Welcome to STEPWISE-based Teacher Resources!
This page provides open-access to teaching & learning resources that have been developed by teachers and through action research work. All of these resources can be related to the STEPWISE pedagogical framework shown below that can prepare students for educated civic actions to overcome STSE Harms.
As indicated at right (below on phones), some resources apply to the overall STEPWISE pedagogy while others may best be applied to specific parts of it (with some variations on their uses). We do, however, encourage educators to adapt these resources to suit their particular teaching/learning contexts.
Comprehensive Resources
- STEPWISE, in Detail (background).
- Students Acting for All (videos).
- Science Education for Civic Action (PDFs).
Resources for Students Reflect
Resources for Teacher Teaches
- Ban the Dust! (a graphic novel);
- STSE Commodity Actant Arrays;
- Multi-Actant Documentaries;
- School-based JASTE Issues;
- NoS Card Exchange Game;
- Evaluating STSE Action Statements.
- STSE-NoST Case Methods.
Resources for Students Practise
Comprehensive Resources
This is a website (linked at right; or, below on phones) developed by our team of teachers and researchers that provides teachers with video-based suggestions and downloadable resources for educating students – using the 3-phase STEPWISE pedagogy – so that they may, eventually, self-direct research-informed & negotiated social actions (RiNA) to overcome harms in relationships among fields of science & technology and societies & environments (STSE). Although these resources were designed for uses in distance education contexts, teachers also may choose to use them in face-to-face teaching and learning situations. Finally, we will continue to add resources to this site; so, check back often for revisions.
Science Education for Civic Action
As a companion to STEPWISE-informed resources on my website, such as Students Acting for All, a team of teachers and researchers produced Science Education for Civic Action (linked at right/below) – a downloadable pdf document containing unit plans made by teachers – based on the 3-phase STEPWISE pedagoggy – and individual resources that teachers can use to arrange lessons and student activities that may educate students so they may eventually self-direct research-informed & negotiated social actions to overcome harms they determine in relationships among fields of science & technology and societies & environments (STSE).
Resources for Students Reflect
Based on constructivist learning theory, learners construct unique attitudes, skills & knowledge (ASK) by combining information in stimuli (e.g., speech, textures, sounds) with ASK they possess in their minds & bodies because of previous experiences. For the Students Reflect phase of the STEPWISE pedagogy, showing students pictures (or just words) of common for-profit products &/or services like those at right, for example, can get them to become conscious of their often-subconscious pre-instructional ASK and, if necessary, make them available for re-construction. To ensure students do not try to tell teachers what they think teachers want to hear, etc., questions about the products/services should be divergent – e.g., What do you like & dislike about the item and why? – allowing for many possibilities, even if they differ from ASK of professionals. Elaboration of uses of such pictures, with more examples, is given here.
The STEPWISE curriculum & pedagogical framework is intended to educate students so they are willing & able to self-direct research-informed & negotiated actions (RiNAs) to overcome harms in STSE relationships. Many such harms, though, are controversial – with people disagreeing for reasons such as their different socio-political views (e.g., @Political Compass). Because such views, etc. often are, according to constructivist learning theory, sub-conscious, educators are urged to ask students to ‘express’ (e.g., in speech, images, text, etc.) them so they are made conscious and available for possible change when new information becomes available (e.g., through teaching). An approach that may appeal to many students for the Students Reflect phase of the STEPWISE pedagogy is to ask them to analyze & evaluate, etc. comics or cartoons that may – like the one at right and those here – lead students to explore and perhaps change their views about science and technology.
Resources for Teacher Teaches
This downloadable graphic novel (linked to the graphic at right/below) tells a story of a case in which citizens in Québec City, Canada, investigated and acted to overcome perceived heavy metal dust pollution. For educational uses, we provide a downloadable document containing teaching & learning suggestions, here. We have, for example, used it (here) for the Teacher Teaches Input phase of the STEPWISE pedagogy as an example of a civic RiNA project to overcome STSE harms. These resources are advertised through a summary video below. We are grateful to Veronique Lalande & Louis Duchesne, citizens highlighted here, and Dr. Chantal Pouliot (Laval U), who studied their work, for their support.
Based on actor-network theory, for-profit commodities (e.g., drones) are part of much larger networks of living, non-living & symbolic entities (‘actants’). Because pairs of actants co-affect each other, each actant in the network shares characteristics – to different degrees – of other actants in the network. Indeed, some actants often are so powerful that they align most others in common goals, forming sub-networks called dispositifs. Students can be introduced to networks in which commodities are embedded by the teacher – which appears necessary because such networks often are hidden from citizens. One way to do so is by showing students commodity actant arrays, which have some information (which teachers can teach as Input in the Teacher Teaches phase of the STEPWISE pedagogy); stimulating students to can carry out research to learn more about the commodity and suggest and/or take actions to overcome related harms they perceive (as an Application activity). Elaboration of uses, with more examples, of such arrays is provided here.
Multi-Actant Documentaries (MADs) are summaries – based on actor-network theory – of several living and non-living actants that we suggest are associated with particular for-profit products or services of science and technology. As shown at right/below, we have provided – in separate Prezi™ cells – text, graphics and videos of actants like activists, corn, medical doctors, etc. for fast & manufactured foods. After the teacher has taught about ANT (in the Teacher Teaches Input phase of the STEPWISE pedagogy) students could review a MAD (as an Application activity), and then suggest ways different actants link with other actants to form sub-networks (dispositifs) that support or oppose the commodity. They could, then, carry out RiNA projects to further investigate the commodity and develop and take social actions to overcome harms they determine in the dispositif. Links to 12 other MADs are provided here.
JASTE is an open-access, community-reviewed, journal encouraging civic engagement to promote social justice & environmental sustainability through science & technology education. Three of its issues (5.1; 9.1; 11.1) feature articles by students about their STEPWISE-informed RiNA projects, along with articles by teachers & researchers. Articles could be used in different ways for the Teacher Teaches phase of the STEPWISE pedagogy; e.g., as teacher Input or student Application (e.g., analysis) activities.
Nature of Science Card Exchange Game
Extents to which and characteristics of implementation of STEPWISE appear to depend largely on teachers’ & students’ conceptions (‘views’) of the nature of science (NoS). Among ways this can be studied (and perhaps changed), Loving’s (1991) Scientific Theory Profile (STP) – shown at right/beloow – appears to work well. Although connections between it and the Political Compass could be explored, it seems that people who support Naturalist-Antirealist views and Left-Libertarianism might believe that scientists’ topics & methods often are affected by culture, economics, politics, etc. and that conclusions may not always align with reality – and that such views would, in turn, encourage and enable them to critique STSE relationships and develop and take research-informed & negotiated socio-political actions, often in opposition to authorities, to overcome harms they determine. To help students learn about and evaluate NoS views, teachers can engage them in the NoS card exchange game – as explained, with examples, here.
Evaluating STSE Action Statements
The main goal of the STEPWISE pedagogy is to encourage and enable learners to develop & implement personal & social actions that may help overcome harms in STSE relationships. Possible actions are, of course, controversial and varied – depending, for instance, on a person’s political perspectives (e.g., Political Compass). And, based on constructivist learning theory, individual’s views on actions – like much else – are subconscious. So, to help learners to consider alternative actions, educators are urged to first ask learners to evaluate, with reasons, possible actions. Through elaborations and several examples provided here, teachers can ask students to play a card exchange game to explore and evaluate various and controversial action suggestions. Although this activity involves some Input of the Teacher Teaches phase of the STEPWISE pedagogy, it also has elements of the Student Reflect phase.
A very effective kind of activity that can help students to apply attitudes, skills and/or knowledge (ASK) to which they have been introduced by the teacher is a case method. As shown at right/below, this is a ‘case’ (documentary) of some situation with a set of instructions & questions added to provide students with some guidance in interacting with the case. Case methods can, depending on teacher choice, vary in terms of learning control. If they are meant to deepen students’ ASK, then they should have some teacher-directed & closed-ended character. If they are meant to diversify students’ ASK, they may have more student-directed & open-ended character. About a dozen case methods about STSE and/or NoST are provided here.
Resources for Students Practise
Skills Apprenticeship Resources
This pdf resource (linked at right/below) contains a set of ‘classroom-ready’ teaching & learning materials to help students to develop expertise, confidence & motivation for student-led science inquiry (e.g., experiment & study design) and technology design (e.g., about compromises in design) aligned with the schema for science & technology in the graphic below. Note that this older (c1990) resource should be adapted to use STSE issues as bases for learning skills. Lessons & activities in it may best be used at the time of assigning students a practice RiNA project in the Students Practise phase of the STEPWISE pedagogy.
RiNA Projects, Assessment & Evaluation
RiNA projects in the Students Practise phase of the STEPWISE apprenticeship should be somewhat teacher-directed, to allow for teacher supports, but open-ended, to mimic original science investigations (see: Learning Control). This makes assessment (e.g., data-gathering) and evaluation (i.e., judging ‘successes’) very difficult – given that methods chosen and conclusions drawn may be quite varied. Such variability is increased when students are conducting student-led RiNA projects. The more SD & OE are projects, the more A&E is like comparing ‘apples’ to ‘oranges’ (as with this cartoon). Nevertheless, particularly for students’ methods (rather than conclusions), teachers in formal education often must A&E particular aspects of RiNA projects – such as for variable control in studies. To assist teachers with A&E evaluation of RiNA projects, this resource set (from M. Krstovic) may help.
