Jana Bouwmagearhart - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Jana Bouwmagearhart

2015 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition Proceedings, 2015

is a post doctoral scholar at Oregon State University. She is currently participating in a projec... more is a post doctoral scholar at Oregon State University. She is currently participating in a project that supports the use of evidence-based instructional practices in undergraduate STEM courses through developing communities of practice. Her research interests focus on understanding how organizational change occurs in higher education with respect to teaching and learning in STEM courses.

2015 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition Proceedings, 2015

He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from UC San Diego and his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, all in Ch... more He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from UC San Diego and his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, all in Chemical Engineering. He currently has research activity in areas related engineering education and is interested in integrating technology into effective educational practices and in promoting the use of higher-level cognitive skills in engineering problem solving. His research interests particularly focus on what prevents students from being able to integrate and extend the knowledge developed in specific courses in the core curriculum to the more complex, authentic problems and projects they face as professionals. Dr. Koretsky is one of the founding members of the Center for Lifelong STEM Education Research at OSU.

Academic Exchange Quarterly, 2011

Proquest Dissertations and Theses Thesis the University of Wisconsin Madison 2008 Publication Number Aai3327743 Isbn 9780549805786 Source Dissertation Abstracts International Volume 69 09 Section a Page 3469 259 P, 2008

There is a national movement to improve undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathe... more There is a national movement to improve undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. Given the percentage of academics teaching and training at research institutions, there is a parallel movement to improve the quality of teaching-focused professional development for practicing and future STEM educators at these institutions. While research into the effectiveness of teaching professional development at the postsecondary level has increased over the last 40 years, little attention has been paid to understanding faculty perceptions regarding what constitutes effective teaching professional development. Less is known about how to best meet the needs of STEM faculty at research universities and why, given that they are seldom required to engage in teaching professional development, they bother to participate at all. The higher education research community must develop theory grounded in the knowledge and practical experiences of the faculty engaged in teaching professional development. I have studied what motivates twelve research university science and engineering faculty to engage in teaching professional development in light of local supports and barriers and the resulting value of their participation. I have interpreted the experiences of my research participants to indicate that they were motivated to engage in teaching professional development to fulfill a need to bring their teaching competencies in better concordance with their professional strengths as researchers. Once engaged, my research participants increased their teaching competence and achieved more autonomy with respect to their professional practice. As they continued to engage, they internalized the values and practices associated with effective teaching professional development and adopted the commitment to continually problematize their teaching practice as more of their own. My research participants attempted to transfer their revised stance regarding teaching and teaching professional development to their student mentees and colleagues. They found certain teaching professional development types and topics to be more meaningful and of interest than others. My research findings may inform those committed to the improvement of postsecondary STEM education at research universities, including teaching professional development advocates and implementers and participating faculty members themselves.

International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 2012

While research into the effectiveness of teaching professional development for postsecondary educ... more While research into the effectiveness of teaching professional development for postsecondary educators has increased over the last 40 years, little is known about science faculty members' teaching professional development needs and their perceptions regarding what constitutes meaningful teaching professional development. Informed by an extensive review of the literature and numerous research projects involving hundreds of faculty members in the sciences from multiple universities, this paper seeks to help science faculty members assess their own teaching professional development needs as well as to seek out meaningful and effective teaching professional development activities to help meet their needs.

Journal of Science Education and Technology, 2012

Http Dx Doi Org 10 1525 Abt 2015 77 2 8, Mar 6, 2015

Journal of College Science Teaching, Sep 1, 2014

The Journal of Higher Education, 2012

We explore the benefits and limitations of traditional academic research, collaboration, and know... more We explore the benefits and limitations of traditional academic research, collaboration, and knowledge dissemination, and discuss the potential of blogs towards better meeting the higher education research community’s needs. We present possible parameters of use, reward structures, and how the field can model this innovative means of academic collaboration.

International Journal of Science Education, 2009

Understanding the particulate nature of matter (PNM) is vital for participating in many areas of ... more Understanding the particulate nature of matter (PNM) is vital for participating in many areas of science. We assessed 11 students’ atomic/molecular‐level explanations of real‐world phenomena after their participation in a modelling‐based PNM unit. All 11 students offered a scientifically acceptable model regarding atomic/molecular behaviour in non‐heated solids. Yet, 10 of 11 students expressed the view that, in response to added

Innovative Higher Education, 2007

Despite calls for greater agreement in defining the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), ... more Despite calls for greater agreement in defining the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), terms that resemble SoTL are proliferating. An NSF-sponsored center for teaching and learning coined its own term, teaching-as-research (TAR), believing it would resonate better with research-active scientists, engineers, and mathematicians. To understand whether this was a wise strategy, we interviewed 43 participants from courses that sought to explain and demonstrate TAR. Our study found that participants defined TAR with varying complexity and that disciplinary concepts generally provided "conceptual handles" for making sense of TAR. However, tailoring a term to particular disciplines entails several challenging tradeoffs.

Learning modeling-based scientific inquiry (MBI) can be a challenge for educators and students al... more Learning modeling-based scientific inquiry (MBI) can be a challenge for educators and students alike. Teacher educators have used various approaches, experiences, and tools to aid in preparing future science teachers to use MBI in the classroom. However, this ambitious vision of practice remains elusive for most science teachers. This qualitative case study investigates the following research questions: (1) What and how do participants learn from immersion in an authentic modeling-based ecology experience that is intended to be both a science experience and a science teaching experience? (2) What are the unintended consequences of learning that is situated in modeling-based inquiry for pre-service teachers? Findings from this study indicate that authentic inquiry experiences, if too far-removed from teachers' prior or future classroom practice, will not transfer easily to a teacher's practice. Furthermore, a short-term experience engaging with scientists might emphasize science content and obscure the instructor's focus on science teaching practices. Findings from this study can inform science teacher educators about the affordances and limitations of situating learning in a modeling-based inquiry community of practice. 1. Introduction While modeling-based science curricula and modeling-based inquiry instructional approaches show promise for providing effective learning experiences for students, most science teachers have not experienced this type of inquiry as students in middle school and high school, in their teacher preparation courses, or as a professional development opportunity (Schwartz, Lederman, & Crawford, 2004; Windschitl, Thompson, & Braaten, 2008). Specifically, during undergraduate science coursework teachers often experienced " 'doing science' only through highly scripted laboratory activities and lectures where instructors rarely discuss in explicit terms how science is done " (Windschitl, Thompson, & Braaten, 2008, p. 311). Although some pre-service teacher methods courses and in-service teacher professional development programs attempt to inform participants about modeling-based inquiry, intervention courses that teach about such inquiry have so far been only partially successful (Windschitl, et al., 2008). Not all teachers who learn about modeling-based inquiry will effectively implement this pedagogy in their classrooms. Windschitl et al. (2008) contend that preparing educators to teach with modeling is not as straightforward as it may seem. Because of a more traditional science background, many science teachers are ill prepared to incorporate modeling into their pedagogy; and successful models of how to teach modeling-based inquiry are needed (Harlow, 2010; Windschitl, Thompson & Braaten, 2008). This study reports on a course that was specifically designed for participants to engage in modeling-based inquiry under the guidance of a science teacher educator and a biologist who collaborated in the development and instruction of the course. Over three weeks, course participants engaged in first-hand modeling-based inquiry experiences focused on central questions in tropical ecology. The course began with four days of coursework in the U.S. followed by an immersion experience in Costa Rica with participants working alongside research scientists. Taking this promising immersion experience as a case study, we examine the following questions: (a) What and how do participants learn from immersion in an authentic modeling-based ecology experience that is intended to be both a science experience and a science teaching experience? (b) What are the unintended consequences of learning that is situated in modeling-based inquiry for pre-service teachers? Findings emerging from this study may help other science teacher educators problematize modeling-based inquiry experiences for pre-service and in-service teachers prompting further consideration of how these contexts do (or do not) situate teacher learning in a community of modeling-based inquiry practice. Windschitl, Thompson and Braaten (2008) call for a way for learners to engage with content and practices of more " authentic science…[through] forms of inquiry based on the generation, testing, and revision of scientific models—i.e., modeling-based inquiry " (p. 942). Modeling-based inquiry is a specific form of inquiry that aims " to test an idea—represented as a system of related processes, events or structures—against observations in the real world and to assess the adequacy of the representation (i.e., model) against certain standards " (Windschitl, et al., 2008, p. 313). This study is based on a guided form of inquiry that asks participants, as part of their course projects, to develop learning goals that require a deep understanding of key disciplinary models and cultivation of defendable explanations of the natural world.

2015 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition Proceedings, 2015

is a post doctoral scholar at Oregon State University. She is currently participating in a projec... more is a post doctoral scholar at Oregon State University. She is currently participating in a project that supports the use of evidence-based instructional practices in undergraduate STEM courses through developing communities of practice. Her research interests focus on understanding how organizational change occurs in higher education with respect to teaching and learning in STEM courses.

2015 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition Proceedings, 2015

He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from UC San Diego and his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, all in Ch... more He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from UC San Diego and his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, all in Chemical Engineering. He currently has research activity in areas related engineering education and is interested in integrating technology into effective educational practices and in promoting the use of higher-level cognitive skills in engineering problem solving. His research interests particularly focus on what prevents students from being able to integrate and extend the knowledge developed in specific courses in the core curriculum to the more complex, authentic problems and projects they face as professionals. Dr. Koretsky is one of the founding members of the Center for Lifelong STEM Education Research at OSU.

Academic Exchange Quarterly, 2011

Proquest Dissertations and Theses Thesis the University of Wisconsin Madison 2008 Publication Number Aai3327743 Isbn 9780549805786 Source Dissertation Abstracts International Volume 69 09 Section a Page 3469 259 P, 2008

There is a national movement to improve undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathe... more There is a national movement to improve undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. Given the percentage of academics teaching and training at research institutions, there is a parallel movement to improve the quality of teaching-focused professional development for practicing and future STEM educators at these institutions. While research into the effectiveness of teaching professional development at the postsecondary level has increased over the last 40 years, little attention has been paid to understanding faculty perceptions regarding what constitutes effective teaching professional development. Less is known about how to best meet the needs of STEM faculty at research universities and why, given that they are seldom required to engage in teaching professional development, they bother to participate at all. The higher education research community must develop theory grounded in the knowledge and practical experiences of the faculty engaged in teaching professional development. I have studied what motivates twelve research university science and engineering faculty to engage in teaching professional development in light of local supports and barriers and the resulting value of their participation. I have interpreted the experiences of my research participants to indicate that they were motivated to engage in teaching professional development to fulfill a need to bring their teaching competencies in better concordance with their professional strengths as researchers. Once engaged, my research participants increased their teaching competence and achieved more autonomy with respect to their professional practice. As they continued to engage, they internalized the values and practices associated with effective teaching professional development and adopted the commitment to continually problematize their teaching practice as more of their own. My research participants attempted to transfer their revised stance regarding teaching and teaching professional development to their student mentees and colleagues. They found certain teaching professional development types and topics to be more meaningful and of interest than others. My research findings may inform those committed to the improvement of postsecondary STEM education at research universities, including teaching professional development advocates and implementers and participating faculty members themselves.

International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 2012

While research into the effectiveness of teaching professional development for postsecondary educ... more While research into the effectiveness of teaching professional development for postsecondary educators has increased over the last 40 years, little is known about science faculty members' teaching professional development needs and their perceptions regarding what constitutes meaningful teaching professional development. Informed by an extensive review of the literature and numerous research projects involving hundreds of faculty members in the sciences from multiple universities, this paper seeks to help science faculty members assess their own teaching professional development needs as well as to seek out meaningful and effective teaching professional development activities to help meet their needs.

Journal of Science Education and Technology, 2012

Http Dx Doi Org 10 1525 Abt 2015 77 2 8, Mar 6, 2015

Journal of College Science Teaching, Sep 1, 2014

The Journal of Higher Education, 2012

We explore the benefits and limitations of traditional academic research, collaboration, and know... more We explore the benefits and limitations of traditional academic research, collaboration, and knowledge dissemination, and discuss the potential of blogs towards better meeting the higher education research community’s needs. We present possible parameters of use, reward structures, and how the field can model this innovative means of academic collaboration.

International Journal of Science Education, 2009

Understanding the particulate nature of matter (PNM) is vital for participating in many areas of ... more Understanding the particulate nature of matter (PNM) is vital for participating in many areas of science. We assessed 11 students’ atomic/molecular‐level explanations of real‐world phenomena after their participation in a modelling‐based PNM unit. All 11 students offered a scientifically acceptable model regarding atomic/molecular behaviour in non‐heated solids. Yet, 10 of 11 students expressed the view that, in response to added

Innovative Higher Education, 2007

Despite calls for greater agreement in defining the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), ... more Despite calls for greater agreement in defining the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), terms that resemble SoTL are proliferating. An NSF-sponsored center for teaching and learning coined its own term, teaching-as-research (TAR), believing it would resonate better with research-active scientists, engineers, and mathematicians. To understand whether this was a wise strategy, we interviewed 43 participants from courses that sought to explain and demonstrate TAR. Our study found that participants defined TAR with varying complexity and that disciplinary concepts generally provided "conceptual handles" for making sense of TAR. However, tailoring a term to particular disciplines entails several challenging tradeoffs.

Learning modeling-based scientific inquiry (MBI) can be a challenge for educators and students al... more Learning modeling-based scientific inquiry (MBI) can be a challenge for educators and students alike. Teacher educators have used various approaches, experiences, and tools to aid in preparing future science teachers to use MBI in the classroom. However, this ambitious vision of practice remains elusive for most science teachers. This qualitative case study investigates the following research questions: (1) What and how do participants learn from immersion in an authentic modeling-based ecology experience that is intended to be both a science experience and a science teaching experience? (2) What are the unintended consequences of learning that is situated in modeling-based inquiry for pre-service teachers? Findings from this study indicate that authentic inquiry experiences, if too far-removed from teachers' prior or future classroom practice, will not transfer easily to a teacher's practice. Furthermore, a short-term experience engaging with scientists might emphasize science content and obscure the instructor's focus on science teaching practices. Findings from this study can inform science teacher educators about the affordances and limitations of situating learning in a modeling-based inquiry community of practice. 1. Introduction While modeling-based science curricula and modeling-based inquiry instructional approaches show promise for providing effective learning experiences for students, most science teachers have not experienced this type of inquiry as students in middle school and high school, in their teacher preparation courses, or as a professional development opportunity (Schwartz, Lederman, & Crawford, 2004; Windschitl, Thompson, & Braaten, 2008). Specifically, during undergraduate science coursework teachers often experienced " 'doing science' only through highly scripted laboratory activities and lectures where instructors rarely discuss in explicit terms how science is done " (Windschitl, Thompson, & Braaten, 2008, p. 311). Although some pre-service teacher methods courses and in-service teacher professional development programs attempt to inform participants about modeling-based inquiry, intervention courses that teach about such inquiry have so far been only partially successful (Windschitl, et al., 2008). Not all teachers who learn about modeling-based inquiry will effectively implement this pedagogy in their classrooms. Windschitl et al. (2008) contend that preparing educators to teach with modeling is not as straightforward as it may seem. Because of a more traditional science background, many science teachers are ill prepared to incorporate modeling into their pedagogy; and successful models of how to teach modeling-based inquiry are needed (Harlow, 2010; Windschitl, Thompson & Braaten, 2008). This study reports on a course that was specifically designed for participants to engage in modeling-based inquiry under the guidance of a science teacher educator and a biologist who collaborated in the development and instruction of the course. Over three weeks, course participants engaged in first-hand modeling-based inquiry experiences focused on central questions in tropical ecology. The course began with four days of coursework in the U.S. followed by an immersion experience in Costa Rica with participants working alongside research scientists. Taking this promising immersion experience as a case study, we examine the following questions: (a) What and how do participants learn from immersion in an authentic modeling-based ecology experience that is intended to be both a science experience and a science teaching experience? (b) What are the unintended consequences of learning that is situated in modeling-based inquiry for pre-service teachers? Findings emerging from this study may help other science teacher educators problematize modeling-based inquiry experiences for pre-service and in-service teachers prompting further consideration of how these contexts do (or do not) situate teacher learning in a community of modeling-based inquiry practice. Windschitl, Thompson and Braaten (2008) call for a way for learners to engage with content and practices of more " authentic science…[through] forms of inquiry based on the generation, testing, and revision of scientific models—i.e., modeling-based inquiry " (p. 942). Modeling-based inquiry is a specific form of inquiry that aims " to test an idea—represented as a system of related processes, events or structures—against observations in the real world and to assess the adequacy of the representation (i.e., model) against certain standards " (Windschitl, et al., 2008, p. 313). This study is based on a guided form of inquiry that asks participants, as part of their course projects, to develop learning goals that require a deep understanding of key disciplinary models and cultivation of defendable explanations of the natural world.