Dobaria publishes first lead author peer-reviewed journal article

Along with SLRG co-members, Archie Dobaria recently published an article highlighting results and analyses associated with the MEL Project. The team compared the more autonomy-supportive baMEL to the less autonomy-supportive pcMEL and found that both scaffolds shifted high school student and preservice teacher participants’ plausibility judgments toward a more scientific stance and increased their knowledge about the topics. Additional analyses revealed that the baMEL resulted in deeper evaluations and had stronger relations between levels of evaluation and post-instructional plausibility judgements and knowledge compared to the pcMEL.

SLRG members Sinatra and Lombardi publish with University of Southern California’s Imogen Herrick!

There has never been a more pressing need for students to learn how to evaluate scientific information online than during the COVID-19 outbreak. Information, misinformation, and disinformation spread quickly across online news and social media platforms. This misleading or incorrect scientific information about infectious diseases could lead to negative outcomes for those who believe it is true or follow the information. Published in winter 2023 edition of The Science Teacher, Herrick et al. outline six steps to support students in evaluating scientific claims online.

Governor’s Science Cafés Article Published in Research in Science Education!

Along with co-authors Gina Childers, David Osmond, and Stacy Britton, SLRG’s own Donna Governor has published a new article in Research in Science Education, a prestigious science education research journal.

Science cafés create open, public forums to promote the exchange of ideas between science experts and the public. This innovative research merged perspectives on informal learning
environments based on self-determination theory and the contextual model of learning. In fact, most science cafés attendees said that knowledge and learning;
fulfilled personal needs, but social interactions, with other attendees and science experts also factored heavily in the decision to attend. Exciting work as we seek to understand how to better engage the public in the scientific enterprise!

Dr. Bailey’s Two New Publications

SLRG member Janelle Bailey has recently published two new articles. Along with Temple alumna and staff member Jess McLaughlin, a systematic review of spatial thinking research in geoscience education was recently published as an open access article in Studies in Science Education. This paper emerged from Jess’s capstone project for her M.Ed. in Educational Psychology at Temple. The second paper is a practitioner piece on the astronomy MEL activities, co-written by Doug Lombardi and published in The Physics Teacher’s AstroNotes column.

Citations: 

Bailey, J. M., & Lombardi, D. (2022). Astronomy activities for promoting scientific evaluation [AstroNotes column]. The Physics Teacher, 60(3), 87–88. https://doi.org/10.1119/10.0009695

McLaughlin, J. A., & Bailey, J. M. (2022). Students need more practice with spatial thinking in geoscience education: A systematic review of the literature. Studies in Science Education, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057267.2022.2029305 [open access at this link]

“The Curious Construct of Active Learning”: Doug Lombardi publishes in PSPI

Our own Dr. Doug Lombardi published an article with colleagues about active learning in Psychological Science in the Public Interest (PSPI). Association for Psychological Science reports:

In the latest issue of Psychological Science in the Public Interest (PSPI), teams of researchers across many disciplines synthesized recent findings on STEM learning to provide a focused description of active learning and offer guidance on current practice and future research.

‘Because of the vagaries of the term “active learning,” my colleagues and I wanted to provide a coherent and actionable concept of active learning that incorporates a wide array of research disciplines,’ said Doug Lombardi, a researcher at the University of Maryland, College Park, and first author on the paper. ‘Our goal was to provide a clear picture of active learning and offer guidance on research and practice.’

Check out the article here.

Study on science cafes’ influence on adult science learning

Dr. Donna Governor’s recently published paper on how science cafes, which are open forums promoting the exchange of science ideas between scientists and the public, shows how they can help adults learn science. The study explored Science Café attendees’ interest in science content, and motivational factors in attending events as well as documenting what attendees did with the information presented at an event through the means of a survey and interviews.

Check out the paper here.