The Effects of Implementing Science and Engineering Practices and Crosscutting Concepts on Student Science Achievement and Attitudes in a High School Chemistry Classroom

Abstract

The Next Generation Science Standards have been the foundation of science education since their adoption in 2014. These standards are unique in that they do not focus solely on the content, but they take an integrated approach by interweaving Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) and Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs) alongside traditional content standards to immerse students in all of the practices scientists use. Although these standards have been around for over a decade, many science classrooms continue to focus mainly on content and labs to learn science. This project set out to answer the question, How will explicitly teaching the SEPs and CCCs of the NGSS impact student science achievement and perceptions in a high school chemistry course? To investigate this question, students were taught about each SEP and CCC over a two-week unit and then these practices were incorporated into a content unit over the periodic table and trends. Achievement was measured using a pretest and posttest as well as multiple Likert scale surveys to gauge student familiarity with the SEPs and CCCs. The data were analyzed using mean, median, normalized gains, and thematic analysis. The results showed which SEPs and CCCs students were most familiar with and growth in familiarity after being explicitly taught these practices. Most students demonstrated medium to high gains from pre-to-post treatment. This study led to the conclusion that it would be best advised to start the year by introducing the SEPs and CCCs and integrating them throughout each unit as some units match up better with certain SEPs and CCCs than others. This study also showed that students had some awareness of what scientists do, but they identified lab work and analyzing data as the primary components of scientific work. They did not always identify the communicative piece of scientific work or the steps of doing a lab investigation.