Self-directed Science Learning During COVID-19 and Beyond.

Prompted by the sudden shift to remote instruction in March 2020 brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers explored online resources to support their students learning from home. We report on how twelve teachers identified and creatively leveraged open educational resources (OERs) and practices to facilitate self-directed science learning. Based on interviews and logged data, we illustrate how teachers' use of OER starkly differed from the typical uses of technology for transmitting information or increasing productivity. These experiences provide insights into ways teachers and professional developers can take advantage of OER to promote self-directed learning when in-person instruction resumes.

Designing a remote professional development course to support teacher customization in science.

This study reports on the design, implementation, and impact of a remote professional development (PD) course for secondary school teachers who were transitioning to remote instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic. We designed technology innovations to strengthen the previously successful in-person course. The innovations support teachers to customize an instructional unit by setting and revising goals based on evidence from their students' prior work on the unit. A Curriculum Visualizer makes the pedagogy of the unit visible and guides planning for customization. Carefully curated small group activities using Zoom breakout rooms ensure that each teacher could share their thoughts, ideas, and impressions with other teachers. Participants were 23 science teachers from 12 different schools in a western U.S. state. We developed rubrics to code customization goals, plans, and moves using bottom-up methods and iterative refinement. Reflections on student work and use of the Curriculum Visualizer enabled teachers to set and refine customization goals and make evidence-based and pedagogy-aligned customization decisions that enhanced the interactive learning opportunities for their students. Our results reinforce the C-b model proposed by Sailer et al. (this issue) by illustrating the value of using technology to support collaborative, interactive PD activities.

The Cognitive Load of Inpatient Consults: Development of the Consult Cognitive Load Instrument and Initial Validity Evidence.

PURPOSE: Fellows and residents provide inpatient consultations. Though consults vary considerably, measuring the associated cognitive load (CL) is key to guiding faculty on how to optimize learning during consults. However, existing CL instruments, such as the unidimensional Paas scale, cannot separate the 3 components of CL and may miss the nuances of consult CL. Therefore, the authors developed the Consult Cognitive Load (CCL) instrument to measure the 3 CL components during consults. METHOD: In 2018-2019, the authors developed the CCL at the University of California, San Francisco, using Wilson's constructive approach to measurement. To generate content and response process validity evidence, the authors consulted the literature and experts to generate construct maps, items, and a scoring rubric and conducted cognitive interviews. They administered the CCL to internal medicine and psychiatry trainees across 5 University of California campuses and used Rasch family and linear regression models to assess internal structure validity and relationships to key predictor variables. They compared the CCL with the Paas scale using Wright maps and used latent correlations to support separating CL into 3 components. RESULTS: Analysis revealed appropriate fit statistics, appropriate mean respondent location increases across all levels, threshold banding, and expected relationships with key predictor variables. The CCL provided more coverage of the 3 CL components compared with the Paas scale. Correlations among the 3 CL components were not strong, suggesting that the CCL offers more nuance than a unidimensional measure of CL in the context of consults. CONCLUSIONS: This study generated initial validity evidence to support the CCL's use as a measure of consult CL and supports measuring the 3 CL components separately rather than as a single construct in the context of consults. Learners and faculty could compare learner CCL scores with reference scores to promote reflection, metacognition, and coaching.

Education. Undergraduate research experiences: impacts and opportunities.

Most undergraduates give high ratings to research experiences. Studies report that these experiences improve participation and persistence, often by strengthening students' views of themselves as scientists. Yet, the evidence for these claims is weak. More than half the 60 studies reviewed rely on self-report surveys or interviews. Rather than introducing new images of science, research experiences may reinforce flawed images especially of research practices and conceptual understanding. The most convincing studies show benefits for mentoring and for communicating the nature of science, but the ideas that students learn are often isolated or fragmented rather than integrated and coherent. Rigorous research is needed to identify ways to design research experiences so that they promote integrated understanding. These studies need powerful and generalizable assessments that can document student progress, help distinguish effective and ineffective aspects of the experiences, and illustrate how students interpret the research experiences they encounter. To create research experiences that meet the needs of interested students and make effective use of scarce resources, we encourage systematic, iterative studies with multiple indicators of success.

Physical and virtual laboratories in science and engineering education.

The world needs young people who are skillful in and enthusiastic about science and who view science as their future career field. Ensuring that we will have such young people requires initiatives that engage students in interesting and motivating science experiences. Today, students can investigate scientific phenomena using the tools, data collection techniques, models, and theories of science in physical laboratories that support interactions with the material world or in virtual laboratories that take advantage of simulations. Here, we review a selection of the literature to contrast the value of physical and virtual investigations and to offer recommendations for combining the two to strengthen science learning.

Cross-national patterns of gender differences in mathematics: a meta-analysis.

A gender gap in mathematics achievement persists in some nations but not in others. In light of the underrepresentation of women in careers in science, technology, mathematics, and engineering, increasing research attention is being devoted to understanding gender differences in mathematics achievement, attitudes, and affect. The gender stratification hypothesis maintains that such gender differences are closely related to cultural variations in opportunity structures for girls and women. We meta-analyzed 2 major international data sets, the 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study and the Programme for International Student Assessment, representing 493,495 students 14-16 years of age, to estimate the magnitude of gender differences in mathematics achievement, attitudes, and affect across 69 nations throughout the world. Consistent with the gender similarities hypothesis, all of the mean effect sizes in mathematics achievement were very small (d < 0.15); however, national effect sizes showed considerable variability (ds = -0.42 to 0.40). Despite gender similarities in achievement, boys reported more positive math attitudes and affect (ds = 0.10 to 0.33); national effect sizes ranged from d = -0.61 to 0.89. In contrast to those of previous tests of the gender stratification hypothesis, our results point to specific domains of gender equity responsible for gender gaps in math. Gender equity in school enrollment, women's share of research jobs, and women's parliamentary representation were the most powerful predictors of cross-national variability in gender gaps in math. Results are situated within the context of existing research demonstrating apparently paradoxical effects of societal gender equity and highlight the significance of increasing girls' and women's agency cross-nationally.

New trends in gender and mathematics performance: a meta-analysis.

In this article, we use meta-analysis to analyze gender differences in recent studies of mathematics performance. First, we meta-analyzed data from 242 studies published between 1990 and 2007, representing the testing of 1,286,350 people. Overall, d = 0.05, indicating no gender difference, and variance ratio = 1.08, indicating nearly equal male and female variances. Second, we analyzed data from large data sets based on probability sampling of U.S. adolescents over the past 20 years: the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth, the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, the Longitudinal Study of American Youth, and the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Effect sizes for the gender difference ranged between -0.15 and +0.22. Variance ratios ranged from 0.88 to 1.34. Taken together, these findings support the view that males and females perform similarly in mathematics.