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Eric.ed.gov – Project-Based Learning: A Literature Review. Working Paper

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The concept of project-based learning (PBL) has garnered wide support among a number of K-12 education policy advocates and funders. This working paper builds on and updates a seminal literature review of PBL published in 2000. Focused primarily on articles and studies that have emerged in the 17 years since then, the working paper discusses the principles that underlie PBL, how PBL has been used in K-12 settings, the challenges teachers have confronted in implementing it, how school and district factors influence its adoption, and what is known about its effectiveness in improving students’ learning outcomes. PBL is grounded in cross-cutting “design principles” often related to what is taught, how it is taught, and how students should be evaluated in a PBL classroom. PBL design principles emphasize… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Professional Development Integrating Technology: Does Delivery Format Matter?

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The goal of the two Power of Data (POD) projects was to increase science, technology and math skills through the implementation of project-based learning modules that teach students how to solve problems through data collection and analysis utilizing geospatial technologies. Professional development institutes in two formats were offered to encourage teachers to implement the modules. We compared teacher learning, teacher implementation, and student learning from the two different professional development formats to examine how each format supported teachers to implement the modules, and, ultimately, improve student understanding. Teacher surveys, content and technology assessments, classroom observations, student assessments, and student work samples were analyzed for comparison between a two-week summer institute and monthly meetings held throughout the academic year. Teachers and students from both formats showed improvement in… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Unplugged Cybersecurity: An Approach for Bringing Computer Science into the Classroom

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The United States Naval Academy (USNA) STEM Center for Education and Outreach addresses an urgent Navy and national need for more young people to pursue careers in STEM fields through world-wide outreach to 17,000 students and 900 teachers per year. To achieve this mission, the STEM Center has developed a hands-on and inquiry-based methodology to be used with K-12 educators at professional development workshops and with students through camps, festivals and fairs, and STEM days. According to recent data, math and computer science (CS) are the fastest growing fields among STEM careers (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016). The Computer Science for All initiative (U.S. Office of the Press Secretary, 2016) urges communities to bring more computer science education into the classroom to meet the rapidly rising… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – A Case Study: Teaching Engineering Concepts in Science. Research in Engineering and Technology Education

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This study was conducted to describe a teacher developed high school engineering course, to identify teaching strategies used in the process of delivering math and science literacy through this course, to identify challenges and constraints that occurred during its development and delivery, and to describe the strategies that were used to overcome those obstacles. A case study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with the engineering instructor at Benilde-St. Margaret’s in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. In addition, the researcher conducted classroom observations and reviewed instructional materials, teacher lesson plans, and teacher journals. Themes that developed regarding the strategies used to deliver this particular course identified that concepts created its platform for delivery, curricular trial and error was at work, science and engineering competitions were leveraged as a basis… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Technology Engineering in Science Education: Where Instructional Challenges Interface Nonconforming Productivity to Increase Retention, Enhance Transfer, and Maximize Student Learning

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Technology Engineering is an innovative component of a much larger arena of teaching that effectively uses interactive technology as a method of enhancing learning and the learning environment. Using this method to teach science and math content empowers the teacher and enhances the curriculum as the classroom becomes more efficient and effective. Although the most modern technology–enhanced content is available for classroom deployment, this study suggests that various challenges arise that can delay a fully productive and successful integration of technology in the science classroom. In this study, seven urban school science teachers, incorporated technology-enhanced inquiry-based modules into their lesson plans to determine the overall effectiveness of technology integration in their classrooms. This paper examines how Technology Engineering helps students to understand scientific phenomena, despite hindrances within… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Engaging High School Girls in Interdisciplinary STEAM

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Research into Australian students’ science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) engagement has highlighted that there are comparably fewer women enrolling in STEM programs and working in STEM industries. In Australia, males make up 84% of the total population with STEM qualifications, for example, a report in 2015 found only 13% of all engineers in Australia were women. Science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM), an approach to STEM education that encourages interdisciplinarity, creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship, is a strategy that has the potential to increase girls’ engagement with STEM. This research investigated the impact of the STEAMpunk Girls Program, funded by the Australian Government, on high school girls’ learning and their teachers’ teaching experiences. The program uses project-learning and design thinking strategies to enable the girls to… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Teaching Mathematics in a Project-Based Learning Context: Initial Teacher Knowledge and Perceived Needs

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This paper reports on initial data from teachers at an Australian Year 9-12 secondary school which is attempting to implement a project-based learning model across the entire curriculum. The eight teachers had diverse prior teaching experiences, including work in primary schools, special education, Year 7-10 secondary schools, and technical and further education. None had studied mathematics at tertiary level and just one listed maths as a main teaching area. Results of an initial survey indicate that most had reasonable levels of personal mathematics competence, and could identify relevant mathematical concepts among the affordances of a particular scenario, but that they struggled to articulate how they would work with students to pursue any of the relevant mathematics in depth. [This project was funded by University of Tasmania Research… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Laying the Foundations: Early Findings from the New Mathways Project

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: National studies reveal that 50 percent to 70 percent of community college students are required to take developmental, or remedial, math courses upon enrollment, and only 20 percent of developmental math students ever successfully complete a college-level math course. Taking up the challenge is the “New Mathways Project” (NMP), developed by the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin in partnership with the Texas Association of Community Colleges. This new initiative aims to change the standard pathways to and through colleges’ traditional math sequences. This report analyzes the development of the “New Mathways Project” (NMP) from spring 2012 through its first year of rollout at nine colleges in Texas in 2013-2014, as well as student outcomes at the colleges before and during the… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Effects of Teacher Professional Development on Gains in Student Achievement: How Meta Analysis Provides Scientific Evidence Useful to Education Leaders

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This meta analysis study focused on identifying and analyzing research studies that measured effects of teacher professional development with a content focus on math or science. This meta analysis was carried out to address two primary questions: (1) What are the effects of content-focused professional development for math and science teachers on improving student achievement as demonstrated across a range of studies?; and (2) What characteristics of professional development programs (e.g., content focus, duration, coherence, active learning, and collective participation of teachers) explain the degree of effectiveness, and are the findings consistent with prior research on effective professional development? This meta analysis of studies of teacher professional development programs in mathematics and science found that 16 studies reported significant effect sizes for teacher development in relation to… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Investigation of Parents’ Expectations from Mathematics Education in Turkey

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: In this study, the expectations of middle school students’ parents regarding to “conceptual understanding and active student participation” “positive attitude and behavior attitude” and “authority and rule-oriented teaching” were examined. A valid and reliable threefactor instrument developed by the Aytekin, Baltaci, Altunkaya, Kiymaz and Yildiz (2016) was used in collecting parents’ expectations. 749 parents participated in the study. It was found that the variables of parental gender, parental age range, and monthly income of the parents, level of loving mathematics and level of helping the child have no significant effect on the expectations. The university graduates had less authority and rule-oriented teaching expectation than the remaining parents. Besides, it is seen that the 5th grade parents had higher expectations of conceptual understanding and active participation and positive… Continue Reading