Science Teachers' Elicitation Practices: Insights for Formative Assessment

In evaluating teachers' instructional decisions during instruction, it is clear that the nature of their elicitation is crucial for student learning. When instructional decisions are informed by information about students' conceptual understanding, significant learning is possible. This article examined the elicitation practices of two high school science teachers who indicated that they made instructional decisions based on the elicited evidence of students' knowledge but whose elicitation practices were characteristic of low-level elicitation. The teachers focused on students' responses that used canonical terms and expressed acceptable knowledge. The teachers demonstrated low-level responsiveness because they did not have full access to students' knowledge. The elicited evidence of students' knowledge that was used in making instructional decisions was not representative of students' conceptual understanding. There was, thus, a mismatch between the teachers' perspectives about their formative assessment practice and what is considered effective formative assessment.     

Collaborative inquiry in teacher professional development

This article presents an in-depth case study of a complex community of inquiry. In this community, teachers worked collaboratively to build from situated assessments of students' learning through reading to refine and monitor practices designed to enhance student learning in their subject-area classrooms. In this report, we present evidence to address three questions: (1) What did inquiry look like within this community?; (2) How was collaboration implicated in teachers' inquiry?; and (3) How was engagement in inquiry related to meaningful shifts in teachers' practice and learning? This research contributes by uncovering important links between teacher inquiry, collaboration, and educational change.     

Evaluating students' science notebooks as an assessment tool

The idea of using science notebooks as a classroom assessment tool is not new. There is general agreement that science notebooks allow teachers to assess students' conceptual and procedural understanding and to provide the feedback students need for improving their performance. In this study we examined the use of science notebooks as an unobtrusive assessment tool that can also be used by individuals outside the classroom (for example, school district personnel), and as a means for obtaining information about students' learning and their opportunities to learn. More specifically, in this study students' science notebooks were used as a source of data about the (a) implementation of a curriculum's intended activities, (b) students' performance, and (c) quality of teachers' feedback. Our results indicated that: (1) Students' science notebooks can be reliably scored. Unit implementation, student performance, and teacher feedback scores were highly consistent across raters and units. (2) High and positive correlations with other performance assessment scores indicated that the student performance score can be considered as an achievement indicator. And (3) low performance scores across the two units revealed that students' communication skills and understanding were far away from the maximum score and did not improve over the course of instruction during the school year. This result may be due, in part, to the fact that no teacher feedback was found in any of the students' notebooks across the six classrooms studied. This may reflect some characteristics of the teachers' assessment practices that may require further professional development.     

Elementary teachers' epistemological and ontological understanding of teaching for conceptual learning

The purpose of this study was to examine the ways in which elementary teachers applied their understanding of conceptual learning and teaching to their instructional practices as they became knowledgeable about conceptual change pedagogy. Teachers' various ways to interpret and utilize students' prior ideas were analyzed in both epistemological and ontological dimensions of learning. A total of 14 in‐service elementary teachers conducted an 8‐week‐long inquiry into students' conceptual learning as a professional development course project. Major data sources included the teachers' reports on their students' prior ideas, lesson plans with justifications, student performance artifacts, video‐recorded teaching episodes, and final reports on their analyses of student learning. The findings demonstrated three epistemologically distinct ways the teachers interpreted and utilized students' prior ideas. These supported Kinchin's epistemological categories of perspectives on teaching including positivist, misconceptions, and systems views. On the basis of Chi's and Thagard's theories of conceptual change, the teachers' ontological understanding of conceptual learning was differentiated in two ways. Some teachers taught a unit to change the ontological nature of student ideas, whereas the others taught a unit within the same ontological categories of student ideas. The findings about teachers' various ways of utilizing students' prior ideas in their instructional practices suggested a number of topics to be addressed in science teacher education such as methods of utilizing students' cognitive resources, strategies for purposeful use of counter‐evidence, and understanding of ontological demands of learning. Future research questions were suggested. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 1292–1317, 2007     

Assessing students' understanding of inquiry: What do prospective science teachers notice?

The theoretical construct of teacher noticing has allowed mathematics teacher educators to examine teacher thinking and practice by looking at the range of activities that teachers notice in the classroom. Guided by this approach to the study of teacher thinking, the central goal of this exploratory study was to identify what prospective science teachers notice when evaluating evidence of student understanding in another teacher's inquiry‐based unit. Our results are based on the qualitative analysis of 43 prospective teachers' evaluations of assessment evidence presented to them in the form of a video case and associated written artifacts. Analysis of our data revealed two major categories of elements, Task‐General and Task‐Specific, noticed by our study participants. Task‐General elements included attention to learning objectives, independent student work, and presentation issues and they often served to guide or qualify the specific inquiry skills that were evaluated. Task‐Specific elements included the noticing of students' abilities to perform different components of an investigation. In general, study participants paid attention to important general and specific aspects of student work in the context of inquiry. However, they showed preferential attention to those process skills associated with designing an investigation versus those practices related to the analysis of data and generation of conclusions. Additionally, their interpretations of assessment outcomes were largely focused on the demonstration of general science process skills; much less attention was paid to the analysis of the epistemological validity or scientific plausibility of students' ideas. Our results provide insights into the design of meaningful learning experiences for prospective teachers that elicit, challenge, and enrich their conceptions of student understanding in the context of inquiry. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 50:189–208, 2013     

Teachers' learning to facilitate high‐level student thinking: Impact of a video‐based professional development

Attaining the vision for science teaching and learning emphasized in the Framework for K‐12 Science Education and the next generation science standards (NGSS) will require major shifts in teaching practices in many science classrooms. As NGSS‐inspired cognitively demanding tasks begin to appear in more and more science classrooms, facilitating students' engagement in high‐level thinking as they work on these tasks will become an increasingly important instructional challenge to address. This study reports findings from a video‐based professional development effort (i.e., professional development [PD] that use video‐clips of instruction as the main artifact of practice to support teacher learning) to support teachers' learning to select cognitively demanding tasks and to support students' learning during the enactment of these tasks in ways that are aligned with the NGSS vision. Particularly, we focused on the NGSS's charge to get students to make sense of and deeply think about scientific ideas as students try to explain phenomena. Analyses of teachers' pre‐ and post‐PD instruction indicate that PD‐participants began to adopt instructional practices associated with facilitating these kinds of student thinking in their own classrooms. The study has implications for the design of video‐based professional development for science teachers who are learning to facilitate the NGSS vision in science classrooms.     

Preservice elementary teachers' views of their students' prior knowledge of science

Pre‐service teachers face many challenges as they learn to teach in ways that are different from their own educational experiences. Pre‐service teachers often enter teacher education courses with pre‐conceptions about teaching and learning that may or may not be consistent with contemporary learning theory. To build on preservice teachers' prior knowledge, we need to identify the types of views they have when entering teacher education courses and the views they develop throughout these courses. The study reported here focuses specifically on preservice teachers' views of their own students' prior knowledge and the implications these views have on their understanding of the formative assessment process. Sixty‐one preservice teachers were studied from three sections of a science methods course. Results indicate that preservice teachers exhibited a limited number of views about students' prior knowledge. These views tended to privilege either academic or experience‐based concepts for different aspects of formative assessment, in contrast to contemporary perspectives on teaching for understanding. Rather than considering these views as misconceptions, it is argued that it is more useful to consider them as resources for further development of a more flexible concept of formative assessment. Four common views are discussed in detail and applied to science teacher education. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 497–523, 2008     

The I files,the truth is out there: science teachers’ constructs of inquiry

This article is concerned with the personal constructs of science teachers about inquiry in selected schools in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. While there is a large volume of existing literature which advocates the use of inquiry in the science classroom to enhance students' engagement with, and learning of science, relatively few of these studies represent teachers' voice. Therefore, we believe that it is important and distinctive to report teachers' constructs of inquiry and related concerns regarding its use in the science classroom. We identify the key constructs from 10 participating teachers and discuss these amongst a backdrop of policy implications for inquiry approaches in English secondary school science classrooms. Personal Construct Theory was used to underpin the study and frame data collection and analysis. Key findings show that the teachers identify an inquiry approach as being effective in stimulating students' independent learning and interest in science but issues such as time and confidence inhibit their deployment of inquiry approaches.     

Teachers' assessment of students' research skills

Today, teachers are expected to develop complex skills, such as research skills, in their students while implementing new views on learning and teaching and using authentic assessment strategies. About these new assessment strategies there is much debate and teachers are vulnerable in using them. We studied upper secondary education natural and social science teachers' practices using two surveys and two rounds of expert panel judgement on teacher‐submitted assessment‐related material and information. Our study shows that there are grounds for concern regarding the clarity of teachers' assessment criteria, the consistency between teachers' goals, assignments, and criteria, and the validity and acceptability of teachers' assessment practices. The extent to which it is justifiable to judge teachers' assessment practice by professional quality criteria is discussed, and suggestions are given as to the main quality criteria for formative and summative assessment and as to ways in which teachers could improve their assessment practices.     

Investigation of secondary science teachers' beliefs and practices after authentic inquiry‐based experiences

This study continues research previously conducted by a nine‐university collaborative, the Salish I Research Project, by exploring science teachers' beliefs and practices with regard to inquiry‐oriented instruction. In this study, we analyzed the relationship among secondary science teachers' preparation, their beliefs, and their classroom practices after completion of a course designed to provide authentic inquiry experiences. From Teacher Pedagogical Philosophy Interview data and Secondary Science Teacher Analysis Matrix observational data, we analyzed links between the teachers' conveyed beliefs and observed practice regarding the teachers' actions (TA) and students' actions (SA). Also presented is a listing of teachers' perceived influences from university preparation course work. Results indicated that 7 of the 8 teachers professed a belief in teacher‐centered or conceptual style with regard to TA and SA. The observational results indicated that 7 of the 8 teachers displayed a teacher‐centered or conceptual style with regard to TA and SA. Inconsistencies between interview and observational data were unexpected, as half of the teachers professed slightly greater teacher‐centered styles with regard to TA than what they actually practiced in their classrooms. All teachers reported that an inquiry‐based science course was valuable. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 938–962, 2006     

Instructional practices in secondary science: How teachers achieve local and standards-based success

This article reports on analyses of the instructional practices of six middle- and high-school science teachers in the United States who participated in a research-practice partnership that aims to support reform science education goals at scale. All six teachers were well qualified, experienced, and locally successful—respected by students, parents, colleagues, and administrators—but they differed in their success in supporting students' three-dimensional learning. Our goal is to understand how the teachers' instructional practices contributed to their similarities in achieving local success and to differences in enabling students' learning, and to consider the implications of these findings for research-practice partnerships. Data sources included classroom videos supplemented by interviews with teachers and focus students and examples of student work. We also compared students' learning gains by teacher using pre–post assessments that elicited three-dimensional performances. Analyses of classroom videos showed how all six teachers achieved local success—they led effectively managed classrooms, covered the curriculum by teaching almost all unit activities, and assessed students' work in fair and efficient ways. There were important differences, however, in how teachers engaged students in science practices. Teachers in classrooms where students achieved lower learning gains followed a pattern of practice we describe as activity-based teaching, in which students completed investigations and hands-on activities with few opportunities for sensemaking discussions or three-dimensional science performances. Teachers whose students achieved higher learning gains combined the social stability characteristic of local classroom success with more demanding instructional practices associated with scientific sensemaking and cognitive apprenticeship. We conclude with a discussion of implications for research-practice partnerships, highlighting how partnerships need to support all teachers in achieving both local and standards-based success.     

A Model of Formative Assessment in Science Education

This paper reports on the findings of a 2-year research project into the process of formative assessment in the science classrooms of 10 teachers. Formative assessment is defined as the process used by teachers and students to recognise and respond to student learning in order to enhance that learning, during the learning. The findings indicate that the teachers used two kinds of formative assessment, planned and interactive. Planned formative assessment involved the teachers eliciting and interpreting assessment information and then taking action. It tended to be carried out with the whole class. Interactive formative assessment involved the teachers in noticing, recognising and responding, and tended to be carried out with some individual students or small groups. This paper discusses these two types of formative assessment, how they are related, how they are integral to teaching and learning processes, and how they are dependent on teachers' pedagogical knowledge.     

Science teachers' sensemaking of the use of epistemic tools to scaffold students' knowledge (re)construction in classrooms

This study explores the process of teacher scaffolding student engagement in epistemic tools from the critical sensemaking perspective. Epistemic tools are contextual artifacts manipulated to investigate and evaluate ideas to construct knowledge within the constraints of a disciplines' representational means. The main sources of our data are ~50 min-long semistructured, responsive interviews with the 14 secondary school science teachers who participated in our professional learning environment (PLE) and implemented the activities from the PLE in their classrooms. We utilized the tools of discourse analysis to explore teacher sensemaking while they learned to teach science with epistemic tools. We then looked at intertextualities of meaning across multiple sets of data such as students' artifacts, pre/postsurveys, audio and video recordings of the workshops, and teachers' written implementation feedback forms. As a result, we recognized a pattern across different classrooms. Teachers would begin with a contextualized goal, and use a pedagogical strategy to scaffold their students as they worked to achieve that goal. Then, all teachers reported they faced some sort of ambiguity (such as grappling with failure, different levels of students). When faced with an ambiguity, teachers would then revise either their contextualized goal or their initial pedagogical strategy to help their students to reach their goals. Finally, we utilized constant-comparative analysis to identify themes for teachers' contextualized goals. Four major themes emerged, including communicating connections to core ideas of science, making sense of how science works, assessing students' learning process outcomes, and fostering students' epistemic agency. The findings of the study have implications for future research and professional development activities on the use of epistemic practices and tools in classrooms with unique contextual characteristics.     

Examining the effect of teachers' adaptations of a middle school science inquiry‐oriented curriculum unit on student learning

Reform based curriculum offer a promising avenue to support greater student achievement in science. Yet teachers frequently adapt innovative curriculum when they use them in their own classrooms. In this study, we examine how 19 teachers adapted an inquiry‐oriented middle school science curriculum. Specifically, we investigate how teachers' curricular adaptations (amount of time, level of completion, and activity structures), teacher self‐efficacy (teacher comfort and student understanding), and teacher experience enacting the unit influenced student learning. Data sources included curriculum surveys, videotape observations of focal teachers, and pre‐ and post‐tests from 1,234 students. Our analyses using hierarchical linear modeling found that 38% of the variance in student gain scores occurred between teachers. Two variables significantly predicted student learning: teacher experience and activity structure. Teachers who had previously taught the inquiry‐oriented curriculum had greater student gains. For activity structure, students who completed investigations themselves had greater learning gains compared to students in classrooms who observed their teacher completing the investigations as demonstrations. These findings suggest that it can take time for teachers to effectively use innovative science curriculum. Furthermore, this study provides evidence for the importance of having students actively engaging in inquiry investigations to develop understandings of key science concepts. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., J Res Sci Teach 48: 149–169, 2011     

Co‐constructing inquiry‐based science with teachers: Essential research for lasting reform

In this article we assert a potential research agenda for the teaching and learning of science as inquiry as part of the JRST series on reform in science education. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of cognitive and sociocultural constructivism, cultural models of meaning, the dialogic function of language, and transformational models of teacher education, we propose that more research is needed in the areas of teachers' beliefs, knowledge, and practices of inquiry‐based science, as well as, student learning. Because the efficacy of reform efforts rest largely with teachers, their voices need to be included in the design and implementation of inquiry‐based curriculum. As we review the literature and pose future research questions, we propose that particular attention be paid to research on inquiry in diverse classrooms, and to modes of inquiry‐based instruction that are designed by teachers. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 631–645, 2001     

The contribution of assessment experiences to student teachers' self-efficacy in competence-based education

Earlier research argues that educational programmes based on social cognitive theory are successful in improving students' self-efficacy. Focussing on some formative assessment characteristics, this qualitative research intends to study in-depth how student teachers' assessment experiences contribute to their self-efficacy. We interviewed 15 s year student teachers enrolled in a competence based teacher educational programme. Thematic content analysis results reveal that the assessment characteristics ‘authenticity’ and ‘feedback’ exert a positive influence on student teachers self-efficacy during all phases of the portfolio competence assessment. The results provide a fine-grained view of several types of self-efficacy information connected with these assessment phases.     

The influence of core teaching conceptions on teachers' use of inquiry teaching practices

This article investigates three teachers' conceptions and use of inquiry‐based instructional strategies throughout a professional development program. The professional development program consisted of a 2‐week summer inquiry institute and research experience in university scientists' laboratories, as well as three academic year workshops. Insights gained from an in‐depth study of these three secondary teachers resulted in a model of teacher conceptions that can be used to direct future inquiry professional development. Teachers' conceptions of inquiry teaching were established through intensive case–study research that incorporated extensive classroom observations and interviews. Through their participation in the professional development experience, the teachers gained a deeper understanding of how to implement inquiry practices in their classrooms. The teachers gained confidence and practice with inquiry methods through developing and presenting their institute‐developed inquiry lessons, through observing other teachers' lessons, and participating as students in the workshop inquiry activities. Data analysis revealed that a set of four core conceptions guided the teachers' use of inquiry‐based practices in their classrooms. The teachers' conceptions of science, their students, effective teaching practices, and the purpose of education influenced the type and amount of inquiry instruction performed in the high school classrooms. The research findings suggest that to be successful inquiry professional development must not only teach inquiry knowledge, but it must also assess and address teachers' core teaching conceptions. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 1318–1347, 2007     

Teacher Questioning: The Epicenter of Instruction and Assessment

In this article we examine some sequences of teacher–student interaction in which a teacher generates and acts on formative assessment data. We look at the teacher's practices of question construction and her decisions about in situ next pedagogical steps made in real time to support and further student learning. Our observations are guided by the following research questions: (a) What are the interactional practices that constitute formative assessment? (b) Are there observable classroom routines and organization that support these interactional practices? Our observations suggest that open and respectful pedagogical questioning is a key resource in eliciting students' current learning status, and for making decisions about next steps in student learning. Stable classroom routines and mutually understood interactional goals and practices are significant supports for these processes.     

Teacher communication behavior and its association with students' cognitive and attitudinal outcomes in science in Taiwan

In the study described in this article a questionnaire was employed that can be used to assess students' and teachers' perceptions of science teachers' interpersonal communication behaviors in their classroom learning environments. The Teacher Communication Behavior Questionnaire (TCBQ) has five scales: Challenging, Encouragement and Praise, Non‐Verbal Support, Understanding and Friendly, and Controlling. The TCBQ was used with a large sample of secondary science students in Taiwan, which provided additional validation data for the TCBQ for use in Taiwan and cross‐validation data for its use in English‐speaking countries. Girls perceived their teachers as more understanding and friendly than did boys, and teachers in biological science classrooms exhibited more favorable behavior toward their students than did those in physical science classrooms. Differences were also noted between the perceptions of the students and their teachers. Positive relationships were found between students' perceptions of their teachers' communication behaviors and their attitudes toward science. Students' cognitive achievement scores were higher when students perceived their teacher as using more challenging questions, as giving more nonverbal support, and as being more understanding and friendly. The development of both teacher and student versions of the TCBQ enhances the possibility of the use of the instrument by teachers. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 63–78, 2002