The importance of improving STEM education is of perennial interest, and to this end, the education community needs ways to characterize transformation efforts. Three-dimensional learning (3DL) is one such approach to transformation, in which core ideas of the discipline, scientific practices, and crosscutting concepts are combined to support student development of disciplinary expertise. We have previously reported on an approach to the characterization of assessments, the Three-Dimensional Learning Assessment Protocol (3D-LAP), that can be used to identify whether assessments have the potential to engage students in 3DL. Here we present the development of a companion, the Three-Dimensional Learning Observation Protocol (3D-LOP), an observation protocol that can reliably distinguish between instruction that has potential for engagement with 3DL and instruction that does not. The 3D-LOP goes beyond other observation protocols, because it is intended not only to characterize the pedagogical approaches being used in the instructional environment, but also to identify whether students are being asked to engage with scientific practices, core ideas, and crosscutting concepts. We demonstrate herein that the 3D-LOP can be used reliably to code for the presence of 3DL; further, we present data that show the utility of the 3D-LOP in differentiating between instruction that has the potential to promote 3DL

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Engaging with models has been considered central to the practice of doing science as it facilitates sensemaking of the world around us. Therefore, engaging students in the practice of using models is an important component of their science education. But to do so effectively, we also need to understand how students use models in their work. Consequently, we require a way to analyzing students' use of models. In the current work, we present an analytical framework which characterizes students' use of models by considering common themes from the existing literature on modeling in physics. These themes present themselves as five components: (i) Presence of a real-world phenomenon, (ii) Use of representation(s) depicting the phenomenon, (iii) Invoking of conceptual knowledge organized around representation(s), (iv) Presence of explanation/prediction about the phenomenon and (v) Linking the explanation/prediction to a representation through appropriate reasoning. Analysis of students' written and verbal responses to physics problems through these components indicate that students seldom link the predictions made to the representations through reasoning, and, when they do, representations are often mathematical equations even though diagrams are present in their solution.

Physics education researchers have advocated for modeling and sensemaking to be part of students' science learning environments as the two processes lead to generation of new knowledge by connecting one's existing ideas. Despite being two distinct processes, modeling is often described as sensemaking of the physical world. In the current work, we provide an explicit, framework-based analysis of the intertwining between modeling and sensemaking by operationalizing the Denotative Function (DF), Demonstration (D), and Inferential Function (IF) -the DFDIF account of modeling -, and the Sensemaking Epistemic Game in the context of physics problem solving. The data involves two case studies, one involving participant's successful completion of the task and the other in which the participant aborts his attempt at the solution. Qualitative analysis of the participants' problem-solving moves reveals that modeling -construction of mental models and engagement with the DFDIF components -to entail navigation through the stages of the Sensemaking Epistemic Game. We also observe co-occurrence of construction of mental models, engagement with modeling's Demonstration and Inferential Function with the Assembling of a Knowledge Framework, Generation of an Explanation, and Resolution stages of the Sensemaking Epistemic Game respectively. Additionally, the second case study reveals that barriers experienced in modeling a context can inhibit participants' sustained sensemaking. Limitations of the current work and implications for future explorations are discussed.