EPET Brownbag Series (October 22, 2018)
Post date: Oct 22, 2018 11:16:41 PM
Abstract: Students’ interest and engagement in science declines over the course of their academic careers. By improving our understanding of how instructional contexts support interest, we can potentially leverage specific strategies to buffer against traditional declines in student motivation. The present study contributes to research on student interest in science by investigating differences in the instructional environment that influence students’ situational interest. The study compared situational interest, personal interest, and science perceived competence for 129 seventh grade students in two conditions: those collaborating on a PBL unit with peers at their school and those collaborating on the same unit with peers at another school in another country. The study found no changes in personal interest or science perceived competence associated with collaborative condition but found that students working with a peer at another location had higher situational interest than those collaborating with a peer only within their immediate school community. The study has practical implications for classroom instruction taking into consideration students’ interest as well as theoretical implications for our understanding of interest development.
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Paul Reimer, Disrupting Dichotomies: Conceptions of Preschool Mathematics Learning and Teaching
Abstract: Early childhood teachers play an important role in young children’s mathematical development through their planning of mathematical experiences and interactions with children. Preschool teachers, however, have not typically received the same training as K-12 teachers and face challenges when considering their own participation in mathematics teaching and learning in the preschool classroom. Using a phenomenological approach, I studied preschool teachers’ conceptions of mathematics teaching and learning in the context of a multi-year professional development project at two Head Start preschool centers. I examined how teachers perceived their roles in mathematics teaching and learning, and how their conceptions demonstrated awareness of children's ways of thinking and learning. Teachers’ practices of engaging and nurturing, noticing children’s mathematical activity, and guiding children’s mathematical learning served as a lens for understanding their conceptions. Findings suggest that dichotomizing conversations that position teacher-centered mathematics in opposition to student-centered mathematics do not provide fruitful space for considering the possibilities when teacher and student participate together in meaning-making.
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