Reflective Engineer’s Post

I am excited to share our recent publication in the Asia-Pacific Science Education Journal! Discover how teaching science with the Understanding by Design (UbD) model enhances students' overall academic achievement at elementary level. Read more about the transformative impact of UbD on science education.

This topic is so important .. now more then ever.

Creating the University of the Future: A Global View on Future Skills and Future Higher Education A global panorama of institutional strategies, academic programs, scholarly insights as well as teaching and learning practices taking stock of the Future Skills Turn taking place in higher education.  https://lnkd.in/dQ7_Y2qy

"As someone who started over two decades ago with a small departmental Research Experiences for Undergraduates program and then moved to open a campus-wide office at a Hispanic Serving Institution, working on COEUR 2.0 has been an extremely validating experience. It allowed me to team up with and hear from multiple contributors who have experienced firsthand the positive impact that undergraduate research, scholarly and creative inquiry continues to have at the national level on students from diverse backgrounds, with different academic and career interests, and from the full spectrum of higher education institutions. This richness of experiences and recommendations shared by program directors, mentors, evaluators, higher administrators and students will serve to inspire not only those who are starting to develop programs at their institutions, but also the more seasoned individuals who could in turn serve as allied voices to agencies, foundations, donors, and others at the state and federal levels." Learn more about the Characteristics of Excellence in Undergraduate Research 2.0 at 

Congratulations to my friend Bénédicte Boissard for her outstanding achievement in winning the Best Poster Presentation ("Promoting Conceptual Change in Science Through Oral Expression: A Quasi-Experimental Study") at European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI) SIG 20 & 26 Conference 2024. So proud of her! Her study examines whether oral justification and reformulation by students can foster conceptual change and achievement in middle school science. Employing a quasi-experimental design, students participated in both a control (standard teaching) and an experimental (innovative treatment) condition (Taber, 2019). Prior knowledge and misconceptions about mass, volume, and photosynthesis were assessed using multiple-choice questions. Variables such as self-concept and science interest were considered. Involving 400 students from six teachers across five schools in the 2023-2024 academic year, preliminary findings suggest that the innovative treatment resulted in higher gains in both regular and misconception-targeted assessments.

Today we are highlighting the final sections of the conference formats available, while all underneath the general topic of undergraduate experiences, they focus on specific scholarship areas. The first section for today is Undergraduate Students: Access. Proposals may address barriers and/or promising practices in relation to undergraduate student access; how access is or is not actualized in relation to ongoing manifestations of systemic oppression and power; the role of multiple/overlapping policies (e.g., sociopolitical, regional, state, campus-specific) on undergraduate student access. Led by Section Co-Chairs Awilda Rodriguez, Ph.D. and Lydia Ross, here’s a quick tip you should know about submissions for this section. “Broadening our understanding of how individuals access higher education is important as we develop promising practices and continue to identify systemic and other barriers.” - Lydia Ross, Section Co-Chair

Meet one of our Plenary Speakers for the upcoming Thirty-First International Conference on Learning! Wouter van Joolingen is a professor of science and mathematics education at the Freudenthal Institute, Utrecht University. His work focuses on teaching and learning science, including the development of scientific literacy and scientific thinking. Examples are modeling, systems’ thinking and mechanistic reasoning. Prominent in his work is the application of digital technology in support of inquiry-based learning and modeling. These applications include computer simulations, modeling tools, as well as augmented and virtual reality. Central is the alignment of human and computer-based instruction with the envisaged learning process. Recent projects include the application of Lesson Study as a means to engage teachers in the design process of science education. In such settings, teams of teachers design lessons together with researchers based on theoretical and practical insight. When teaching the lesson, the focus is on student learning. This approach both leads to deep insights into student learning and improves inclusion as students’ individual needs surface in the observations. Wouter has applied Lesson Study in multiple studies, including those into systems thinking, model-based reasoning and sustainability education. In Wouter’s view, teachers are always also researchers of their teaching. https://lnkd.in/dwscT9Qj

Colbeck and Wharton Michael (2006) discuss using public scholarship as a central organizing concept for integrating the domains of faculty work. They provide several definitions of public scholarship and a history of the categorization and evaluation of faculty work (e.g., teaching, service, research) and how this has shaped faculty effort. They propose re-integrating these domains to more accurately reflect how faculty conduct their work and connect back to the public service model of land grant universities. Penn State’s Public Scholarship Associates is used as an example.