Sample Lessons

Suggested STEPWISE-informed Lessons & Student Activities

This page provides suggestions for using the for helping students to achieve its major ; i.e., to learn ; ; and to learn & conduct . The schema suggests that teachers using STEPWISE for the first time should gradually increase complexity of teaching & learning goals, perhaps involving at least two repetitions of the , before asking students to independently design & conduct to help overcome of their concern in . We have found that, because many aspects of STEPWISE are not common in schools, teachers need to gain expertise, confidence and motivations for teaching in new ways to achieve some different goals (e.g., activism).

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STEPWISE Learning Goals

Different jurisdictions (e.g.. state or province) typically determines sets of attitudes, skills and knowledge (ASK), etc. that they would like all students to learn and be able to use in novel contexts. In Ontario, where STEPWISE was developed, there have been 3 overall learning goals – as depicted at right/below. Deciding what students must learn is, undoubtedly, political; e.g., decided by the most influential people and groups. Often, because school systems are largely oriented towards serving businesses (I believe), they focus mostly on Products and Skills Education – perhaps largely because they are relatively more certain and easier to assess & evaluate. Excessive foci on them can, however, limit foci on , possibly because such education can raise critiques about STEM fields and about powerful members of societies – both of whom would prefer school graduates are prepared to fit into societies, rather than to change them. More ideas about STEPWISE-informed curriculum learning goals are available . I support , which he suggests get relatively equal attention in science education.

STEM Education Science Goals

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STEPWISE Pedagogy

To help (most) students to develop to independently develop & implement research-informed & negotiated action () projects to try to overcome of their concern in relationships among fields of science & technology and societies & environments (), we recommend teachers use the 3-phase schema illustrated at right/below. This pedagogy is based on , which recognizes that learners’ prior experiences can affect new learning. This pedagogy, detailed , basically involves: Students reflecting on their prior learning, Teachers teaching important hard-to-discover attitudes, skills & knowledge, and Students practising RiNA projects before self-directing RiNA projects.

STEPWISE Pedagogy

Students Reflect

Introduction

As elaborated in the video at right/below, and , based on , we recommend that teachers facilitate students’ expressions (e.g., verbally or in writing, etc.) of their reflections on their current (and ongoing) attitudes, skills & knowledge (ASK) that may apply to topics (e.g., plant biology) that the teacher plans to teach. Once students become more conscious of their existing ASK, they may be better prepared to change them – as they see fit – when exposed to alternative ASK (e.g., in Teacher Teaches phase of the ). Reflections also may occur after each phase. Teachers, meanwhile, can influence needs for further teaching on students’ reflections.

Stimulating Student Reflections/Expressions

The teacher can encourage students to reflect on and express their existing ASK by providing them with stimuli, such as pictures of STEM products, as at right/below, and then asking them to describe and evaluate them. To help ensure students feel free to express their ASK (and not try to guess what the teacher thinks is correct), teacher instructions & questions should be mostly student-directed & open-ended (see ). Teacher instructions and questions should, in other words, err on the side of divergence – allowing for many different responses. Questions asked might include: ‘What do you like/dislike about the commodity, and why?,’ ‘What other people & groups might like/dislike the commodity, and why?,’ and, ‘For harms related to the commodity, what should be done to overcome them and explain what work might be necessary to do so?’ If done effectively, such questioning can promote . Such diversity can be encouraged by, for example, asking students to evaluate different people’s controversial positions relating to STEM processes & products – such as or from this list of .

Resources: ; .

Resources: ; .

Resources: ; .

Teacher Teaches

Introduction

As elaborated in the video at right/below (and ), although teachers should honour attitudes, skills & knowledge (ASK) expressed by students in the phase of the , many students – due, for instance, to (also see ) related to their cultural & social capital, and public propaganda (e.g., ) – can benefit from direct instruction of certain ASK (e.g., in ; also see ). We particularly recommend direct (with relevant activities) of linked to influences of pro-capitalist networks and related .

Teacher Input

Resources: ; ; ; ; .

Student Applications

Resources: (.zip file); (and ).

More Detailed Resources for the Teacher Teaches phase

Teacher Teaches: STSE-RiNA Education Review

Summary Lessons & Activities

After lessons & activities like those discussed above, teachers may choose to provide ‘summary’ lessons & activities to further deepen students’ attitudes, skills & knowledge about STSE relationships & RiNA projects. The two videos at right/below provide some suggestions for such summary lessons and application activities.

Resources: ; JASTE: ; ; .

Resources: ; News articles: ; ; ; .

Students Practise

Introduction

As presented in the video at right/below (and ), to deepen students’ attitudes, skills & knowledge (ASK) regarding ASK taught by teachers during the phase of the , we suggest teachers encourage students to design and carry out small-scale to overcome of their concern/interest in . For such practice projects, the teacher may provide assistance – as requested by students, and as described, with examples, below.

Resources: ; ; .

Student Practise: Project Assignment & Supports

Supports students need tend to vary – depending on, for example, their ages, abilities & experiences with . Firstly, teachers may limit guidance to that in assessment schema within assignment sheets like . Some students may, then, benefit from a list of to address. Others may find a list of helpful. In planning projects, some students then may find useful our . Meanwhile, for secondary research, they may benefit from some insights from a school librarian – as depicted in the video below. For primary research, suggestions on the page may help. Related to that, although many may be familiar with experimentation, most likely need to learn about . In terms of actions, students may find descriptions of helpful. As science students, teaching them about may be particularly useful. Finally, although we would prefer students be intrinsically motivated to develop/implement RiNA projects, asking them to prepare for a public STSE Fair like can help extrinsically motivate them.

Students' Networked Actions

RiNA Project Tools

To help students to develop – perhaps collaboratively – , either as practice (in this stage) or as student-led projects (in the stage, we have provided links to a series of online tools (e.g., for graphing, report-writing, etc.) – via the image at right/below – for carrying out such projects. As suggested , the tools are generally arranged in order of conduct of RiNA projects, as illustrated below. Students may choose to use these tools in different orders and repeatedly, as required.

STEPWISE - Students Practise Tips

RiNA Tools

  • School District Databases

  • Microsoft Excel ()
  • Microsoft Word ()

Credits: Jasmine Yeung, Dave Del Gobbo, Minja Milanovic, Sarah El Halwany, Majd Zouda, Nurul Hassan & Larry Bencze.

Students Re-Reflect

Students’ RiNA Projects Analyses

After students conduct small-scale RiNA projects in the phase of the , teachers may ask them to reflect on their ASK relating to the unit of study (e.g., cell biology) and about the ‘nature’ of STSE relationships, research and actions. For example, a teacher of science asked his students in grade 10 ‘academic’ (university-qualifying) class to reflect on the nature of STSE & RiNA by completing , including by sharing their personal reflections with a few classmates. Shortly afterwards, he conducted – as illustrated in the video at right/below – a whole-class discussion on the nature of STSE & RiNA.

Students Applying their Reflections in Future RiNA Projects

There is much educational research support for lessons & activities to help students to reflect on the nature of their thinking & acting; that is, – in this case, on the nature of their RiNA projects to overcome harms in STSE relationships. Such reflections represent, essentially, reflections on the (and STSE relationships, including RiNA projects). A common benefit of such metacognition are improvements in learners’ self-control of future cognition and learning. Regarding the schema at right/below, for example, sample student reflection on the nature of STSE Issues, Research & Actions from their experiences with previous RiNA projects (as ) can be applied to design & implementation of their next RiNA projects. For example, students’ finding that experiments may be more time-consuming than studies may lead them to prioritize studies in their next RiNA projects.

Nature of Research-informed & Negotiated Action Projects

STSE-RiNA Education Review

After lessons & activities like those discussed above, teachers may choose to provide ‘summary’ lessons & activities to further deepen students’ attitudes, skills & knowledge about STSE relationships & RiNA projects. The two videos at right/below provide some suggestions for such summary lessons and application activities.

Resources: ; JASTE: ; ; .

Resources: ; News articles: ; ; ; .

Student-led RiNA Projects

After one (or more) , teachers may decide many students need at least one more such cycle(s) or decide students have sufficient ASK to be asked to design and conduct their own RiNA projects to overcome STSE harms of their interest. We recommend teachers make such projects as as possible – to help increase students’ . Such independence is critical in democracies, although this can vary – depending on specificity of assessment & evaluation (e.g., as ). Also, some teachers may choose to provide some students with a few relatively ‘benign’ supports – such as a list of and .

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Popularizing STEPWISE-informed Values, Principles, Etcetera.

As with the old proverb, ‘It takes a village to raise a child,’ any one teacher may struggle to implement STEPWISE without a ‘cast’ of supporters. But, assuming non-human living and nonliving things have ‘effects’ or ‘agency’ (due to their characteristics), ‘strength’ of anything (e.g., STEPWISE) depends on development of (or existence already) of a supportive . As shown at right/below, based on a of a teacher’s 3-year uses of the STEPWISE pedagogy, we found that his successes were largely due to supports from such actants as: the STEPWISE framework; Ontario curricula that prioritized STSE and skills education; collaboration with colleagues and others; aligned teaching & learning resources; and, a teacher adhering to more that support more . To make STEPWISE work, in other words, work may need to be done to develop such dispositifs.

STEPWISE Dispositif Simple