Looking Through the Window to Help Teach Others: Science Stories of Three Young Women

• In Event: 42.067 - Voices of Students With Disabilities in Science Education

Abstract

This paper will focus on the science learning experiences across the lifespan of four students enrolled in the Career and Community Studies (CCS) program at Not Named College, a small, public, highly-selective primary undergraduate institution in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.  Not Named College is a college-based, liberal studies program designed to prepare students for adult life through academic rigor, career discovery and preparation and peer socialization as part of a diverse community of learners. To enroll in the program, students must present a disability that is characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior, seeking a post-secondary experience on a college campus and requires a strong system of supports. CCS Students must be highly motivated young adults who have received extensive educational services in K-12 settings.
Our contribution uses a collaborative narrative approach in which three young female students in the CCS program share first-person narratives on their own science learning experiences, and trends and themes in these stories are identified by a science educator and the CCS program assistant director at Not Named College. The chapter will conclude with recommendations for pre- and in-service science teachers to use to help meet the needs of all learners in their K-12 classrooms.

Methods & Data Sources
Each of the three CCS student participants shared her experiences learning science K-12, at the college level, and in informal/personal settings with the science educator through a digitally recorded discussion. The science educator reviewed the recordings and followed up with a written questionnaire to probe for additional information and clarify misunderstandings. The science educator then created an outline of each student’s science story and asked the student to flesh the outline into a first-person narrative. The science educator and CCS assistant director edited the narratives. The CCS assistant director and science educator identified trends across the three stories. The science educator made recommendations for current and future K-12 science teachers based on these trends.

Preliminary Results
Each of the three CCS students struggled in science, but also found some joy in learning about topics of their own personal interest. For example, one offered that she struggled tremendously with mathematical formulas and reading associated with physics, but when she was able to make tangible connections to roller coasters, a topic of her own interest, she was started to develop an understanding of how forces affect motion. This connection to personal interest was one theme that emerged across the three science stories. Others will be shared in detail in our final paper.

Significance
Though ideas for modification, adaptation, and inclusion abound in science teaching and learning, they aren’t always developed using the students’ first-hand experience. Our work relies on first-hand accounts of adults with disabilities to help guide future modifications in science teaching and learning. AERA members interested in learners with special needs and science education will benefit from this presentation.

Author

• Lauren P. Madden, The College of New Jersey