Youths’ Cogenerative Dialogues with Scientists: Advance Student-Scientist Partnerships beyond the Status Quo(68 Bold Visions in Educational Research)

Working with scientists has been suggested as a powerful activity that can stimulate students’ interest and career aspirations in science. However, how to address challenges of power-over issues and communication barriers in youth-scientist partnerships? In Youths’ Cogenerative Dialogues with Scientists, the author describes a pioneering study to improve internship communications between youth and scientists through cogenerative dialogues. The findings show that cogenerative dialogues can help youth and scientists recognize, express, and manage their challenges and emotions as they arise in their internships. As a result, cogenerative dialogues help youth and scientists work productively as a team and enhance their social boding. Suggestions are also provided for science educators to design more innovative and effective projects for future youth-scientist partnerships.

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgments Figures and Tables 1 Challenging the Status Quo of Youth-Scientist Partnerships with Cogenerative Dialogues  1 Models of Youth-Scientist Partnerships  2 Benefijits of Youth-Scientist Partnerships  3 Challenges of Youth-Scientist Partnerships  4 The Potential of Cogenerative Dialogues to Advance the Status Quo of Youth-Scientist Partnerships  5 Coda 2 The Design Principles and Overall Structure of the “Work With A Scientist” Program  1 Theoretical Frameworks for the Program  2 Program Timeline, Milestones, & Forms  3 Program Collaborators and Resources  4 Ethical Considerations  5 Coda 35 3 Nuts and Bolts in the Recruitment and Retention of Scientists and Youth  1 Scientist Recruitment  2 Scientist Retention  3 Youth Recruitment  4 Youth Application Procedures  5 Youth Retention  6 Coda 4 Training of Cogenerative Dialogues for Mediators, Scientists, and Youth  1 The Rules and Structure of Cogens  2 Training for Cogen Mediators  3 Training for Scientists  4 Training for Youth  5 Coda 5 Challenges and Solutions of Implementing Cogenerative Dialogues  1 Challenge 1: Cogens Sometimes Became Lecture-Like Talk  2 Challenge 2: Cogen Mediators Sometimes Had a Hard Time Mediating Dialogues  3 Challenge 3: Participants Thought That Cogen Sometimes Is a Negative Space  4 Challenge 4: Participants Thought Cogens Were Sometimes Useless Because Consensus Was Not Fully Implemented  5 Challenge 5: Some Participants Sometimes Dominated the Conversation during Cogens  6 Challenge 6: Participants Could Not Differentiate Cogens from Other Types of Conversation  7 Challenge 7: Participants Sometimes Had Difficulty Coming up with Ideas for Discussions  8 Challenge 8: Participants Sometimes Preferred to Stop Cogens in Order to Catch up Scientifijic Practice Progress by Deadline  9 Challenge 9: Participants Would Not Express Their True Voices When the Conversation Might Single out Particular Individuals  10 Challenge 10: Participants Sometimes Were off Topic or Shared Too-Personal Matters during Cogens  11 Coda 6 Issues and Solutions Discussed in Cogenerative Dialogues to Improve Internship Teaching and Learning  1 One Example of an Issue Raised by a Student  2 One Example of an Issue Raised by a Scientist  3 Issues and Solutions Identified during Cogens  4 Using Cogens to Transform Contradictions between Different Cultural Groups  5 Coda 7 Using Cogenerative Dialogues as Boundary Crossing Pedagogy  1 Boundary Crossing, Boundary Objects, and Brokers  2 Cogenerative Dialogues as a Transformation Tool  3 Facilitating Boundary Crossing through Cogenerative Dialogues  4 Coda 8 Using Cogenerative Dialogues to Dissolve Negative Emotions among Scientists and Youth  1 Cogens Enhanced Social Bonding  2 Transforming Negative Emotions through Cogens  3 The Lily Incident  4 Coda 9 Using Cogenerative Dialogue to Cultivate a Constructivist Learning Environment  1 Survey Results  2 Building a Constructivist Internship with Cogens  3 Coda 10 Youths’ Experiences of Cogenerative Dialogues  1 Lily’s Journal Entries about Cogens during the Beginning, Middle, and End of the Internship  2 Lily’s Exit Interviews about Cogens  3 Lily’s Follow-up Interview about Cogens  4 Coda 11 Future Research on Youth-Scientist Partnerships  1 Future Research Based on the “Work With A Scientist” Program  2 Coda Appendix 1: Program Syllabus Appendix 2: Rules and Structures of Cogenerative Dialogues Appendix 3: Cogenerative Dialogues Worksheet Appendix 4: Project Song “Utopia”—Lyrics Appendix 5: Cogenerative Dialogue Heuristic Appendix 6: Constructivist Learning Environment Survey-Internship Appendix 7: Constructivist Learning Environment Survey-School Index

About the Author :
Pei-Ling Hsu, Ph.D. (2008), University of Victoria, Canada, is Associate Professor of Science Education at the University of Texas at El Paso, USA. She has published books, chapters, and numerous articles on high school students’ internships and discourse and communications in science education.