Document Type
Article
Journal/Book Title/Conference
International Journal of Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology
Volume
12
Issue
1
Publisher
Necmettin Erbakan University
Publication Date
2024
Award Number
NSF, Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL) 2031382 and 2031404
Award Title
Collaborative Research: Supporting Rural Paraprofessional Educators and their Students with Computer Science Professional Learning and Expansively Framed Curriculum
Funding Agency
National Science Foundation, Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL)
First Page
85
Last Page
98
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Abstract
In the United States, school curricula are often created and taught with distinct boundaries between disciplines. This division between curricular areas may serve as a hindrance to students' long-term learning and their ability to generalize. In contrast, cross-curricular pedagogy provides a way for students to think beyond the classroom walls and make important connections across disciplines. The purpose of this paper is a theoretical reflection on our use of Expansive Framing in our design of lessons across learning environments within the school. We provide a narrative account of our early work in using this theoretical framework to co-plan and enact interdisciplinary mathematics and computer science (CS) tasks with a team of elementary school educators and school district personnel. The unit focuses on the concepts of exponents in mathematics and repeat loops as a control structure in computer science. Using a narrative approach, we describe what occurred during the collaborative planning of lessons and subsequent enactments in two fifth-grade classrooms and one computer lab and provide a practitioner-oriented account of our experience.
Recommended Citation
Beck, K.E., Shumway, J.F., Shehzad, U., Clarke-Midura, J., & Recker, M. (2024). Facilitating mathematics and computer science connections: a cross curricular approach. International Journal of Education in Mathematics, Science, and Technology 12(1), 85-98. https://doi.org/10.46328/ijemst.3104
Comments
This work was supported by National Science Foundation Grant no. 2031382 and 2031404. Opinions, findings, or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agency. We thank the participating teachers and students.