Urban Science Education Through Community Health Needs: Reality Pedagogy–Based Curricula

• In Event: 53.061 - Action Research (AR) as a Relational Space for Transformational Action: Collegial AR, Interactions, and a Novel Look at Urban Science Education

Abstract

In this year-long action research study, a Biology teacher expanded the 11th-grade science curriculum by including science topics vital to students’ community. Initially, the teacher was not able to get through the standard curriculum and as a consequence students grades were low, their actions towards each other and the teacher were disruptive, and they demonstrated low motivation in science. Using a socio-cultural theoretical framework, this paper discusses: (a) the initial issues of classroom management by contrasting Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic Motivation, (b) how they were addressed by expanding students’ dense networks of social capital, and (c) how the induction of Reality Pedagogy resulted in improving urban science teaching and learning by including students’ community health concerns in the science curriculum.

Authors

• Christopher Emdin, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Sheila Ivelisse Borges, Teachers College, Columbia University