Investigating teacher learning supports in high school biology curricular programs to inform the design of educative curriculum materials

Reform efforts have emphasized the need to support teachers' learning about reform‐oriented practices. Educative curriculum materials are one potential vehicle for promoting teacher learning about these practices. Educative curriculum materials include supports that are intended to promote both student and teacher learning. However, little is known about the extent to which existing curriculum materials provide support for teachers and the ways they can be improved. In this study, eight sets of high school biology curriculum materials were reviewed to determine their potential for promoting teacher learning. Design heuristics for educative curriculum materials were adapted for use as evaluation criteria. From this analysis, several themes emerged. First, the materials tended to provide support for teachers' subject matter knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge for students' ideas (e.g., misconceptions) but rarely for their pedagogical content knowledge of scientific inquiry. Second, the materials contained several implementation guidance supports but far fewer rationales for instructional decisions, which are an important feature of educative curriculum materials. Finally, the quality of support varied widely, differing in its degree of relevance, pedagogical helpfulness, and depth. The article concludes with recommendations for the redesign of existing curriculum materials. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 46: 977–998, 2009     

Working together within a system: educative mentoring and novice teacher learning

Using a framework of activity theory, I follow one mentor/student teacher pair through a yearlong student teaching experience, investigating their interactions around the practice of educative co-planning. Evidence from multiple data sources collected over the course of one year is analyzed to understand the role co-planning played in the mentor/student teacher relationship, the experience of being a mentor, and in the development of the student teacher’s practices. Findings reveal the mentor and student teacher used the educative practice of co-planning to productively mediate tensions and navigate their relationship.     

A framework for evaluating the doctoral curriculum

This paper proposes a framework for evaluating the doctoral curriculum. Noting that much previous research and evaluation in doctoral education have focused on the outputs of the degree or the supervisory process, the paper identifies the content of the training students receive in particular fields of study, the doctoral curriculum, as in need of further scrutiny. Based on concepts from curriculum evaluation, a framework is proposed to identify the research questions and data sources which might guide such a study.     

Examining features of how professional development and enactment of educative curricula influences elementary science teacher learning

This research examines factors influencing elementary science teacher learning as they participate in professional development with and enactment of educative curricula in comparison with learning following limited professional development and enactment of traditional curricula. Using a randomized cluster design (125 teachers and 2,694 students in 4th—5th grades) that met the What Works Clearinghouse standards without reservations, teacher learning was conceptualized using four outcomes. Data were analyzed using standard single-level multiple regression models and possible mediation models for the teacher outcomes were considered using piecewise multiple regression and path analytic approaches. Treatment group teachers experienced greater increases in content knowledge, views of science inquiry, beliefs about reform-based teaching, and teaching self-efficacy than comparison group teachers. The findings indicate that what teachers learn from the combination of professional development and teaching with educative curriculum varies according to what their knowledge and beliefs are on entering the experience. Surprisingly, high entry-level self-efficacy was associated not only with lower learning gains for the teachers, but also for their students. Finally, teachers' space science learning and that of their students are implicated as mediators of the positive effect of the professional development and educative curriculum enactment on teacher beliefs about reform science teaching. This work refines and extends a theoretical framework of teachers' participatory relationship with curricula.     

Designing educative curriculum materials in interdisciplinary teams: designer processes and contributions

Instructional Science - Educative curricula support teacher learning as well as the learning of students. High quality educative curricula contain features that help teachers customize learning...     

Promoting early career teacher resilience: a framework for understanding and acting

In this paper, we undertake a brief review of the ‘conventional’ research into the problems of early career teachers to create a juxtaposed position from which to launch an alternative approach based on resilience theory. We outline four reasons why a new contextualised, social theory of resilience has the potential to open up the field of research into the professional lives of teachers and to produce new insights into the social, cultural and political dynamics at work within and beyond schools. We then move from these theoretical considerations to explain how we used them in a recent Australian research project that examined the experiences of 60 graduate teachers during their first year of teaching. This work led to the development of a Framework of Conditions Supporting Early Career Teacher Resilience which we outline, promote and advocate as the basis for action to better sustain our graduate teachers in their first few years of teaching. Finally, we reflect on the value of our work so far and outline our practical plans to ‘mobilise’ this knowledge in ways that will make it available to a variety of audiences concerned with the welfare of this group of teachers.     

Mathematics for the future: developing a Head Start curriculum to support mathematics learning

While mathematics instruction for very young children needs to be age-appropriate in format and content, it also needs to prepare children conceptually for the kinds of mathematics learning that will be expected of them in future years. This perspective, informed by the work of Russian psychologists and educators on a measurement-based approach to early mathematics instruction [e.g., V.V. Davydov, Children’s Capacity for Learning Mathematics, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Reston, VA, pp. 109–205], was the basis for an experimental mathematics curriculum which focused on the concept of unit as it applies to enumeration, measurement, and the identification of relations among geometric shapes. The curriculum particularly emphasized two ideas about units that derive from a measurement perspective: first, that the numerical result we obtain from counting or other measurement operations will depend on our choice of a unit; and second, that units of one kind can be combined to form higher-order units or taken apart to form lower-order ones. The curriculum included a weekly project activity conducted by the Head Start teachers, suggestions for supplementary activities, and a weekly home activity for a parent or other family member to carry out with the child. It was implemented with children in three Head Start centers (N=46; age range 2 years, 9 months–4 years, 7 months at the beginning of the program). To evaluate the curriculum, two assessment instruments (the mathematics subscale of the DSC and a supplementary instrument constructed especially for this study) were administered, at the beginning and again at the end of the school year, to these children and to two comparison groups. One comparison group (N=48; age range 2 years, 6 months–4 years, 7 months) received a literacy intervention rather than a mathematics one; the other (N=29; age range 2 years, 8 months–4 years, 7 months) did not receive any experimental intervention. Results showed significant, albeit modest, positive effects of the intervention. The importance of reexamining current beliefs about what is possible—and desirable—within a preschool mathematics curriculum is emphasized.     

Developing a mathematics curriculum to improve learning behaviors and mathematics competency of children

The authors investigated the effect of a mathematical curriculum (CU) developed based on verbal and practical activities on the mathematical competency (MC) and learning behaviors (LB) of preschool children. In a quasi-experimental design, 60 children (5- to 6-year-old girls) were selected using the accessible sampling method. The children were randomly divided into an experimental group and a control group, and the relevant concepts were taught to the children in both groups. While the control group received the typical kindergarten education based on the usual textbooks and worksheets, the CU was taught to the experimental group. Structural equation modeling was used to model the data and statistical evaluation. The results demonstrated a significant difference between the two groups in MC and LB. The CU significantly improved MC directly, and indirectly through the improvement of LB (i.e., engagement and learning focus, verbal behaviors, and type of activity).     

Teaching teachers to teach Boris: a framework for mathematics teacher educator pedagogical content knowledge

The notion of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) was posited in the context of school teaching and the knowledge used by teachers teaching school students. It has been examined for a number of discipline areas, notably mathematics. There are, however, other teaching contexts, including those of teacher educators, whose students are pre-service teachers (PSTs). The content these teacher educators teach is not subject discipline knowledge (or not solely), but the PCK for teaching a subject discipline. What knowledge do teacher educators use as they teach PCK? This paper presents a framework for the PCK required of mathematics teacher educators as they work to develop PSTs’ PCK for teaching mathematics. The framework builds on existing research into PCK and categorises aspects of the work of teacher education. The framework’s usefulness is examined by studying the PCK used by the first author in building PSTs’ understanding of mathematics teacher PCK.     

Learning mathematics and learning to teach: Learning cycles in mathematics teacher education

The reconceptualization of mathematics teacher education based on current mathematics education reform efforts necessitates the elaboration of theoretical frameworks to guide both the practice of and research on teacher education. The author presents a framework which has been useful in shaping two major mathematics teacher education research and development projects. This framework for mathematics teacher learning builds recursively on a framework for mathematics learning which derives from a social constructivist view of learning and incorporates aspects of French didactical theory using the organizing structure of the Karplus Learning Cycle. The framework can be used to think about the content and organization of a particular lesson or of an entire course or program for teachers. Further, it describes the interconnection between different domains of teacher knowledge.     

Promoting a self-sustaining learning community: investigating an internal model for teacher development

The authors report an investigation of a five-step structured study-group approach to promoting a?self-sustaining learning community that supports teachers in developing the ‘habits of mind’ necessary for improving literacy acquisition and development for urban African American students attending a low-performing, high-poverty elementary school. The authors report that over a two-year time period the conversations among the teachers at the study-group meetings changed to be more positive about the children, to make linkages between themselves and the culture the children bring to school, to enthusiasm for sharing their own strategies and engaging in public reflection, and collaborating in developing new instructional approaches.     

Multiple representations as sites for teacher reflection about mathematics learning

This documentary account situates teacher educator, prospective teacher, and elementary students’ mathematical thinking in relation to one another, demonstrating shared challenges to learning mathematics. It highlights an important mathematics reasoning skill—creating and analyzing representations. The author examines responses of prospective teachers to a visual representation task and, in turn, their examination of school children’s responses to mathematical tasks. The analysis revealed the initial tendency of prospective teachers to create pictorial representations and highlights the importance of looking beyond the pictures created to how prospective teachers use mathematical models. In addition, the challenges prospective teachers face in moving beyond a ruled-based conception of mathematics and a right/wrong framework for assessing student work are documented. Findings suggest that analyzing representations helps prospective teachers (and teacher educators) rethink their teaching practices by engaging with a culture of teaching focused on reading for multiple meanings and posing questions about student thinking and curriculum materials.