Leveraging Out-of-School Time to Reimagine the When and Why of Next Generation Science Standards as a Lens on Learning

• In Event: 68.017 - Equity-Focused Implementation of Next Generation Science Standards: Exploring Models of Hope and Possibility

Abstract

Objectives
This poster examines the possibilities and constraints that emerge when the implementation of NGSS is intertwined with efforts to illuminate equitable teaching and learning in out-of-school (OST) settings. OST settings can provide rich models of STEM learning that enact the visions of the NGSS Framework. At the same time, using NGSS to document learning in these settings may constrict a wider view of the multi-disciplinary practices and open-ended trajectories of development that emerge therein (Nocon & Cole, 2006). This poster draws on ethnographic data collected in the Tinkering Afterschool Program to argue for using NGSS as one among many tools, rather than as an end in itself.
Theoretical Perspectives
We draw from socio-cultural definitions of learning as a culturally-mediated process (Nasir, et. al. 2006; Rogoff, 2003) and participatory approaches to design research (Bang & Vossoughi, 2016), which highlight the ways collaboration across educators and researchers can engender transformative forms of learning. We also utilize a set of principles we recently developed for equity-oriented research and design within the realm of tinkering/making. These include: critical analysis of educational injustices, historicized approaches to making as cross-cultural activity, explicit attention to pedagogy, and inquiry into the socio-political values of making (Authors, 2016).
Methods & Data Sources
We draw on ethnographic methods to analyze data collected over three years in the Tinkering Afterschool Program—a partnership between a science museum and an after-school center that serves youth from immigrant and diasporic backgrounds in a working-class urban community. Here, educators and youth worked together to design and co-create artifacts that blend scientific inquiry and artistic expression. Though this program was never posited as an implementation site for NGSS, NGSS practices are often found within the processes of authentic inquiry. Data sources include: 30 extensive ethnographic field notes (co-authored by educators and the researcher), 100 hours of video recordings, photographs, student interviews, and audio recordings of reflective debriefs among staff.
Findings
Drawing on the equity framework outlined above, we highlight what it looks like to use NGSS as an evolving tool rather than as the object of learning. We describe the evolution of two core activities that involve relationships with nature. In their inception, these activities were already rich in NGSS practices. However, the ethical and epistemological tensions that emerged led to alterations that reflect a reimagining of professional science, creating openings to both enter and productively question disciplinary domains. We also look at key learning moments when it was fruitful for educators to depart from the standards in the service of expansive learning, such as when tinkering led to multi-disciplinary explorations (e.g. creative writing and artistic practice), or when students took on collaborative roles.
Scholarly Significance
Our findings illuminate equity-oriented implementation and push us to consider the limits of “implementation” as a frame. We consider the difference between using the standards to recognize everyday scientific activity, versus beginning from everyday activity and using the forms of scientific practice therein to draw connections to and expand NGSS to include values present in community based settings.

Authors

• Paula K. Hooper, Northwestern University

• Shirin Vossoughi, Northwestern University