Crafting and Evaluating Optimal Learning Environments in Secondary Chemistry and Physics

• In Event: Crafting Engagement in Science Environments Through Project-Based Learning

Abstract

Objectives and Purpose
This presentation provides a theoretical overview of our international study. This study was designed in response to a growing need for this coming generation to fill Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) jobs—a major concern of the international science education community is students’ declining achievement and engagement in science learning (OECD, 2013). To solve these critical global problems, our research brings together Finnish and U.S. scholars in science education, learning, and social psychology to work collaboratively with teachers to meet the new U.S. Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and Finnish National Core Curriculum for Upper Secondary School requirements by designing and implementing Project-Based Learning (PBL) units in high school physics and chemistry classrooms. These units focus on students making sense of real-world problems and phenomena through artifact construction, collaboration, and investigations. They are intentionally designed to promote situational engagement in science. This study uses a new model of situational engagement, termed optimal learning moments ([OLM]; Schneider et al., 2016). OLMs occur when students experience higher than average levels of challenge, skill, and interest in their science classes.
Methods
OLMs are measured using the Experience Sampling Method (ESM), which provides a real-time, immediate measure of students’ behavioral, cognitive, and emotional experiences. To design the curricular materials, we developed professional learning sessions in which we worked with teachers in the U.S. and Finland to design, enact, and revise two- to three week-long PBL units which require learners to make sense of data, integrate ideas, and engage with challenging situations. Students’ ESM responses were measured via smartphone through the Google PACO application.
Results
Data from both the US and Finland, collected over the past two years, shows that OLMs in science can be increased when students are engaged in tasks that ask purposeful and meaningful questions, require working collaboratively with others, and are engaged in scientific practices. When teachers enact PBL in their classrooms, students report that they are challenged not because they are confused, as is the case in the teachers’ traditional instruction, but because they are being forced to think creatively and tackle questions that are important to them. The teachers who participated in this research have reported that they have embraced PBL and begun to integrate it in their instruction beyond the treatment units. Their knowledge of NGSS and scientific practices has increased.
Conclusion
Our results provide evidence that teachers, working alongside researchers, can design, develop, enact, and revise materials to identify, encourage, and sustain optimal learning in their science classrooms. This finding has important implications for teachers who are transitioning to NGSS, and are looking for ways to integrate scientific practices into their instruction in meaningful ways. This study has also assembled an international professional learning community in which several countries have joined in undertaking similar investigations. Results from multiple countries allow us to validate results and better understand the ways that a PBL framework can be applied in different contexts.

Authors

• Barbara Schneider, Michigan State University

• Katariina Salmela-Aro, Cicero Learning, University of Helsinki

• Jari Lavonen, University of Helsinki

• Joseph S. Krajcik, Michigan State University

• Lindsey Young, Michigan State University

• Richard Chester, Michigan State University