Educational assessment systems are frequently challenged by divergent stakeholder needs. A major insight from experts who work on school assessment systems is the need to clearly articulate and evaluate assessment choices in relation to these distinct goals. The out-of-school STEM ecosystem faces similar challenges. This background paper presents ideas for new assessment methodologies that include biographical and narrative approaches, measures of sustained learning, and social network representations to complement more traditional approaches that capture average effects of a particular
As collective impact initiatives blossom around the country, Northern Kentucky provides a case study in handling a dilemma that can spring from that growth: When multiple initiatives develop overlapping missions, members, and audiences, how can you reduce competition and increase impact? Today, Northern Kentucky's education initiatives are aligned through a backbone organization that aims to improve all youth supports, from birth to career.
One challenge in scaling up effective educational programs is how to adjust implementation to local contexts. One solution that the authors Penuel, Fishman, Cheng, and Sabelli propose is “design-based implementation research,” (DBIR) in which researchers and practitioners collaboratively identify problems and strategies during implementation while learning from this process to support innovations in new contexts.
During the first EU-funded project EUSCE/X (European Science Communication Events / Extended), a "White Book" was developed in 2005, containing the experiences of exploring 21 European science engagement events like science festivals. The White Book has 13 chapters ranging from "purpose and philosophy" across "management", "education", "funding" to "European dimension".
This article explains the concepts of disruptive innovation and catalytic innovation, a subset of disruptive innovation. Disruptive innovations challenge industry incumbents by offering simpler, good-enough alternatives to an underserved group of customers, whereas catalytic innovations can surpass the status quo by providing good-enough solutions to inadequately addressed social problems.
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Clayton ChristensenHeather BaumannRandy RugglesThomas Sadtler
In the paper I argue for a certain way of theorizing and studying learning. Learning is seen as situated in social practice, and in the pursuit of most learning persons are seen as moving around in social practice. They are involved in personal trajectories across various social contexts of practice. Even more so, these social contexts and the links between them, which persons learning draw on in their pursuit of learning, are institutionally arranged in various ways, and this affects the opportunities and nature of learning processes. These arguments about the nature of learning, theories of
To effectively address problems in education, research must be shaped around a problem of practice. Reorienting research and development in this way must overcome three obstacles. First, the incentive system for university researchers must be changed to reward research on problems of practice. Second, the contexts must be created that will allow the complexity of problems of practice to be understood and addressed by interdisciplinary teams of researchers, practitioners, and education designers. And third, meaningful experimentation must become acceptable in school systems in order to develop
The digital revolution has transformed how young people discover and pursue their interests; how they communicate with and learn from other people; and how they encounter and learn about the world around them. How can we identify best practices for incorporating new media technologies into learning environments in a way that resonates with youth, including their interests, goals, and the ways they use technology in their everyday lives? How do we resolve the need to document and recognize informal STEM learning and connect it to formal education contexts? What strategies can be developed for inspiring and tracking student progress towards the learning goals outlined in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)? These questions are the underlying motivation for this CAREER program of research. Digital badges represent a specific kind of networked technology and have been touted as an alternative credentialing system for recognizing and rewarding learning across domains, both inside and outside of formal education contexts. While there is considerable enthusiasm and speculation around the use of digital badges, the extent to which they succeed at empowering learners and connecting their learning across contexts remains largely untested. This project seeks to fill this gap in knowledge. The approach taken for this program of study is a three phased design-based research effort that will be focused on four objectives: (1) identifying design principles and support structures needed to develop and implement a digital badge system that recognizes informal STEM learning; (2) documenting the opportunities and challenges associated with building a digital badge ecosystem that connects informal learning contexts to formal education and employment opportunities; (3) determining whether and how digital badges support learners' STEM identities; and (4) determining whether and how digital badges help learners to connect their informal STEM learning to formal education and employment opportunities. In Phase 1, an existing prototype created in prior work at Seattle's Pacific Science Center will be developed into a fully functional digital badge system. In Phase 2, the PI will also work collaboratively with higher education stakeholders to establish formal mechanisms for recognizing Pacific Science Center badges in higher education contexts. In Phase 3, the badge ecosystem will be expanded and students' use of and engagement with badges will be tracked as they apply to and enter college. The project involves high school students participating in the Discovery Corps program at the Pacific Science Center, undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Washington, and stakeholders in the K-12 and higher education community in Seattle. Educational activities integrated with this program of research will support: (1) mentoring University of Washington students throughout the project to develop their skills as practice-oriented researchers; (2) incorporating the research processes and findings from the project into university courses aimed at developing students' understanding of the opportunities and challenges associated with using new media technologies to support learning; and (3) using the research findings to develop educational outreach initiatives to support other informal STEM learning institutions in their use of digital badges.
This article focuses on collective impact, the idea that large-scale social change requires broad cross-sector coordination rather than a focus on isolated interventions in individual organizations. The article lays out five conditions that help organizations collaborate--a common agenda, shared measurement systems, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication, and backbone support organization.
This presentation was part of the "Broader Impacts at Centers and Large Facilities" dyad at the 2015 CAISE Convening on Broader Impacts + Informal Science Education held in Arlington, VA on April 7-8. The presentation outlines how centers and large facilities have used informal learning experiences for broader impacts, identifying key opportunity areas for Broader Impacts and Informal Education as programming, partnerships, communication, and evaluation.
This presentation was part of the "ISE Learning Research and Evaluation" dyad at the 2015 CAISE Convening on Broader Impacts + Informal Science Education held in Arlington, VA on April 7-8. The presentation describes the difference between research and evaluation, highlights from informal science education (ISE) findings in the learning sciences, research and evaluation highlights, and potential research and evaluation questions.
McCallie et al. (2009) propose that two pedagogical models within informal science education, public understanding of science and public engagement with science, constitute a continuum rather than separate paradigms. This chapter seeks to understand the spread of informal science education projects along this continuum and uncover groupings through the creation of a project catalog. Through cluster analysis, it was found that the submitted projects fell into four categories along the spectrum: expert presentations and Q&A sessions about the natural and designed world; exhibits encouraging