Designing to Disrupt Traditional Conceptions of Scientific Competence

Abstract

Pervasive narratives about who and what counts as competent in science disproportionately impact students historically underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), and are perpetuated in the design of STEM courses. Equity-focused education literature argues for the need to develop robust learning ecologies that support and develop the talents of all students. Here we describe the design of such an ecology in an introductory chemistry course at a large, public research university. The goals of the redesign were to: support students to see chemistry as an expansive and inclusive set of practices, define chemical competence explicitly as participation in these practices, and provide opportunities for students to engage in this new landscape throughout various aspects of the course. This holistic course redesign required the development of group-worthy, collaborative, in-class activities; complementary social supports alongside the creation of practice-centered assessments; and space for students to reflect on their relationship with chemistry as it shifted throughout the semester. We find that the structure of the in-class activities supports student engagement in scientific practices and that students who adopt a more expansive definition of what it means to be “good” at chemistry see themselves as such, irrespective of their grades.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sabriya N. Rosemond

Sabriya N. Rosemond ([email protected]) is the assistant director of the Learning Assistant Program at Florida International University in Miami, Florida.

Erin S. Palmer

Erin S. Palmer is an assistant professor of chemistry at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, California.

Kelly C. Y. Wong

Kelly C. Y. Wong is a chemical biology graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California.

Vishnu Murthy

Vishnu Murthy is a medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Angelica M. Stacy

Angelica M. Stacy is professor emerita of chemistry and science education at the University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, California.