Ryan Summers
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Associate Professor, Rose Isabella Kelly Fischer Professor, Teaching & Leadership
- Science Education, Nature of Science, Affective Outcomes in Science Education, Quantitative and Mixed Methods
Contact Info
- Email: ryan.summers@UND.edu
- Office: 701.777.3144
- Dept: 701.777.3239
Office Address
Education Building Room 338
231 Centennial Drive Stop 7189
Grand Forks, ND 58202-7189
Curriculum Vitae
Websites
Biography
Ryan Summers is Associate Professor of Science Education in the Department of Teaching, Leadership, and Professional Practice. Originally from southern Illinois, Dr. Summers obtained his B.S. in biological sciences, with a minor in chemistry and teacher’s certification, at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, IL. He taught high school science, including biology, chemistry, physics and other offerings in rural and suburban settings, before leaving to pursue his graduate studies full time at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Summers completed his Ph.D. in May of 2016 at UIUC in Curriculum & Instruction, in the math, science and technology division with a focus in science education.
During his time at UIUC, Dr. Summers was actively involved in research and outreach activities. One major project, the NSF funded EnLiST project aimed at improving science teaching and learning, afforded Dr. Summers with an opportunity to work alongside high school science teachers and expose them to learner-centered teaching practices. As a member of the faculty and UND, Dr. Summers is very committed to teacher education and outreach. He looks forward to opportunities to engage and collaborate with local science teachers and schools.
Dr. Summers is actively conducting research and publishing in his field. He has presented papers and contributed to state, national, and international conferences. During his doctoral studies he cultivated a deep interest in two specific areas that relate to broad goals of precollege science education. The first of these areas centers on the development of informed views about the nature of science in students in precollege settings. In brief, this area draws from the history and philosophy of science to outline the characteristics of scientific knowledge, details of how scientific knowledge is generated, refined by the scientific community, and shaped by the cultural context in which it was created. The second area of interest involves understanding precollege students’ attitudes toward science, including their general feeling about the subject and intentions to continue studying science in the future. Fostering positive attitudes toward science is important because the disposition students develop in K-12 can shape their appreciation of science as adults, and even their willingness to explore science-related careers.
Undergraduate courses:
TL 400 Secondary Methods and Materials – Science
TL 401 School Safety Science (TL 400 co-requisite)
TL 486 Field Experience – Science (TL 400 co-requisite)
TL 472 Teaching Life-Science in the Elementary School
Graduate courses:
TL 518 Science in the Elementary School
TL 542 Models of Teaching
TL 577 Assessment of Learning
TL 590 Specialized Methods: Science
Dr. Summers’ research interests relate to the study of science teaching and learning, with a focus on understanding and promoting students’ appreciation and understanding of science. Specifically, he addresses two main lines of research:
The first line of research focuses on student attitudes with the goal of examining and understanding key preferences related to, and determinants of, student engagement with science. Such engagement is considered key to students’ intentions and decisions to pursue additional science studies and, potentially, science-related careers.
The second line of research examines the perspectives about the nature of science (NOS) held by students, advanced by teachers, and promoted by instructional materials in precollege settings. Drawing from the history and philosophy of science, and supported by a large body of literature in science education research, Dr. Summers advocates an explicit-reflective approach to teaching students about NOS. His research often involves the assessment of views, held by students or teachers, or materials for their treatment of key aspects related to the characteristics of scientific knowledge, details of how scientific knowledge is generated, refined by the scientific community, and shaped by the cultural context in which it was created.
SELECT PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS:
Summers, R., Alameh, S., Brunner, J., Maddux, J., Wallon, R., & Abd-El-Khalick, F. (2019). Representations of nature of science in U.S. science standards: A historical account with contemporary implications. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 56(9), 1234-1268.
Summers, R., & Abd-El-Khalick, F. (2019). An examination of Illinois students’ attitudes toward science using multivariate multi-level modeling to analyze a cross-sectional sample of responses from grades 5 through 10. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 56(8), 1106-1134.
Summers, R., Wang, S., Abd-El-Khalick, F., & Said, Z. (2019). Comparing Likert scale functionality across culturally and linguistically diverse groups in science education research: An illustration using Qatari students’ responses to an attitude toward science survey. International Journal of Mathematics and Science Education, 17(5), 885-903.
Summers, R., & Abd-El-Khalick, F. (2019). Examining the Representations of NOS in Educational Resources: An Analysis of Lesson Plans Aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards. Science & Education, 28, 269-289.
Summers, R., & Abd-El-Khalick, F. (2018). Development and validation of an instrument to assess student attitudes toward science across grades 5 through 10. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 55, 172-205.
Abd-El-Khalick, F., Myers, J., Summers, R., Waight, N., Belarmino, J., Brunner, J., Wahbeh, N., & Zeineddin, A. (2017). A longitudinal analysis of the extent and manner of representations of nature of science in U.S. high school biology and physics textbooks. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 54, 82-120.
SELECTED BOOK CHAPTERS:
Summers, R., Rodems, K., Denos, S., & Atkinson, A. (2020). Using claims and evidence to support the search for extraterrestrial life: Teacher reflections following an interdisciplinary English–science argumentation unit. In K. Brinegar, L. Harrison, & E. Hurd (Eds.) Integrative and interdisciplinary curriculum in the middle school: Integrated approaches in teacher preparation and practice. New York, NY: Routledge. (Note: Previously published in the Middle School Journal and selected for inclusion in this monograph.)
Lederman, N., Abd-El-Khalick, F., Summers, R., & LePretre, D. (2020). Connections to Nature of Science (Chapter 7). In T. Willard (Ed.) NSTA Atlas of the Three Dimensions. NSTA Press.
Abd-El-Khalick, F., Belarmino, J., Brunner, J., Le, A., Myers, J. Y., Summers, R., Wahbeh, N., Waight, N., Waters, M., & Zeineddin, A. (2017). A longitudinal analysis of the prominence and representations of nature of science in U.S. high school chemistry, biology, and physics textbooks. In C. McDonald & F. Abd-El-Khalick (Eds.), Representations of nature of science in school science textbooks: Global perspectives. New York: Routledge.
SELECT PROFESSIONAL REFEREED PRESENTATIONS:
Summers, R., Wang. S., & Hutchison, A. (2019, April). Exploring students’ intentions to engage with science: A side-by-side comparison of two theoretical models. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Baltimore, MD.
Summers, R. (2018, March). What led me here? An exploration into secondary students’ attitudes and intentions in relation to elective course enrollment. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Atlanta, GA.
Henderson, J. A., Greer, R. P., Summers, R., & Morphew, J. W. (2017, June). Engagement in Practice: Successes Gleaned from the St. Elmo Brady STEM Academy. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Engineering Education, Columbus, OH.
Summers, R., Alameh, S., Brunner, J., Maddux, J., Wallon, R., & Abd-El-Khalick, F., (2017, April). Nature of science treatment in U.S. science standards: A historical account with contemporary implications. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, San Antonio, TX.
Summers, R., Maddux, J., Wallon, R., Alameh, S., Brunner, J., Myers, J., Pabuccu, A., Akyol, G., Silliman, C., Shehab, S., & Abd-El-Khalick, F. (2016, April). The history of nature of science representation in state science standards: A systematic assessment. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Baltimore, MD.
Brunner, J. L., Summers, R., Myers, J. Y., & Abd-El-Khalick, F. (2016, April). Toward quantifying responses to the Views of Nature Of Science Questionnaire: Empirically investigating qualitative coding. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Baltimore, MD.
Doctor of Philosophy in Curriculum and Instruction (Math, Science, and Technology Division with an emphasis in Science Education)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2016
Master of Science in Curriculum and Instruction
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2012
Bachelor of Science in Biology (Chemistry minor with Teacher Certification)
Eastern Illinois University, 2007
National Committee Service
Research Committee Member, 2017 – Present
National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST)
Editorial Responsibilities
Invited Reviewer, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 2015 – Present
Invited Reviewer, International Journal of Science Education, 2014 – Present
Invited Reviewer, Journal of Science Education and Technology, 2013 – Present
NARST Conference Paper Reviewer
Strand 2, 2012 – Present
Science Learning: Contexts, Characteristics and Interactions. Learning environments, teacher-student and student-student interactions, and factors related to and/or affecting learning. Annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching.
Strand 13, 2012 – Present
History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science. Historical, philosophical and social issues of science as related to science education. Annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching.
Abridged abstract:
Ninety-eight state documents from 48 states were analyzed and multiple editions were collected from 34 states. Additionally, relevant materials from the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) were assessed for their coverage of nature of science (NOS) aspects. Collected materials were scored as whole documents, including over 11,000 pages of text in total, on each target aspect, which reflected the treatment (naïve vs. informed) of NOS in text and the manner of presentation (explicit vs. implicit). Overall, surprisingly, state standards documents have improved very little with respect to their NOS coverage over the last 30 years. Standards documents remain silent on a majority of NOS aspects.
Video:
Full paper citation:
Summers, R., Alameh, S., Brunner, J., Maddux, J., Wallon, R., & Abd-El-Khalick, F. (2019). Representations of nature of science in U.S. science standards: A historical account with contemporary implications. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 56(9), 1234-1268.