Research Products and Reflections
Erin E. Peters

NASA Lunar Librarian Program Evaluation

The NASA Lunar Librarian Program was developed at Goddard Space Flight Center under the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, where I am an Einstein Fellow. The Education Department asked me to perform a program evaluation before they allocated more funding to expand the program. After this report was presented, the department requested another program evaluation on their collaborations with the Girl Scouts, which is currently in progress.

Deciding to Change: One District’s Quest to Improve Overall Student Performance

The final edition of this article will be published in the International Journal of Education Policy and Leadership in 2007. I was interested in getting more experience with coding qualitative research, so I asked Dr. Brazer if he could use some help with his projects. He offered me co-authorship for coding and assisting with the writing.

 
Data Analysis from The Effect of 4-Phase Embedded Metacognitive Prompts based on the Nature of Science (4-Phase EMPNOS) on Student Content Knowledge, Nature of Science Knowledge, Metacognition, and Self-Regulated Efficacy

During the summer of 2006, I was able to analyze the metacognition results from my dissertation pilot study. I submitted a proposal to the NARST 2007 Conference and was accepted as a full paper.
During spring 2007, I took an independent study class with Dr. Kitsantas where I did a descriptive and inferential analysis of the data.


The Effect of 4-Phase Embedded Metacognitive Prompts based on the Nature of Science (4-Phase EMPNOS) on Student Content Knowledge, Nature of Science Knowledge, Metacognition, and Self-Regulated Efficacy
Pilot Test for Dissertation
Spring 2006

Based on my research on the literature regarding the nature of science (NOS), I found that students and teachers were not effectively learning NOS principles in a tradition way. When I learned about Zimmerman's theory of developing self-regulation, I thought I could construct the same types of phases for metacognition since it is a smaller part of self-regulation.


The Role of Classroom Management in Developing Socially Constructed Knowledge in Science Inquiry
New Members' Poster Session
American Educational Research Association
San Francisco, California
April 2006

This project started in Dr. Jenny Gordon's Qualitative Research Methods class. I kept thinking about the topic and found prior research to support my ideas. I put this project away after the class because I thought my findings were not going to contribute to new knowledge. After all, most good teachers know that you need to organize a class so that it complements the type of instruction. After reading research articles all summer, I realized that my findings might contribute to educational research, so I wrote up a proposal to AERA to get feedback. Much to my suprise, I was accepted!

Design-Based Research as Professional Development: Case Study of a Reading Teacher in a Science Inquiry Project
Round-Table Discussion
National Association for Research in Science Teaching
San Francisco, California
April 2006

Science teacher professional development is often very specialized, so I thought it was interesting to look at a science inquiry professional development experience through the eyes of a reading teacher. Some of the findings include a different perspective on the process of inquiry, the nature of science, and background knowledge needed.


Student Poster Session
American Association for the Advancement of Science
February 19, 2005
Washington, DC

This was my first poster session and my first research presentation. As I bounced an infinite number of questions off of Dr. Brenda Bannan-Ritland, Dr. Donna R. Sterling and John Baek, I started to form ideas about how qualitative research was done before I attempted any classwork. The poster session won an Honorable Mention and my name was published in Science on March 25, 2005. My learning curve for qualitative research skyrocketed after this project was complete. I was glad that I jumped into it and committed to it, because it helped me to gain knowledge I needed for future contributions to the design-based research project.


Scientific Thinking in Eighth Grade Students: Attitude and Metacognition about the Nature of Science
Manuscript in preparation

This project started in Dr. Dimitrov's Quantitative Research Methods class and is being reworked for possible publication. I learned a great deal about how deep you can explore data with statistical techniques through this project.


Elementary Teachers’ Mental Models of Inquiry
This abstract is in draft form and is currently being reviewed by the research team I work with. I am planning to submit it to a research conference so that I may obtain further feedback.