Articles

Development and validation of the Value-Expectancy STEM Assessment Scale for students in higher education

Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) jobs are expected to make up a significant portion of the U.S. workforce. Unfortunately, the trend in retaining students in STEM majors has been going down. If...

Authors: Joseph Appianing and Richard N. Van Eck

The influence of active learning practices on student anxiety in large-enrollment college science classrooms

Over the past decade, the prevalence of anxiety has increased among college-aged students and college counseling centers have become increasingly concerned about the negative impact of anxiety on students. Whi...

Authors: Katelyn M. Cooper, Virginia R. Downing and Sara E. Brownell

A study of the correlation between STEM career knowledge, mathematics self-efficacy, career interests, and career activities on the likelihood of pursuing a STEM career among middle school students

A sample of 1448 students in grades 7 and 9 was drawn from public schools in Atlantic Canada to explore students’ knowledge of science and mathematics requirements for science, technology, engineering, and mat...

Authors: Karen A. Blotnicky, Tamara Franz-Odendaal, Frederick French and Phillip Joy

Participation and performance on paper- and computer-based low-stakes assessments

High-stakes assessments, such the Graduate Records Examination, have transitioned from paper to computer administration. Low-stakes research-based assessments (RBAs), such as the Force Concept Inventory, have ...

Authors: Jayson M. Nissen, Manher Jariwala, Eleanor W. Close and Ben Van Dusen

Primetime learning: collaborative and technology-enhanced studying with genuine teacher presence

Productive learning processes and good learning outcomes can be attained by applying the basic elements of active learning. The basic elements include fostering discussions and disputations, facing alternative...

Authors: Pekka Koskinen, Joni Lämsä, Jussi Maunuksela, Raija Hämäläinen and Jouni Viiri

Comments and reflections on ITS and STEM education and training

This article provides brief comments and reflections on Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) and their use in providing STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education and training as describe...

Authors: J. D. Fletcher

ElectronixTutor: an intelligent tutoring system with multiple learning resources for electronics

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) organized a STEM Challenge initiative to explore how intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) can be developed in a reasonable amount of time to help students learn STEM topics. T...

Authors: Arthur C. Graesser, Xiangen Hu, Benjamin D. Nye, Kurt VanLehn, Rohit Kumar, Cristina Heffernan, Neil Heffernan, Beverly Woolf, Andrew M. Olney, Vasile Rus, Frank Andrasik, Philip Pavlik, Zhiqiang Cai, Jon Wetzel, Brent Morgan, Andrew J. Hampton…

Development and application of a multi-modal task analysis to support intelligent tutoring of complex skills

Contemporary work in the design and development of intelligent training systems employs task analysis (TA) methods for gathering knowledge that is subsequently encoded into task models. These task models form ...

Authors: Anna Skinner, David Diller, Rohit Kumar, Jan Cannon-Bowers, Roger Smith, Alyssa Tanaka, Danielle Julian and Ray Perez

Contextual factors affecting hint utility

Interactive learning environments often provide help strategies to facilitate learning. Hints, for example, help students recall relevant concepts, identify mistakes, and make inferences. However, several stud...

Authors: Paul Salvador Inventado, Peter Scupelli, Korinn Ostrow, Neil Heffernan III, Jaclyn Ocumpaugh, Victoria Almeda and Stefan Slater

SKOPE-IT (Shareable Knowledge Objects as Portable Intelligent Tutors): overlaying natural language tutoring on an adaptive learning system for mathematics

This study investigated learning outcomes and user perceptions from interactions with a hybrid intelligent tutoring system created by combining the AutoTutor conversational tutoring system with the Assessment ...

Authors: Benjamin D. Nye, Philip I. Pavlik Jr., Alistair Windsor, Andrew M. Olney, Mustafa Hajeer and Xiangen Hu

Pedagogical knowledge for active-learning instruction in large undergraduate biology courses: a large-scale qualitative investigation of instructor thinking

Though active-learning instruction has the potential to positively impact the preparation and diversity of STEM graduates, not all instructors are able to achieve this potential. One important factor is the te...

Authors: Anna Jo J. Auerbach and Tessa C. Andrews

Advances from the Office of Naval Research STEM Grand Challenge: expanding the boundaries of intelligent tutoring systems

This special issue presents evaluations of four intelligent tutoring systems. These systems were funded under the Office of Naval Research’s STEM Grand Challenge for intelligent tutoring systems. The systems e...

Authors: Scotty D. Craig, Arthur C. Graesser and Ray S. Perez

The role of pedagogical tools in active learning: a case for sense-making

Evidence from the research literature indicates that both audience response systems (ARS) and guided inquiry worksheets (GIW) can lead to greater student engagement, learning, and equity in the STEM classroom....

Authors: Milo Koretsky, Jessie Keeler, John Ivanovitch and Ying Cao

Cultural taboos as a factor in the participation rate of Native Americans in STEM

Native Americans are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). We investigated whether having to violate cultural taboos might be a factor in the decisions of some Native Am...

Authors: Deborah H. Williams and Gerhard P. Shipley

Race and gender differences in how sense of belonging influences decisions to major in STEM

Women and students of color are widely underrepresented in most STEM fields. In order to investigate this underrepresentation, we interviewed 201 college seniors, primarily women and people of color, who eithe...

Authors: Katherine Rainey, Melissa Dancy, Roslyn Mickelson, Elizabeth Stearns and Stephanie Moller

Undergraduate research experiences: mentoring, awareness, and perceptions—a case study at a Hispanic-serving institution

Undergraduate research experiences (UREs) have been proposed as means to increase the retention and engagement of minority—and more specifically Hispanic—college students in science, technology, engineering, a...

Authors: Laura Rodríguez Amaya, Tania Betancourt, Kristina Henry Collins, Orlando Hinojosa and Carlos Corona

Science in the Learning Gardens (SciLG): a study of students’ motivation, achievement, and science identity in low-income middle schools

Science in the Learning Gardens (henceforth, SciLG) program was designed to address two well-documented, inter-related educational problems: under-representation in science of students from racial and ethnic m...

Authors: Dilafruz R. Williams, Heather Brule, Sybil S. Kelley and Ellen A. Skinner

Strategies to mitigate student resistance to active learning

Research has shown that active learning promotes student learning and increases retention rates of STEM undergraduates. Yet, instructors are reluctant to change their teaching approaches for several reasons, i...

Authors: Sneha Tharayil, Maura Borrego, Michael Prince, Kevin A. Nguyen, Prateek Shekhar, Cynthia J. Finelli and Cynthia Waters

Learning from the parallel pathways of Makers to broaden pathways to engineering

Makers are a growing community of STEM-minded people who bridge technical and non-technical backgrounds to imagine, build and fabricate engineering systems. Some have engineering training, some do not. This pa...

Authors: Christina Foster, Aubrey Wigner, Micah Lande and Shawn S. Jordan

Development of Two-Dimensional Classroom Discourse Analysis Tool (CDAT): scientific reasoning and dialog patterns in the secondary science classes

In a science classroom, students do not simply learn scientific ways of doing, knowing, and reasoning unless they find ways of appropriating scientific discourse. In the Next Generation Science Standards, majo...

Authors: Soon C. Lee and Karen E. Irving

Understanding science teachers’ implementations of integrated STEM curricular units through a phenomenological multiple case study

Current reforms in K-12 STEM education call for integration between science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Such integration of STEM disciplines at the K-12 level offers students an opportuni...

Authors: Emily A. Dare, Joshua A. Ellis and Gillian H. Roehrig

Four frames for systemic change in STEM departments

This paper adapts the four-frame model of organizational change to the context of higher education. We offer the model as a tool for researchers and change agents who wish to study and enact systemic change wi...

Authors: Daniel L. Reinholz and Naneh Apkarian

Changing the face of STEM with stormwater research

The University of Maine Stormwater Management and Research Team (SMART) program began in 2014 with the goal of creating a diverse science-technology-engineering-math (STEM) pathway with community water researc...

Authors: Mohamad Musavi, Wilhelm A. Friess, Cary James and Jennifer C. Isherwood

Development of pedagogical knowledge among learning assistants

Successful outcomes of the Learning Assistant (LA) model include increased learning outcomes in STEM gateway courses and increased persistence to graduation among LAs and the students they serve. While there a...

Authors: Laken M. Top, Sarah A. Schoonraad and Valerie K. Otero

Instructional strategies and course design for teaching statistics online: perspectives from online students

Teaching online is a different experience from that of teaching in a face-to-face setting. Knowledge and skills developed for teaching face-to-face classes are not adequate preparation for teaching online. It ...

Authors: Dazhi Yang

Student learning outcomes from a pilot medical innovations course with nursing, engineering, and biology undergraduate students

Preparing today’s undergraduate students from science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and related health professions to solve wide-sweeping healthcare challenges is critical. Moreover, it is imperati...

Authors: Patrice M. Ludwig, Jacquelyn K. Nagel and Erica J. Lewis

Bringing facilitation into view

The articles in this volume reflect the continued popularity of video in professional development and raise important questions about how to situate video productively in varied contexts. Together, they highli...

Authors: Elizabeth A. van Es and Miriam Gamoran Sherin

Design principles for effective video-based professional development

Most studies of teacher professional development (PD) do not rigorously test impact on teaching practice and student learning. This makes it difficult to define what is truly “effective.” The Science Teachers Lea...

Authors: Kathleen J. Roth, Jody Bintz, Nicole I. Z. Wickler, Connie Hvidsten, Joseph Taylor, Paul M. Beardsley, Arlo Caine and Christopher D. Wilson

Preparing facilitators to use and adapt mathematics professional development materials productively

Determining whether a professional development program can be enacted with integrity in different settings and by different facilitators is critical to understanding efficacy. In this paper, we describe the tw...

Authors: Jennifer Jacobs, Nanette Seago and Karen Koellner

The role of video-based discussion in model for preparing professional development leaders

This paper describes the Problem-Solving Cycle model of professional development and the Mathematics Leadership Preparation model of PD leader preparation. These models form the backbone of our current researc...

Authors: Hilda Borko, Janet Carlson, Charmaine Mangram, Robin Anderson, Alissa Fong, Susan Million, Suki Mozenter and Anthony Muro Villa

A framework for planning and facilitating video-based professional development

Recent transformative changes in science education require new learning opportunities for teachers—opportunities that include rich images of classroom enactment of the reform vision. One fruitful way for doing...

Authors: Miray Tekkumru-Kisa and Mary Kay Stein

Designing, facilitating, and scaling-up video-based professional development: supporting complex forms of teaching in science and mathematics

This special issue brings together four effective video-based professional development programs—two in mathematics and two in science—that use classroom videos as the centerpiece of their efforts and have “sca...

Authors: Miray Tekkumru-Kisa and Mary Kay Stein

Co-Measure: developing an assessment for student collaboration in STEAM activities

The shortage of skilled workers choosing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) careers in the USA and worldwide has fueled a movement towards STEAM, in which the “A” addresses the arts and humaniti...

Authors: Danielle Herro, Cassie Quigley, Jessica Andrews and Girlie Delacruz

Assessing the STEM landscape: the current instructional climate survey and the evidence-based instructional practices adoption scale

The efficacy of active learning within STEM education is clear, and many institutions are working to help faculty adopt evidence-based instructional practices (EBIPs) which can promote active learning. In orde...

Authors: R. Eric Landrum, Karen Viskupic, Susan E. Shadle and Doug Bullock

A structural equation model looking at student’s participatory behavior and their success in Calculus I

Government projections in the USA indicate that the country will need a million more science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduates above and beyond those already projected by the year 2022...

Authors: Rachel Elizabeth Keller, Estrella Johnson and Steven DeShong

Using written work to investigate stages in sixth-grade students’ construction and coordination of units

Students’ ability to construct and coordinate units has been found to have far-reaching implications for their ability to develop sophisticated understandings of key middle-grade mathematical topics such as fr...

Authors: Catherine Ulrich and Jesse L. M. Wilkins

How personal, behavioral, and environmental factors predict working in STEMM vs non-STEMM middle-skill careers

Much of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medical (STEMM) education policy and research centers around developing the upper levels of the STEMM workforce sector. However, there are many positi...

Authors: Matthew A. Cannady, Debra Moore, Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal, Eric Greenwald, Regie Stites and Christian D. Schunn

Exploring teacher design team endeavors while creating an elementary-focused STEM-integrated curriculum

This study presents two teacher design teams (TDTs) during a professional development experience centered on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-integrated curriculum development. The main...

Authors: Justin R. McFadden and Gillian H. Roehrig

Understanding the delivery of a Canadian-based after-school STEM program: a case study

Due to the rising demands for a Canadian workforce with science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)-related education, there is a need to increase youth engagement in STEM education and programming. Rese...

Authors: Eugenia Duodu, Jessica Noble, Yusuf Yusuf, Camilo Garay and Corliss Bean

Required peer-cooperative learning improves retention of STEM majors

Peer-cooperative learning has been shown in the literature to improve student success in gateway science and mathematics courses. Such studies typically demonstrate the impact of students’ attending peer-led l...

Authors: Matthew Salomone and Thomas Kling

The test of basic Mechanics Conceptual Understanding (bMCU): using Rasch analysis to develop and evaluate an efficient multiple choice test on Newton’s mechanics

Valid assessment of the understanding of Newton’s mechanics is highly relevant to both physics classrooms and research. Several tests have been developed. What remains missing, however, is an efficient and fai...

Authors: Sarah I. Hofer, Ralph Schumacher and Herbert Rubin

The Young Innovators Program at the Eshelman Institute for Innovation: a case study examining the role of a professional pharmacy school in enhancing STEM pursuits among secondary school students

Professional schools, such as schools of pharmacy, are rarely involved with promoting STEM interests among secondary school students. To address this shortcoming, the Young Innovators Program (YIP) was create...

Authors: Adam D. Friedman, Carlos R. Melendez, Antonio A. Bush, Samuel K. Lai and Jacqueline E. McLaughlin

Polytechnic engineering mathematics: assessing its relevance to the productivity of industries in Uganda

The main objective of the study was to examine the relevance of engineering mathematics to the emerging industries. The level of abstraction, the standard of rigor, and the depth of theoretical treatment are n...

Authors: Peter J. Jehopio and Ronald Wesonga

Adolescents as agents of healthful change through scientific literacy development: A school-university partnership program in New Zealand

Scientific literacy development is widely emphasized as the overarching goal of science education. It encompasses development of understanding of the nature of science as well as knowledge, attitudes, and valu...

Authors: Jacquie L. Bay, Mark H. Vickers, Helen A. Mora, Deborah M. Sloboda and Susan M. Morton

Towards the STEM DBER Alliance: why we need a discipline-based STEM education research community

Authors: Charles Henderson, Mark Connolly, Erin L. Dolan, Noah Finkelstein, Scott Franklin, Shirley Malcom, Chris Rasmussen, Kacy Redd and Kristen St. John

Assessing teacher education and professional development needs for the implementation of integrated approaches to STEM education

Given the growing interest in, and relevance of, integrated approaches to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education, there is an urgent desire to understand the challenges and obstacle...

Authors: David J. Shernoff, Suparna Sinha, Denise M. Bressler and Lynda Ginsburg

Factors contributing to students and instructors experiencing a lack of time in college calculus

Calculus is a foundational course for STEM-intending students yet has been shown to dissuade students from pursuing STEM degrees. In this report, we examine factors related to students and instructors reportin...

Authors: Jessica Ellis Hagman, Estrella Johnson and Bailey K. Fosdick

The effects of an afterschool STEM program on students’ motivation and engagement

One significant factor in facilitating students’ career intentions and persistence in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields is targeting their interests and motivation before eighth g...

Authors: Jessica R. Chittum, Brett D. Jones, Sehmuz Akalin and Ásta B. Schram

Integrating STEM in elementary classrooms using model-eliciting activities: responsive professional development for mathematics coaches and teachers

This research highlights a school-university collaboration to pilot a professional development framework for integrating STEM in K-6 mathematics classrooms in a mid-Atlantic suburban school division. Because m...

Authors: Courtney K. Baker and Terrie M. Galanti

Trends in Texas high school student enrollment in mathematics, science, and CTE-STEM courses

In the context of Texas of the USA, House Bill 5 signifies a major policy shift requiring entering high school students starting in fall 2014 to choose an endorsement, like science, technology, engineering, an...

Authors: So Yoon Yoon and Johannes Strobel