Science Education
The crux of education is ensuring that today's youth are prepared for future challenges. Each day our society grows more reliant on science and technology in shaping how we live our lives. Science education provides an opportunity to engage students in authentic and educative learning experiences that help them to develop an understanding of essential practices of science so that they are poised to use their knowledge to address current and emergent environmental and societal issues and further advance our understanding of the natural world.
As a science educator, my work explores how students learn to use scientific practices and how teachers' classroom instruction supports student learning. Throughout my career I have worked with school districts, teachers, and students across the U.S. and spanning the K-12 continuum to enhance science instruction.
Graduate School of Education and Human Development
As a faculty member in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy at GW, I teach and mentor students in a variety of programs ranging from undergraduate to doctoral studies. My teaching centers on the intersection of learning theory and instructional practice. Click here to learn more about the education programs in the Graduate School of Education and Human Development at GWU.
GWTeach Undergraduate STEM Teacher Preparation
Increasing the number of high-quality STEM teachers is a major priority in today's scientific and technological society. I serve as the Co-Director of the GWTeach program, where we recruit and support STEM majors as they begin the journey to becoming certified STEM educators for middle and high school.
Click here to learn more about the GWTeach program.
Recent Publications
Grooms, J., Sampson, V., and Enderle, P. (2018). How concept familiarity and experience with scientific argumentation are related to the way groups participate in an episode of argumentation. Journal of Research in Science Teaching. Early view, doi: 10.1002/tea.21451
Strimaitis, A., Southerland, S., Sampson V., Enderle, P., and Grooms, J. (2017). Promoting equitable biology lab instruction by engaging all students in a broad range of science practices: An exploratory study. School Science and Mathematics, Volume 117, Issue 3, 92-103.
Grooms, J., Enderle, P., and Sampson, V. (2015). Coordinating scientific argumentation and the Next Generation Science Standards through Argument-Driven Inquiry. Science Educator, Volume 24, Issue 1, 45-50.
Grooms, J., Sampson, V., and Golden, B. (2014). Comparing the effectiveness of verification and inquiry laboratories in supporting undergraduate science students in constructing arguments around socioscientific issues. International Journal of Science Education, Volume 36, Issue 9, 1412-1433.
Sampson, V., Enderle, P., Grooms, J., and Witte, S. (2013). Writing to learn by learning to write during the school science laboratory: Helping middle and high school students develop argumentative writing skills as they learn core ideas. Science Education, Volume 97, Issue 5, 643-799
Argument-Driven Inquiry Book Series
