Ecologies of parental engagement and preservice science teacher education: the design and development of a multimedia case-based environment “p a r e n t s”

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present the rationale and principles that guided the design and development of a multimedia case-based environment, called PARENTS. Following a development research approach, the tenets of constructivist learning, and the advantages of case-based instruction, we utilized and incorporated the findings of a longitudinal study -Ecologies of Parental Engagement- that focused on parents in high poverty urban communities and the roles they play in elementary schools that are active in implementing reform-based science education. The main purpose of PARENTS is to help preservice science teachers to explore and reflect on themes of parental engagement in high poverty urban school settings. In this paper we present and explain the design conceptual framework behind the first prototype of PARENTS, which is grounded on a group of design principles and themes: 1) Authenticity, 2) Interpretation and Argumentation Construction, 3) Multiple Perspectives, 4) Rich, Multi-modal, Non-Linear Information Resources, 5) Scaffolding and Support, and 6) Multimedia Case-Based Learning and Instruction.