The impact of multimedia educative curriculum materials (MECMs) on teachers’ beliefs about scientific argumentation

ABSTRACT

Recent reform efforts in science education include a focus on science practices. Teachers require support in integrating these practices into instruction. Multimedia educative curriculum materials (MECMs), digital materials explicitly designed to support teacher learning, offer one potential resource for this critical need. Consequently, the authors investigated how teachers used MECMs and whether that use impacted their beliefs about the practice of scientific argumentation. They conducted a randomised experimental study with 90 middle school science teachers in the USA. Control and experimental groups taught the same curriculum, using a web-based teacher’s guide. Additionally, experimental teachers received MECMs including 24 videos and 17 interactive reflective prompts. The authors collected multiple data sources: pre-surveys, backend website curriculum use, self-report curriculum use and post-surveys. Results suggest that enacting a curriculum with a focus on argumentation is associated with positive changes in teachers’ beliefs about this practice. Furthermore, the authors observed a wide range in how teachers used the curriculum. In terms of self-efficacy, this differential use was associated with differences in changes to teachers’ beliefs about argumentation. Teachers who enacted more lessons became more confident in their ability to teach argumentation. Additionally, experimental teachers had smaller improvements in self-efficacy, perhaps because the MECM videos problematised what teachers thought counted as argumentation.

KEYWORDS:

• Educative curriculum
• scientific argumentation
• science education
• teacher learning
• video

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Suzanna Loper

Suzanna Loper is the Curriculum Director for the Learning Design Group at The Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley. She leads a team that focuses on designing and studying innovative science curriculum materials for K–8 classrooms.

Katherine L. McNeill

Katherine L. McNeill is a Professor of Science Education at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at Boston College. Her research focuses on the design of learning environments to support students, teachers and instructional leaders in science practices.

María González-Howard

María González-Howard is an Assistant Professor in STEM Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas. Her research explores the intersections of teaching and learning science with bilingualism development, specifically focusing on supporting culturally and linguistically diverse students’ engagement in science practices.

Lisa M. Marco-Bujosa

Lisa Marco-Bujosa is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education and Counseling at Villanova University. Her research explores urban science education reform, teaching science for social justice, and teacher education.

Laura M. O’Dwyer

Laura M. O’Dwyer is a Professor in the Measurement, Evaluation, Statistics, and Assessment department at Boston College. She teaches statistics and quantitative methods, and her research focuses on the examining the correlates of student achievement.