TELS Community News
TELS researchers awarded new NSF grant: CLASS (Continuous Learning and Automated Scoring in Science)
January 2012
TELS director Marcia Linn and partner Ou Lydia Liu have been awarded a new National Science Foundation funded grant to investigate ways to use automated scoring of open-ended responses for student and teacher guidance, classroom assessments and eventually, high-stakes, consequential tests in Bay Area middle schools serving more than 4,000 diverse students.
To learn more about the CLASS project, you can view the proposal's executive summary, as well as press releases from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education and the Educational Testing Service (ETS).
The TELS Community is searching for a Post-Doctoral Scholar
October 2011
The TELS Community seeks a new postdoctoral scholar to join the Cumulative Learning using Embedded Assessment Results (CLEAR) and Continuous Learning and Automated Scoring in Science (CLASS) projects. For more details and information on how to apply, see the position summary.
TELS director Marcia Linn and Prof. Bat-Sheva Eylon publish seminal work on knowledge integration
May 2011
Science Learning and Instruction: Taking Advantage of Technology to Promote Knowledge Integration by Marcia C. Linn and Bat Sheva Eylon (Routledge, 2011) describes how everyone can learn science:
- It juxtaposes the failure of transmitting knowledge with the success of knowledge integration.
- It shows how modern, online learning environments can exploit powerful scientific visualizations and virtual experiments, amplify the effectiveness of teachers, assess students continuously as they learn, and guide students to become lifelong learners.
Offers students a synthesis of research on lectures, experiments, science visualizations, collaboration, and professional development; Prepares researchers to identify compelling research questions; Gives classroom teachers efficient strategies for applying the knowledge integration pattern and improving student outcomes; Helps test designers create knowledge integration items and rubrics; Shows curriculum designers how to create and refine materials that strengthen understanding; Guides software designers to use open-source authoring tools in the Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE); and Enables evaluators to align instruction, assessment, professional development, and school leadership using the knowledge integration framework.
FEATURESScience Learning and Instruction attacks the intuitive belief that transmitting information is key to learning. Many textbooks, lectures, and even some cookbook-like experiments fail because they are designed to transmit information rather than to help students develop scientific ideas they can use in their careers and lives.
The book challenges the idea that motivating features such as humorous anecdotes, classroom experiments, or competitive games are sufficient to promote coherent understanding. Many educational reforms focus on motivating students to pay attention but then transmit information rather than developing the ability to make sense of complex ideas.
The book argues that eliciting and building on the ideas that students bring to science class is essential for knowledge integration. Many programs aim to eradicate misconceptions and transmit accurate ideas rather than guiding students to sort out alternative ideas and critique the many persuasive messages they will encounter in their lives.
Science Learning and Instruction stresses that active learning (a feature of many educational reforms) is necessary but can only succeed when it enables students to build an identity as a science learner and to feel empowered to make sense of science.
For more details, see the TELS Publications page and Science Learning and Instruction at Amazon.com.WISE4 Open Source Partnerships
January 2011
Colleagues at the University of Washington (led by Hiroki Oura) and at the University of Virginia (led by Jennie Chiu) have installed their own versions of the open source WISE4 virtual learning environment and portal. These partners are running their own installations of WISE for their local communities and schools, creating new curriculum projects, and helping to extend the WISE learning community!
Prof. Linn a keynote speaker in Hong Kong
December 2010
TELS Principal Investigator Marcia Linn gave the keynote address at the Global Chinese Conference on Science Education (http://www.ied.edu.hk/gccse/) held at the Hong Kong Institute of Education.
Jennifer King Chen awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship
November 2010
Jennifer King Chen, a doctoral student in the Education in Math, Science and Technology program in Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education, has received a prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. NSF Fellows receive a three-year annual $30,000 stipend and allowance of $10,500 for tuition and fees, as well as a one-time award of $1,000 for international travel.
For additional information, see the Graduate School of Education’s news and announcements page:
http://gse.berkeley.edu/admin/publications/news/1004nsf.html
Linn Study Sheds New Light on Math Ability, Gender Equity
January 2010
TELS Director Marcia Linn and her fellow researchers have released a global study in the latest issue of American Psychological Association's Psychological Bulletin that shows only small differences, on average, between girls' and boys' math abilities. Linn and her colleagues note that the gaps vary widely from country to country and that for girls to perform as well as boys on math tests, they need equal access to education, encouragement to do well in math, and female role models in math-oriented careers. For more information, visit the UC Berkeley press release and download the full report from the TELS publications page.
Two TELS Students win Spencer Fellowship
June 2009
TELS student fellows Jennie Chiu and Kevin McElhaney have won Spencer Dissertation Fellowships. Jennie and Kevin were two of the 20 students selected among approximately 600 applicants to receive the $25,000 award. See the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education announcement for more details.
TELS Principal Investigators Marcia Linn and Jim Slotta publish new WISE book
April 2009
TELS Principal Investigators Marcia Linn and Jim Slotta have published a new book entitled WISE Science: Web-based Inquiry in the Classroom. The book shares the lessons learned by a large community of educational researchers and science teachers as they designed, developed, and investigated the technology-enhanced learning environment known as WISE: The Web-Based Inquiry Science Environment.
TELS leader Marcia Linn and colleagues show no difference in math performance between boys and girls
July 2008
Research by TELS Principal Investigator Marcia Linn and UW-Madison colleagues show no difference in math performance between boys and girls. Findings are reported in a Science magazine article and discussed in the New York Times, as well as several other newspaper and television outlets. Details and links to the report and media coverage can be found on UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education website.
TELS participants present in over 25 sessions at AERA 2008
March 2008
Current and past TELS partners and fellows participate in over 25 sessions at the 2008 American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual meeting in New York, March 25-28. See a list of all the sessions presented by TELS participants at AERA 2008.
TELS partner S. Raj Chaudhury and colleagues awarded TELES grant
July 2007
TELS partner S. Raj Chaudhury and colleagues at Christopher Newport University (CNU) have won a SCHEV (State Council of Higher Education for Virginia) grant award for the project entitled "TELES: Technology Enhanced Learning of English and Science in middle school." For more details, see the CNU press release.
TELS Principal Investigator Marcia Linn is elected to the National Academy of Education
June 2007
TELS leader Marcia Linn has been elected to the National Academy of Education (NAEd). For more details, see the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education press release.
TELS participants present in over 30 sessions at 2007 annual research conferences
April 2007
TELS partners and fellows participate in over 30 sessions at several 2007 annual conferences, including the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) annual meetings. See the list of 2007 TELS meeting presentations for more details.
Sequoia Middle School receives a California Distinguished School Award
April 2007
TELS partner school Sequoia Middle School in Pleasant Hill, CA has received a California Distinguished School Award. See the CDE news release for more information.
Kathy Benemann receives Industry Initiatives for Science and Math Education (IISME) lesson plan grant
October 2006
TELS teacher and former fellow Kathy Benemann has received an Industry Initiatives for Science and Math Education (IISME) lesson plan grant. Industry Initiatives for Science and Math Education (IISME) has awarded Kathy a $1,000 grant for her lesson plan for the TELS: Birds of a Feather Evolve Together curriculum module. IISME awards grants to teachers to help them implement a lesson plan they develop. Kathy also participated in IISME's summer internship program. More information about IISME can found at their website. Kathy Benemann completed her Masters and Credential in Science and Mathematics Education at UC Berkeley, where she was a TELS fellow. She teaches at College Park High School in Pleasant Hill, CA. (Update, Fall 2007: Kathy is back working for TELS, now serving as the TELS Community Project Coordinator!).
TELS featured in Science magazine
August 2006
Research by the TELS team has been featured in an article in Science magazine. A copy of this paper, which details TELS research advancements, can be downloaded from the TELS Community publications page.
TELS research featured for Congress at the annual Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF)
June 2006
Director Marcia Linn presents TELS research on the use of technology in teaching middle- and high-school math and science to the American Psychological Association (APA) and American Educational Research Association (AERA) co-sponsored annual Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF) Capitol Hill Exhibit and Reception on June 7th. The event aims to highlight stellar research supported by NSF for Members of the US Congress and their staff. For more details, see the AERA and APA press releases.
TELS participants present in over 40 sessions at 2006 annual research conferences
April 2006
TELS partners and fellows participate in over 40 sessions of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the National Association of Science Teachers (NSTA), and the National Association of Research in Science Teaching (NARST) 2006 annual meetings, as well as the 2006 International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS). See the list of TELS presentations for more details.
TELS partner Doug Clark receives a Spencer Foundation Award
April 2006
TELS partner Doug Clark has received a Spencer Foundation Award. The Spencer Foundation provides funding for investigations that promise to yield new knowledge about education in the United States or abroad. Spencer Fellowship programs support educational researchers at different stages of their professional careers, providing resources to both beginning and senior researchers to pursue concentrated intellectual activity. Douglas Clark, a TELS research partner at Arizona State University, will participate in the fellowship program for two years beginning this fall. (Update, Fall 2009: Doug Clark is now a TELS partner and professor at Vanderbilt University. He leads the SURGE project.)
The proposed study investigates students' understanding of the scientific concept of "force" in Turkey, China, Korea, Mexico, and the United States. The study will contribute to the resolution of a central controversy among researchers of conceptual change regarding the structure and coherence of students' science knowledge. The study will employ an analytic framework developed through ongoing research at ASU along with two other analytic frameworks representing the predominant theoretical positions in the field. The goal is to apply and extend the analytic framework to provide a topological perspective (i.e., identifying coherence at different levels of behavior) for examining the integration of elemental and theory-like perspectives simultaneously. The study will contribute to this important theoretical debate by integrating multiple levels of analysis, allowing more precise questions to be addressed about the nature of students' knowledge structures. This study will additionally clarify the role of methodological and semantic/cultural differences in the findings of researchers on opposing sides of the controversy. Finally, findings about differences in how students from Mexico and other countries think about science topics like force and motion, in comparison to US English-monolingual students (who are more frequently studied), will inform the development of curricula that better support the underserved diverse student populations in US classrooms.
The proposed study investigates students' understanding of the scientific concept of "force" in Turkey, China, Korea, Mexico, and the United States. The study will contribute to the resolution of a central controversy among researchers of conceptual change regarding the structure and coherence of students' science knowledge. The study will employ an analytic framework developed through ongoing research at ASU along with two other analytic frameworks representing the predominant theoretical positions in the field. The goal is to apply and extend the analytic framework to provide a topological perspective (i.e., identifying coherence at different levels of behavior) for examining the integration of elemental and theory-like perspectives simultaneously. The study will contribute to this important theoretical debate by integrating multiple levels of analysis, allowing more precise questions to be addressed about the nature of students' knowledge structures. This study will additionally clarify the role of methodological and semantic/cultural differences in the findings of researchers on opposing sides of the controversy. Finally, findings about differences in how students from Mexico and other countries think about science topics like force and motion, in comparison to US English-monolingual students (who are more frequently studied), will inform the development of curricula that better support the underserved diverse student populations in US classrooms.
