The perception of separation between school and home/community is related to diminished achievement in school and lack of motivation to learn STEM subjects. The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is among many research organisations that have strongly recommended that schools bridge the disconnect between school-based knowledge and learners' everyday knowledge. We designed the SPIRALS (Supporting and Promoting Indigenous and Rural Adolescents' Learning of Science) curriculum to bridge this gap between formal science and students' everyday lives. SPIRALS helps students explore community-based practices to learn about science, environmental sustainability and systems thinking. We implemented the SPIRALS curriculum in a private, urban, English medium school in Western India with approximately 315 students and their four teachers, 214 (or 68%) of whom also participated in the research from which our conclusions are drawn. Our findings about program impacts rely upon analysis of interviews with teachers and students, as well as student work, and conference participation assessment surveys distributed after a capstone experience at which students present their work. This chapter describes our findings about how students learned science, environmental sustainability, and systems thinking through engagement with community-based practices. We also discuss the process of how the SPIRALS approach worked in India and how it could be expanded into a broader learning model across different socio-cultural contexts within India.

This research investigated how student social interactions within two approaches to an inquiry-based science curriculum could be related to student motivation and achievement outcomes. This qualitative case study consisted of two cases, Off-Campus and On-Campus, and used ethnographic techniques of participant observation. Research participants included eight eighth grade girls, aged 13–14 years old. Data sources included formal and informal participant interviews, participant journal reflections, curriculum artifacts including quizzes, worksheets, and student-generated research posters, digital video and audio recordings, photographs, and researcher field notes. Data were transcribed verbatim and coded, then collapsed into emergent themes using NVIVO 9. The results of this research illustrate how setting conditions that promote focused concentration and communicative interactions can be positively related to student motivation and achievement outcomes in inquiry-based science. Participants in the Off-Campus case experienced more frequent states of focused concentration and out performed their peers in the On-Campus case on 46 % of classroom assignments. Off-Campus participants also designed and implemented a more cognitively complex research project, provided more in-depth analyses of their research results, and expanded their perceptions of what it means to act like a scientist to a greater extent than participants in the On-Campus case. These results can be understood in relation to Flow Theory. Student interactions that promoted the criteria necessary for initiating flow, which included having clearly defined goals, receiving immediate feedback, and maintaining a balance between challenges and skills, fostered enhanced student motivation and achievement outcomes. Implications for science teaching and future research include shifting the current focus in inquiry-based science from a continuum that progresses from teacher-directed to open inquiry experiences to a continuum that also deliberately includes and promotes the necessary criteria for establishing flow. Attending to Flow Theory and incorporating student experiences with flow into inquiry-based science lessons will enhance student motivation and achievement outcomes in science and bolster the success of inquiry-based science.

In this article, we examine how American Indian students in Montana performed on standardized state science assessments when a small number of test items based upon traditional science knowledge from a cultural curriculum, “Indian Education for All”, were included. Montana is the first state in the US to mandate the use of a culturally relevant curriculum in all schools and to incorporate this curriculum into a portion of the standardized assessment items. This study compares White and American Indian student test scores on these particular test items to determine how White and American Indian students perform on culturally relevant test items compared to traditional standard science test items. The connections between student achievement on adapted culturally relevant science test items versus traditional items brings valuable insights to the fields of science education, research on student assessments, and Indigenous studies.

Concerns about rural student achievement in science are supported by several sources. Rural children experience higher drop out rates (US DOE 2010), perform worse on science achievement tests, and are underrepresented in science careers when compared with non-rural majority students (US DOE 2010). As a result, US rural high school students participate in advanced science courses at a much lower rate than suburban or urban students (US DOE 2010). A study of students in rural schools showed that students, regardless of their actual ability, tended to have weaker beliefs in their own academic ability and did not pursue additional educational opportunities compared to their suburban and urban peers (Young 2000). Andrew Gilbert and Randy Yerrick (2001) cite the social reproduction of low expectations for rural children in science as a contributing factor to the continued achievement gap. The causes underlying the gap are complex and rooted in historical, socio-cultural and educational factors that play out differently in rural and scientific communities. The articles in this special issue explore the nature of learning science in rural communities. It is important to keep in mind that rural communities are rich places of knowledge production steeped in traditions, beliefs, knowledge and practices.

The tacit messages transmitted to indigenous learners in the science classroom provide a lens through which indigenous disengagement with school science can be better understood. In this paper, the findings of a cross-national comparative study conducted with indigenous Maori students in New Zealand and Seediq/Atayal students in Taiwan are discussed from a sociological perspective. The purposes of the present study were to explore the ways in which indigenous elementary school students in two industrialized nations experience the science curriculum and to identify the socialization processes through which patterns of indigenous under-achievement in science are maintained and reproduced. The findings suggest that the peripheral positioning of indigenous culture and knowledge within the science curriculum in developed nations underpins a series of tacit pedagogical codes that contribute to indigenous student disengagement with the subject.

Despite increases over the last two decades in the number of degrees awarded to students from underrepresented groups in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, enhancing diversity in these disciplines remains a challenge. This article describes a strategic approach to this challenge—the development of a collaborative partnership between two universities: the historically Black Elizabeth City State University and the historically White University of New Hampshire. The partnership, a type of learning organization built on three mutually agreed upon principles, strives to enhance opportunities for underrepresented students to pursue careers in the STEM disciplines. This article further describes six promising practices that framed the partnership, which resulted in the submission of nine proposals to federal agencies and the funding of four grants that led to the implementation, research, learning, and evaluation that followed.

The perspectives of indigenous science learners in developed nations offer an important but frequently overlooked dimension to debates about the nature of science, the science curriculum, and calls from educators to make school science more culturally responsive or 'relevant' to students from indigenous or minority groups. In this paper the findings of a study conducted with indigenous Maori children between the ages of 10 and 12 years are discussed. The purpose of the study was to examine the ways that indigenous children in an urban school environment in New Zealand position themselves in relation to school science. Drawing on the work of Basil Bernstein, we argue that although the interplay between emergent cultural identity narratives and the formation of 'science selves' is not as yet fully understood, it carries the potential to open a rich seam of learning for indigenous children.

This chapter examines two case studies of student teaching interns to identify contextual factors that may enhance or inhibit their use of self-reflective practices.

We describe the development and evaluation of the university-wide, weeklong undergraduate research conference at the University of New Hampshire. Despite increases nationally in the number of undergraduate research conferences (URC), there has been little research examining the social and educational impact of these events on student presenters. We describe the development and evaluation of the university-wide, weeklong URC at the University of New Hampshire. A survey administered to URC participants over a four year period revealed that research culminating in a presentation at the URC was one of the more influential events students experienced during their undergraduate years and students realized a high level of satisfaction from presenting at the URC.

Teaching students how to conduct authentic scientific inquiry is an essential aspect of recent science education reform efforts. Our National Science Foundation-funded GK-12 program paired science graduate students—fellows—with secondary science teachers in order to enhance inquiry-based instruction. This research examined the roles of the fellows, teachers, and school culture in the implementation of inquiry and the fellows’ conceptions of classroom inquiry versus that in their own research. Qualitative data were collected for two academic years. Overall, the classrooms shifted toward a more inquiry-oriented approach over the academic year. Several aspects of school culture influenced inquiry implementation. Fellows described their research as similar in overall structure but less constrained by known concepts, less guided by mentors, and more in-depth than that of secondary school students. The teacher-fellow scientist partnership is a potentially effective professional development model to create positive and lasting change within the science classroom.

In the past decade, college and university officials have tried to formalize avenues that provide undergraduate students with opportunities to conduct research, either in direct collaboration with a faculty member or as independent research under the supervision of a faculty member. Administrators and faculty have worked to institutionalize these programs because they recognize the intrinsic benefits of these faculty student collaborations. Since most faculty balance a wide range of demands, we wanted to understand how faculty members view these partnerships in the larger context of their work. In 2008, as the Undergraduate Research Conference at our midsize public New England University entered its ninth year, the evaluation committee administered a survey to examine faculty members’ attitudes toward undergraduate research endeavors. Our results show that faculty felt overwhelmingly positive about their role as mentors. Full professors indicate more satisfaction in this role than associate and assistant professors.

"Unpacking the Complex Influence of Schooling, Sense of Place and Culture on the Motivation of Taiwanese Elementary Students to Learn Science in School: Using A Socio-Cultural Approach With Phenomenological Research Methodologies" published on 01 Jan 2009 by Brill.

Linking Accreditation and Engagement Convergence is occurring between external demands placed on U.S. higher education institutions, such as those from state and federal governments for greater accountability, and calls for higher education's recommitment to public purposes. One important example of this convergence is the redesign of accreditation processes and standards. Because of this redesign, accreditation--traditionally an academic and administrative activity--now has the potential to elevate and advance an institution's commitment to greater community engagement, a more contemporary, innovative institutional priority. Community engagement is the collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity (Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching 2007 unpaginated Web source). Its objective is to transform American public institutions to prepare citizens for the 21st century--to update the historical covenant between public higher education and its stakeholders. Engagement may take many forms: * Encouraging curricular engagement, such as faculty members integrating service-learning into their curricula or creating learning communities. * Creating community outreach and partnerships that link research with local, regional, national, or global needs. * Using technology to provide education for nontraditional students. * Improving access for demographically diverse groups. * Demonstrating learning outcomes (through assessment) while providing and improving quality education and containing the costs of providing that education. Linking the compliance aspects of accreditation with institutional needs and priorities (such as the advancement of engagement) may have many positive benefits. These can include improving the institution's competitiveness when seeking external funding, discovering faculty champions to support and lead the broader institutional strategic priorities identified in the commitment to engagement, and ultimately embedding engagement in the institution's academic and research culture to yield larger and better-designed opportunities to serve the public good. While accreditation and engagement initially may appear to be separate functions, we propose that the intellectual exploration of one--engagement--can enrich and add depth and meaning to the other--accreditation. We find that administrative and faculty leaders and supporters who can link these two functions can engage in an effective institutional change process, one that results in renewal, transformation, and advancement of innovative strategic priorities. This article explores trends in accreditation, engagement, and the synergy between the two by reviewing two public institutions with very different missions: the University of New Hampshire, a land-grant research institution, and the University of Southern Indiana, an institution with a broadly defined focus on education and service. We describe how these two distinctly different universities used an innovative accreditation process as a mechanism for transformation to embed and advance various engagement activities in their institutional cultures. The approaches used by these institutions reflect an interpretive accreditation strategy (Alstete 2004) in which campus leaders manage the process carefully to ensure participants understand the meaning and implications of change. In addition to organizational renewal, improvement, and transformation, we also explore the two-way impact of this synergistic process on individuals. Administrative leaders and faculty members who served as change agents were also transformed by this innovative accreditation review process. At both institutions, leaders involved a range of new faculty champions in parallel strategic planning processes that emphasized engagement. …