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Scaffolding learning in science museum exhibits can be a challenging endeavor. Learning in these settings is self-directed, sporadic, and lacking in structure (Falk, Dierking & Semmel, 2013). Museum educators and exhibit designers struggle to provide the appropriate types and amounts of scaffolding, where too little scaffolding can result in suboptimal learning outcomes while too much scaffolding can result in an “over-formalization” of the exhibit (Yoon et al., 2013). This study examines the use of signage in scaffolding students’ engagement with a science exhibit about light. Twelve students were asked to engage in four activities within the exhibit. Videos of student behavior were recorded and thematically coded. Findings indicate that textual scaffolds, as they were implemented in this exhibit, may have missed opportunities to promote meaningful engagement with exhibit activities. Implications for exhibit design practice and research are discussed.

Virtual professional development increases meaningful and diverse learning opportunities for in-service teachers (Darling-Hammond & McLaughlin, 2011). As part of virtual professional development the participants in this study engaged in doing math collaboratively and began thinking about mathematical and pedagogical decision making within their classrooms. Preliminary results suggest that participants valued the time to think flexibly about their own work and that of others and began to learn to recognize the hidden decisions they were making when solving a problem that it may benefit their students to know.

There has been a limited number of studies in which a computing curriculum is designed and developed for students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), and there has been no study to test the effectiveness of an accessible computing curriculum for students with ASD. Therefore, the objectives of this study are 1) to implement an accessible computing curriculum at an inner-city school for seventh-grade students with ASD, and 2) evaluate the effectiveness of the accessible curriculum in improving students with ASDs’ learning of computational thinking concepts (CTCs) (sequences, loops, parallelism, conditionals, operators, and data) and their development of fluency in computational thinking practices (CTPs) (experimenting, iterating, testing, debugging, reusing and remixing, abstracting, and modularizing) by comparing two groups of twenty-two students; one group taught utilizing the adjusted curriculum and the other utilizing the original curriculum. Students' CTCs were measured by analyzing both groups' pretest and posttest scores, and their CTPs were measured by their artifact-based interview scores.

Teacher turnover in science and mathematics is a significant and consistent challenge for K-12 education in the U.S. This paper provides: (a) an investigation of the relationship between teacher retention and several social and motivational factors; and (b) a comparison of Master Teaching Fellows (MTF) and non-MTF teachers in terms of their retention and social and motivational factors. Teachers are classified into three retention categories: (a) stayers, (b) shifters, and (c) leavers. Social and motivational factors included teaching self-efficacy, diversity dispositions, leadership skills, principal autonomy support, teacher-school fit (adapted from person-organization fit literature), and social networks related to teaching and education. Study 1 included about 250 science and math teachers from the gulf coast region of Texas. Study 2 included 167 science and math teachers across the country. Teachers completed a survey in the summer and fall of 2021. For study 1, multinomial logistics regression analyses indicate: (a) leavers have significantly higher levels of self-efficacy; and (b) shifters have significantly higher levels of leadership skills and lower levels of teacher-school fit. The second study findings indicate: (a) MTFs’ teacher leadership network and teaching self-efficacy are significantly greater than that of non-MTFs’; and (b) MTFs significantly tend to shift to amore »leadership position than non-MTFs do.« less

Over the last two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has required teacher educators to teach their classes online. Teacher educators now need to reflect on the learning opportunities that the COVID-19 induced shift to online learning has provided. This study shares two teacher educators’ experiences of teaching and supporting preservice teachers (PSTs) as they taught engineering online to elementary students. The two teacher educators noticed (a) positive changes in PSTs’ attitudes and beliefs about technology integration, (b) PSTs’ tendency to select and use of educational technologies, (c) PSTs’ recognition of the importance of online interaction and feedback from K-12 students, (d) the importance of providing PSTs with extended access to physical hardware, and (e) the importance of providing developmentally appropriate digital resources. The paper concludes with suggestions for teacher educators who are preparing PSTs for the next generation of teaching.

In this descriptive brief paper three science education university faculty and a postdoctoral researcher share the difference between the delivery, execution, and assessment of the same educative making learning opportunities assigned to science education preservice teachers first in face-to-face undergraduate courses taught before the COVID-19 pandemic, and then in an online version of the same courses. This presentation may inform the work of constituents of science and teacher education and maker learning communities who want to employ best practices as they modify curriculum for virtual delivery. (Funding-NSF Grant 1842342.)

Improving the quantity and quality of STEM teachers is one of the goals of the Noyce Scholarship Grant Program implemented through the National Science Foundation. Here, we examine how the change to remote learning impacted ASU'’s Noyce Scholarship program. Our research question was as follows: what kinds of successes and struggles did STEM Noyce (a) in-service and (b) pre-service scholars experience in the first year of remote teaching during the pandemic? We interviewed three different cohorts of Noyce scholars: preservice teachers, first year teachers and second year teachers. Results showed that some scholars saw benefits to remote learning including more free time for other learning activities. They also observed teachers dedicated to student success. Challenges included an inability to reach all students, a continued focus on standardized tests, and a lack of flexibility within the districts.