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1. Sensemaking for entangled urban social, ecological, and technological systems in the Anthropocene

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-023-00120-1  

   Chester, Mikhail V.; Miller, Thaddeus R.; Muñoz-Erickson, Tischa A.; Helmrich, Alysha M.; Iwaniec, David M.; McPhearson, Timon; Cook, Elizabeth M.; Grimm, Nancy B.; Markolf, Samuel A. (June 2023, npj Urban Sustainability)

   Abstract Our urban systems and their underlying sub-systems are designed to deliver only a narrow set of human-centered services, with little or no accounting or understanding of how actions undercut the resilience of social-ecological-technological systems (SETS). Embracing a SETS resilience perspective creates opportunities for novel approaches to adaptation and transformation in complex environments. We: i) frame urban systems through a perspective shift from control to entanglement, ii) position SETS thinking as novel sensemaking to create repertoires of responses commensurate with environmental complexity (i.e., requisite complexity), and iii) describe modes of SETS sensemaking for urban system structures and functions as basic tenets to build requisite complexity. SETS sensemaking is an undertaking to reflexively bring sustained adaptation, anticipatory futures, loose-fit design, and co-governance into organizational decision-making and to help reimagine institutional structures and processes as entangled SETS. 

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2. The effects of multiple linguistic variables on picture naming in American Sign Language

   https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-021-01751-x  

   Sehyr, Zed Sevcikova; Emmorey, Karen (December 2021, Behavior Research Methods)

   Picture-naming tasks provide critical data for theories of lexical representation and retrieval and have been performed successfully in sign languages. However, the specific influences of lexical or phonological factors and stimulus properties on sign retrieval are poorly understood. To examine lexical retrieval in American Sign Language (ASL), we conducted a timed picture-naming study using 524 pictures (272 objects and 251 actions). We also compared ASL naming with previous data for spoken English for a subset of 425 pictures. Deaf ASL signers named object pictures faster and more consistently than action pictures, as previously reported for English speakers. Lexical frequency, iconicity, better name agreement, and lower phonological complexity each facilitated naming reaction times (RT)s. RTs were also faster for pictures named with shorter signs (measured by average response duration). Target name agreement was higher for pictures with more iconic and shorter ASL names. The visual complexity of pictures slowed RTs and decreased target name agreement. RTs and target name agreement were correlated for ASL and English, but agreement was lower for ASL, possibly due to the English bias of the pictures. RTs were faster for ASL, which we attributed to a smaller lexicon. Overall, the results suggest that models of lexical retrieval developed for spoken languages can be adopted for signed languages, with the exception that iconicity should be included as a factor. The open-source picture-naming data set for ASL serves as an important, first-of-its-kind resource for researchers, educators, or clinicians for a variety of research, instructional, or assessment purposes. 

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3. When a monolingual science teacher and multilingual girls engage in science sensemaking through translanguaging: A pedagogical practice, disciplinary tool, and dignity‐affirming stance

   https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.22009  

   Kayumova, Shakhnoza; Harper, Akira; Stronach, Rachel_L (December 2024, Journal of Research in Science Teaching)

   Abstract Multilingual youth, from nondominant communities, are often denied critical opportunities for engagement in robust sensemaking due to deficit‐based perspectives and linguistic hierarchies. To advance equity, it is important to recognizeallyouth as epistemic agents and facilitate opportunities to take on intellectual positions. Drawing on translanguaging theory and critical sociocultural learning perspectives, we examine how a monolingual science teacher employed translanguaging as a dignity‐affirming stance, pedagogical practice, and disciplinary tool, providing multilingual girls with intellectual positions to engage in robust sensemaking. Using video‐interactional analysis, we explore a case of sophisticated sensemaking orchestrated by the teacher's discursive and embodied moves, following the girls' translanguaging practices and disciplinary ideas. Our findings demonstrate how a teacher's translanguaging stance, enacted as a pedagogical practice and disciplinary tool, supported him in developing interpretive power, revealing the multilingual girls' social, cognitive, and communicative brilliances. 

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4. Making Sense to Make Change: How Community College Faculty Perceptions of Math Contextualization Shape Instructional Change

   https://doi.org/10.1177/00915521211047671  

   Wickersham, Kelly; Wang, Xueli (October 2021, Community College Review)

   Objective: In numerous calls for reform to community college math instruction, contextualization has been identified as an effective approach to teaching and learning. Yet, little is known about how faculty contend with math contextualization and how they make decisions about its adoption. This study explored how community college faculty teaching math make sense of contextualization as a result of related professional development, and how faculty make decisions about whether to apply contextualization to teaching math as they make sense of contextualization and other individual or organizational factors. Method: This study adopted a case study approach, drawing upon interviews, observations, and professional development materials from two large, comprehensive 2-year colleges in a Midwestern state. Results: Findings revealed five themes under two main umbrellas: making sense and making change. Three interconnected themes comprised making sense: orientation to contextualization, prior teaching and field experiences, and dual identities as teacher and learner. Two themes characterized making change: external and structural constraints of implementing contextualization and comfort level in operationalizing contextualization. Contributions: This study illuminated the complex process of faculty sensemaking of math contextualization, and how this sensemaking, in light of individual and organizational factors, shapes their decisions around math instructional change. 

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5. Citizen Science in the Elementary Classroom: Going beyond data collection

   https://doi.org/10.1080/00368148.2025.2504125  

   McGowan, Jill K; Sachs, Lindsey; Bruce, Anna; Scharen, Danielle R; Hayes, Meredith; Smith, P Sean (July 2025, Science and Children)

   This article portrays how citizen science (CS) projects can be integrated into elementary classrooms to enhance students’ sensemaking skills and connect to real-world science problems. For the last several years, we have been involved in a study, Teacher Learning for Effective School-Based Citizen Science (TL4CS), that developed materials for elementary school teachers to engage their students in data collection, analysis, and interpretation for two existing CS projects: Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS) and the Lost Ladybug Project (LLP). After piloting the TL4CS materials for two years, two teachers, Penny and Amy, share the ways they used the materials to create rich sensemaking experiences for their students. Penny used our TL4CS CoCoRaHS materials to make connections between their daily precipitation data and local weather phenomena, patterns in ecosystems, and student-created graphs. Amy used our TL4CS LLP materials to explore students’ questions about human impact on animals’ habitats and discover the importance of biodiversity in ecosystems. As demonstrated by Penny’s and Amy’s stories, the TL4CS materials can transform mere data collection for CS projects into opportunities for real-world connections and sensemaking in science classrooms. 

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