Measuring and Supporting Student Experiences in Biology Classrooms: Design Tensions in Assessing Interest and Identity Dimensions of Science Learning

• In Event: Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives and Tensions in Developing 3-D Classroom Assessment That Promote Equity

Abstract

Objectives:
This paper presents design tensions arising from a multi-year effort to promote formative use of evidence related to student experience as a means to support epistemic justice in science learning.

Theoretical Framework:
Sociocultural models of assessment accordingly emphasize how learning and identity are intertwined (Author & other, 2016). They offer a powerful account for helping us to see how eliciting and making use of students’ interests, concerns, experiences, and identities in instruction can/might promote equity in classrooms, insofar as they can help us to illuminate ways to expand our understandings of disciplinary practices and who can take part in them (Bell, Tzou, Bricker, & Baines, 2012; Tan & Calabrese Barton, 2012). At the system level, they may also help to promote epistemic justice, defined here as supporting and repairing students’ self-perceptions as agents of knowing and reasoning in science classrooms and in the community by engaging in inclusive instructional practices that explicitly link learning opportunities to learners’ identities (Author & other, 2019).

Methods, Modes of Inquiry:
This paper synthesizes evidence from two different studies, a user study and a series of Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles (Bryk, Gomez, Grunow, & LeMahieu, 2015), in which researchers and educators worked together to test strategies for promoting more equitable group collaboration and measure their effects.

Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials:
A key source of evidence related to student experience is a brief survey we call the Student Electronic Exit Ticket (SEET). The SEET is comprised of a set of items that have been validated for the purpose of helping identify differences across classrooms in student experience, as well as within classroom differences by race, gender, and home language. In addition, we draw on transcripts from interviews with teachers about their noticings and questions when viewing hypothetical SEET data. We also rely on transcripts of Plan-Do-Study-Cycles.

Findings:
We found large differences between classrooms—in terms of student experience—that were in many cases greater than within classroom differences. Presenting these differences to teachers could, we reasoned, provide an impetus for peer learning; however, we also wanted to create an atmosphere of safety that was removed from accountability pressures and comparisons. Our solution has been to focus on providing teachers with access to their own data, and then presenting findings of associations of experience and learning. It has provided our partnership, too, with a good benchmark of our progress. At the same time, as a consequence of this decision, we have limited leverage to address issues of equity by elevating educators whose practice is more exemplary. More design decisions like this will be discussed in the full paper.

Scholarly significance of the study:
This study shows both the challenges and potential of using student experience data as a leverage point for promoting epistemic justice at the level of a partnership.

Authors

• William R. Penuel, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Ali Raza, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Douglas Adam Watkins, Denver Public Schools

• Annie Allen, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Tamara Sumner, University of Colorado