteristics of each trend. Further, we employ critical race and optimal distinctiveness theories as conceptual guides to assess the affordances and limits of each trend and how the literature has evolved across these three trends. Finally, we offer insights for responsibly advancing school belonging research in ways that authentically address the needs of racially marginalized student groups and honor the cultural and contextual nuance of their lived experiences.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2133996
- PAR ID:
- 10519424
- Publisher / Repository:
- Elsevier
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Advances in motivation science
- ISSN:
- 2215-0919
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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