Science Education at the Crossroads

Science Education at the Crossroads is an annual national academic conference, initially funded by the National Science Foundation, designed to enable various stakeholders in science education to confer in a legitimate and productive manner. The conference also claims to offer an alternative to the standard model of conferring and professional development. Conference creators and coordinators are John Settlage of the University of Connecticut and Adam Johnston of Weber State University.

Many organizations and conferences exist for science educators. These include the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST), the Association for Science Teacher Education (ASTE), and many others dedicated to specific fields (e.g., physics and chemistry) within science education. While these organizations are adept at presenting research results or at sharing innovations in teaching, organizers and many participants in Crossroads feel that none of them provide a means for new research questions, policy directives, or general science education goals to be discussed and deliberated.

Crossroads uses the Vexation and Venture format for conference sessions in which an "Incubator Forum" allows for an interactive, discussion based and dynamic intersection of views. This mode of interaction has been shown to engage presenters and participants in a way that new ideas and problems can be proposed, and the group takes on responsibility for a generative session. In this format, problems (vexations) are dissected and their possible specific solutions (ventures) are proposed. In this manner, the process of research and innovation is presented in a public forum in its early development stages, rather than after its completion, as would be the case in other academic conference formats.

Participants represent backgrounds from science and education, and represent perspectives from classroom teaching, policy, and research. This variety of perspectives allows each participant to tap into expertise that they might not otherwise encounter within the typical course of their professional lives. In this regard the metaphor of a crossroads describes a culture and place where people can meet.

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