Sample Lessons

Suggested STEPWISE-informed Lessons & Student Activities

This page provides suggestions for using the STEPWISE pedagogy for helping students to achieve its major learning goals; i.e., to learn STEM-SE; Skills; Products and to learn & conduct RiNA projects. The schema here 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 3-phase STEPWISE pedagogy, before asking students to independently design & conduct RiNA projects to help overcome harms of their concern in STEM-SE relationships. 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 STEM-SE education, 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 here. I support Derek Hodson’s 4 learning goals, which he suggests get relatively equal attention in science education.

STEM Education Science Goals

Ontario Science Curriculum (2022): STEM Skills Education; Products Education; STEM-SE Education

STEPWISE Pedagogy

To help (most) students to develop expertise, confidence & motivation to independently develop & implement research-informed & negotiated action (RiNA) projects to try to overcome harms of their concern in relationships among fields of science & technology and societies & environments (STSE), we recommend teachers use the 3-phase schema illustrated at right/below. This pedagogy is based on constructivist learning theory, which recognizes that learners’ prior experiences can affect new learning. This pedagogy, detailed here, 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, here and here, based on constructivist learning theory, 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 3-phase STEPWISE pedagogy). Reflections also may occur after each Students Practise 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 Lock (1990) model). 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 divergent thinking. Such diversity can be encouraged by, for example, asking students to evaluate different people’s controversial positions relating to STEM processes & products – such as STSE Cartoons or from this list of possible STSE actions.

Resources: Students Reflect, Editable Worksheet; STSE Technologies Cards.

Resources: Nature of Science, Card Exchange Game Cards; STSE Card Exchange Game, Action Statements.

Resources: STSE Comic Strip: GMOs; STSE Comic Strip: Cell Phones.

Teacher Teaches

Introduction

As elaborated in the video at right/below (and here), although teachers should honour attitudes, skills & knowledge (ASK) expressed by students in the Students Reflect phase of the 3-phase STEPWISE pedagogy, many students – due, for instance, to limitations of inquiry-based learning (also see here) related to their cultural & social capital, sanitized STEM curricula and public propaganda (e.g., Merchants of Doubt) – can benefit from direct instruction of certain ASK (e.g., in 3 learning domains; also see here). We particularly recommend direct Teacher Input (with relevant Student Application activities) of STSE harms linked to influences of pro-capitalist networks and related RiNA projects.

Teacher Input

Resources: Ontario Curricula; Québec City Civic Action Website; Ban the Dust! – A Graphic Novel; GN Pedagogy; Ban the Dust! – Advert. Video.

Student Applications

Resources: All Nine Resources (.zip file); STSE Case Methods (and Case Methods Model); Multi-Actant Documentaries.

More Detailed Resources for the Teacher Teaches phase

STEM-SE Education
Skills Education
Products Education
Teaching About RiNA Projects

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: Slideshow for this Video; JASTE: 5.1; 9.1; 11.1.

Resources: Slideshow for this Video; News articles: #1; #2; Drug Co. CEO Interview; Student RiNA Report.

Students Practise

Introduction

As presented in the video at right/below (and here), to deepen students’ attitudes, skills & knowledge (ASK) regarding ASK taught by teachers during the Teacher Teaches phase of the 3-phase STEPWISE pedagogy, we suggest teachers encourage students to design and carry out small-scale RiNA projects to overcome harms of their concern/interest in STSE relationships. For such practice projects, the teacher may provide assistance – as requested by students, and as described, with examples, below.

Resources: Sample RiNA Project Assignment; Assessment-Evaluation; Lock (1990) Control-of-Learning Model.

Student Practise: Project Assignment & Supports

Supports students need tend to vary – depending on, for example, their ages, abilities & experiences with RiNA projects. Firstly, teachers may limit guidance to that in assessment schema within assignment sheets like here. Some students may, then, benefit from a list of possible STSE Issues to address. Others may find a list of ’cause’ & ‘result’ variables helpful. In planning projects, some students then may find useful our RiNA project tips sheet. 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 Skills Education page may help. Related to that, although many may be familiar with experimentation, most likely need to learn about correlational studies. In terms of actions, students may find descriptions of types of actions helpful. As science students, teaching them about engineering design & popularization 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 here can help extrinsically motivate them.

Students' Networked Actions

RiNA Project Tools

To help students to develop – perhaps collaboratively – RiNA projects, either as practice (in this stage) or as student-led projects (in the Student-led RiNA Projects 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 here, 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

https://www.statcan.gc.ca/

https://www.change.org/

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 Students Practise phase of the 3-phase STEPWISE apprenticeship, 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 this reflection sheet, 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, metacognition – in this case, on the nature of their RiNA projects to overcome harms in STSE relationships. Such reflections represent, essentially, reflections on the nature of science (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 World <–> Sign relationships) 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: Slideshow for this Video; JASTE: 5.1; 9.1; 11.1.

Resources: Slideshow for this Video; News articles: #1; #2; Drug Co. CEO Interview; Student RiNA Report.

Student-led RiNA Projects

After one (or more) STEPWISE pedagogical 3-phase cycles, 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 student-directed & open-ended as possible – to help increase students’ intellectual independence. Such independence is critical in democracies, although this can vary – depending on specificity of assessment & evaluation (e.g., as here). Also, some teachers may choose to provide some students with a few relatively ‘benign’ supports – such as a list of Sample STSE Issues and Sample RiNA Project eTools.

Students’ In-class RiNA Project Work; Sample Student-led RiNA Projects

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 dispositif/apparatus. As shown at right/below, based on a study 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 Naturalist-Antirealist NoS conceptions that support more student-direced & open-ended activities. To make STEPWISE work, in other words, work may need to be done to develop such dispositifs.

STEPWISE Dispositif Simple