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The author investigated whether situated instruction produces more usable, transferable knowledge than instruction that is abstracted from the context of its use. To test that theory, 220 Grade 7 students were instructed on the topic of causality. Half the students were taught how to determine whether a research study shows a cause-and-effect relationship under the situated-learning model. The remaining students were taught the same concept under the abstracted instruction model. An additional factor, teaching for transfer, also was investigated. Although there were significant differences in learning immediately following instruction, there were no differences on the transfer task due to instructional condition or transfer training. Of the 194 participants who completed the transfer task, only 2 students spontaneously transferred their learning.

This chapter describes early influences on the creation of the broad field of action research, from Collier to Lewin, to the connection of action research to education by Corey, and then to the curriculum projects in the United Kingdom that influenced the practitioner research movement. For both Collier and Lewin, it was authentic problems and the desire for social change that influenced their ideas about research. This was a natural result of the overwhelming issues of the times: oppression of minority groups, turbulent economic conditions, and the uncertainties of war. As educational action research spread throughout the world, it took on different forms and was connected to different purposes, some that were more technical and rational in nature, and others that focused more on critical and emancipatory ends. In the United Kingdom, action research took on both practical and technical issues as well as those that were critical and emancipatory in nature.

The Impact of a Problem-Based Learning Launcher Unit on Eighth Grade Students’ Motivation and Interest in ScienceAxxxx Bxxxx: Cxxxx Dxxxx, Exxxx, and Fxxxx (ABCDEF) is a five year NSF-funded researchproject that involves collaboration between K-12 educators, university faculty, and educationaloutreach specialists. The project’s objective is to design and implement a Problem-basedLearning (PBL) curriculum using engineering design and LEGO robotics as the context forteaching eighth grade physical science content and process skills while encouraging criticalthinking. In addition to studying the curriculum’s impact on student learning, we are alsoexamining its impact on student motivation and interest in science. In this second year of ourproject, participating teachers at one of our school sites are implementing a 4-week LauncherUnit that focuses on engaging students in scientific inquiry and engineering design. Our purposeis to examine ways in which student motivation and interest in science are affected by engagingwith the ABCDEF PBL curriculum.This research report utilizes a pretest-posttest design using subjects as their own controls inwhich all participating students (n=350) complete 3 short questionnaires (Likert and open-endeditems) at the beginning of the curriculum intervention and after the completion of theintervention. The questionnaires measure students’ (1) science self-efficacy, (2) interest inscience activities outside of school, (3) attitude toward science in society, (4) science anxiety,and (5) attitude toward science class. These instruments were created using existing scales (IsScience Me and the Modified Attitudes toward Science Inventory) and were pilot tested last yearwith 611 students in order to validate them via confirmatory factor analysis. The final factorsevaluated on the questionnaires had reliability coefficients ranging from .80 to .92. Using ourvalidated, reliable measures, we intend to report pre-post differences in student motivation andinterest in science when instructed using the ABCDEF PBL Launcher Unit curriculum.

The Impact Participation in VEX Robotics Competition on Middle and High School Students’ Interest in Pursuing STEM Studies and STEM-related CareersVEX Robotics Competition (VRC) is an international program for middle and high schoolstudents that has as its goal to engage student participants in the study of science, technology,engineering, and math (STEM) through a competition in which students build innovative robotsto solve a challenge. Currently, over 3500 teams representing 20 countries compete globally eachyear in VRC. Through the competition, students are expected to devise creative solutions todifficult problems, work as a team, learn sportsmanship, communicate effectively, and buildleadership skill. An important objective of VEX Robotics Competition is to inspire students topursue STEM-related education and career paths.This research report describes findings from the first external evaluation of VRC, which wascompleted in May 2011. Three hundred forty-one (341) middle and high school students and 345VRC Team Leaders completed online surveys that measured perceptions of the impact of VRCparticipation on student interest in STEM education and STEM careers. In addition, 70 studentswere interviewed in focus groups, and 37 Team Leaders were interviewed one-on-one and infocus groups, which allowed participants to provide in-depth responses about ways VRCparticipation impacted student interest in STEM education and careers.Results indicated that a large majority of students and Team Leaders agreed that VRCparticipation positively impacted students’ interest in STEM. Students reported (a) wanting tolearn more about robotics (92%) and engineering (90%), (b) becoming more interested in havinga job in a STEM or computer field (87%), (c) becoming more interested in taking engineeringcourses in college (83%) and (d) becoming more interested in taking additional math or scienceclasses in high school or college (75%). Team Leaders also perceived increased student interestin STEM areas due to their participation in VRC, and increases were greatest in (a) wanting tolearn more about robotics (95%), (b) wanting to learn more about engineering design (91%), and(c) wanting to learn more about computer programing (87%).Higher percentages of boys than girls agreed that VRC had made them more interested in takingengineering classes in college, having a STEM career, learning more about computerprogramming, and learning more about engineering design. However, a higher percentage ofgirls than boys reported that VRC made them want to learn more about robotics and made themmore interested in taking additional math and science classes in high school and college.Team Leaders who are also teachers reported that VRC students are (a) more comfortable usingcomputers (81% agreed) and (b) more interested in taking additional or harder computer classes(70%), math classes (72%), or science classes (70%) than are their non-VRC peers. Students andTeam Leaders provided stories, anecdotes, and experiences in focus groups and interviews thatillustrated the ways student interest in STEM increased due to VRC participation. Themes fromthese qualitative data sources will be provided in the full paper.

The Impact of STEM Graduate Students in the Professional Development of Middle School Teachers Implementing a Problem-Based Inquiry Learning CurriculumAxxxx Bxxxx: Cxxxx Dxxxx, Exxxx, and Fxxxx (ABCDEF) is a five year NSF-funded researchproject that involves collaboration between k-12 educators, university faculty, and educationaloutreach specialists. The project’s objective is to design and implement a problem-based inquirycurriculum using engineering design and LEGO robotics as the context for teaching eighth gradephysical science content and process skills. One of the components of the project is to utilizeSTEM graduate students (Fellows) to support curriculum goals and facilitate student learningwhile providing the Fellows with k-12 classroom experience. A long-term goal of our project isto study the impact of the Fellows on the professional development of teachers in terms of (a)implementation of the instructional strategies, (b) increasing teaching efficacy, (c) developmentof content knowledge, and (d) delivery of the ABCDEF curriculum with fidelity. In this firstreport of the study, we begin to investigate the impact of the Fellows on seven teachers in sixclassrooms in three middle school contexts: rural, urban, suburban.This research report utilizes ethnographic methods in a multiple case study design. Data sourcesinclude group and individual interviews with the Fellows and the teachers, fieldnotes fromobservations, classroom artifacts, self-report documents such as surveys, and the Fellows’weekly journals. Factors of interest include teacher-Fellow interdependence, confidence, powerdistribution, science content knowledge, teacher practices, and implementation of problem-basedlearning pedagogy. Analyses will be used not only to describe ways in which Fellows arecurrently impacting teachers’ professional development but also to plan for ways Fellows canhave a greater impact on teachers’ professional development in the remaining years of the study.

FIRST© LEGO© League Participation: Perceptions of Minority Student Participants and their FLL CoachesThe purpose of this study is to examine benefits of minority student participation in FIRSTLEGO League (FLL©), an international competition in which students construct and programautonomous robots to complete specific challenges. Robotics teams and competitions have beensuggested as an avenue to increase student interest in science, technology, engineering, andmathematics (STEM), but research on their effects is sparse. Given that a number of researchstudies suggest student disengagement in STEM begins between ages 10 to 15 (Institution ofEngineering and Technology, 2008), a program such as FLL that targets this age group providesa valuable opportunity to investigate impact of participation on student perception and interest inSTEM.The purpose of this study is to describe (1) student and mentor perceptions of the benefits ofFLL, (2) changes in students’ perceptions about math and science, and (3) changes in students’interest in science or engineering careers. Study participants are 4th through 8th grade students(n =200) on 22 FLL teams in an urban area of the southeast United States. Their adult mentors (n=20) are also participants in the study. In the paper, we report results from student pre and post-surveys that measure student perceptions of math and science, as well as interest in science andengineering careers. Surveys contain open-ended questions about what students learned in FLL,how FLL has changed them (if at all), what they like best about FLL, and what they wouldchange about the competition. Mentors surveys include open-ended questions about the benefitsfor students who participate in FLL, ways students in FLL grow or change as a result of theirparticipation, specific aspects of FLL that lead to those changes, and barriers to participation thatmay exist for the minority students on their teams.Institution of Engineering and Technology (2008). Studying STEM: What are the barriers? A literature review of the choices students make. Herts, United Kingdom: Author.