Search for: All records

As computer science (CS) is integrated in elementary science curricula, it is important to consider teachers’ perceptions in how they access CS and support students to engage in CS skills and standards through NGSS-aligned activities. This single case study utilizes the Interconnected Model of Professional Growth (IMPG) to examine teacher change and explore the perspectives of a teacher, through semi-structured interviews, as he implements an NGSS-aligned, project-based CS unit over the course of four years. Findings indicate that the teacher perceived that changes in his practice helped inform changes in student outcomes and the curriculum and, in turn, these changes in outcomes further informed his teaching practice in the next iteration of the unit. Results highlight the importance of reflection and feedback as a way to impact the teaching practice of integrating CS in elementary science education. 

As computer science (CS) is integrated in elementary science curricula, it is important to consider teachers’ perceptions in how they access CS and support students to engage in CS skills and standards through NGSS-aligned activities. This single case study utilizes the Interconnected Model of Professional Growth (IMPG) to examine teacher change and explore the perspectives of a teacher, through semi-structured interviews, as he implements an NGSS-aligned, project-based CS unit over the course of four years. Findings indicate that the teacher perceived that changes in his practice helped inform changes in student outcomes and the curriculum and, in turn, these changes in outcomes further informed his teaching practice in the next iteration of the unit. Results highlight the importance of reflection and feedback as a way to impact the teaching practice of integrating CS in elementary science education. 

Elementary science education, particularly in the 4th and 5th grades, is essential for setting the foundation for lifelong science learning, fostering critical thinking, and preparing students for success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. This stage is especially critical for students with disabilities, as achievement gaps between them and their peers emerge during elementary school. Despite this importance, little is known about how science is taught in elementary classrooms during these critical years, particularly for students with disabilities. To address this gap, we surveyed teachers from a nationally representative sample of U.S. schools to examine elementary science education, including instructional practices, allocation of time, and the inclusion and support of students with disabilities. Our findings reveal that limited instructional time is allocated to science, with significant variability across classrooms. The amount of time dedicated to science instruction was significantly influenced by external factors, such as whether science was a tested subject. Students with disabilities often face additional barriers, including being pulled out of science instruction for special education services, resulting in missed opportunities to engage in science. These findings highlight the need to address opportunity gaps in science instruction to ensure all students have meaningful access to quality science education. 

This poster paper explores how teachers and researchers in a research-practitioner partnership utilize a rubric to evaluate lesson plans in terms of the integration of culturally relevant computer science. Results include that teachers felt able to include opportunities for cultural competence but indicate that additional support is necessary to include opportunities for cultural critique and conceptions of knowledge. The poster presented at this conference will highlight additional supports that teachers may need to develop culturally relevant computer science lesson plans. 

In this study, we examine the reported beliefs of two elementary science teachers who co-taught a four-week engineering project in which students used a computational model to design engineering solutions to reduce water runoff at their school (Lilly et al., 2020). Specifically, we explore the beliefs that elementary science teachers report while enacting an engineering project in two different classroom contexts and how they report that their beliefs may have affected instructional decisions. Classroom contexts included one general class with a larger proportion of students in advanced mathematics and one inclusive class with a larger proportion of students with individualized educational programs. During project implementation, we collected daily surveys and weekly interviews to consider teachers’ beliefs of the class sections, classroom activities, and curriculum. Two researchers performed a thematic analysis of the surveys and interviews to code reflections on teachers’ perceived differences between students in the class sections and their experiences teaching engineering in the class sections. Results suggest that teachers’ beliefs about students in these two different classroom contexts may have influenced opportunities that students had to understand and engage in disciplinary practices. The teachers reported making changes to activities based on their perceptions of student understanding and engagement and to save time which led to different experiences for students in each class section, specifically a more teacher-centered implementation for the inclusive class. Teachers also suggested specific professional development and educative supports to help teachers to support all students to engage in engineering tasks. Thus, it is important to understand teachers’ beliefs to build support for teachers in their implementation of engineering projects that meet the needs of their students and ensure that students have access and support to engage in engineering practices. 

While national frameworks call for the integration of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and computer science (STEM+CS) in K-12 contexts, few studies consider elementary teachers’ perceptions of implementing STEM+CS projects in science classrooms. This single case study explores elementary science teachers’ perceptions of enacting STEM+CS curricular materials. Survey and interview data were collected over the four-week project and qualitatively coded. Findings demonstrate teachers’ reported struggles to implement unfamiliar disciplines and leverage students’ prior knowledge in familiar disciplines as well as unanticipated consequences of instructional decisions based on perceived student engagement and pacing. Results underscore the value of teacher voice for curricular and professional development and highlight the need for further investigation of how teachers’ perceptions may influence enactment of STEM+CS curricular materials. 

Conceptual models serve as both as a design artifact and an object that communicates understanding about underlying systems. As such, conceptual modeling is considered as a crucial component of engineering design. Peer comparison and critique can help students develop conceptual models, yet little research explores how peer comparison activities can support conceptual model development in engineering settings. Therefore, we investigate why and how fifth-grade students made changes to their conceptual models after a peer comparison during a 4-week engineering design curriculum unit focused on water runoff at their school. Data sources included students’ conceptual models before and after the peer comparison, field notes, and student interviews after the peer comparison. To understand how students described their conceptual models and why any changes may have occurred, we interviewed twelve students and coded these interview transcripts at the utterance level. Results show that peer comparison activities can increase conceptual model quality. Further, peer comparison contributes to a diverse set of additional representations in students’ conceptual models. The study suggests peer comparisons of conceptual modeling may support students in realizing their peers are a great source of information, a critical realization to support positive engineering design experiences in K-12 and higher education.