Teachers' perceptions of policy influences on science instruction with culturally and linguistically diverse elementary students

This study asked elementary school teachers how educational policies affected their science instruction with a majority of English language learners. The study employed a questionnaire followed by focus group interviews with 43 third and fourth grade teachers from six elementary schools in a large urban school district with high populations of English language learners in the southeastern United States. Results indicate that teachers' opinions concerning all areas of policy evolved as the state enforced stronger measures of accountability during the 2‐year period of the study. Although relatively positive regarding standards, their opinions became increasingly negative regarding statewide assessment, and even more so toward accountability measured by reading, writing, and mathematics. The results suggest that it is important to understand how teachers perceive the influence of policies, particularly those relating to English language learners, as science accountability becomes more imminent across the states. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 725–746, 2007     

How learning to become a teacher-researcher prepared an educator to do science inquiry with elementary grade students

This autobiographical case study describes the development of the practices and perspectives of one elementary school teacher as she engaged in teacher-as-researcher methodology in both urban and suburban settings. Re-visiting a collection of teacher journals, transcribed audiotapes, student work samples, parent communications, and artifacts in teacher and student portfolios identifies multiple outcomes of this reflective and reflexive professional stance. The case study documents how teacher-as-researcher engagements provided the framework for an elementary teacher to begin to explore science inquiry within an elementary school setting. This autobiographical tale documents how teacher-as-researcher practices enabled students, parents, and educators to become co-learners, co-teachers, and co-researchers in science education and the science of education.     

Impact of a multiyear professional development intervention on science achievement of culturally and linguistically diverse elementary students

This study examined the impact of the 3‐year implementation of a professional development intervention on science achievement of culturally and linguistically diverse elementary students. Teachers were provided with instructional units and workshops that were designed to improve teaching practices and foster positive beliefs about science and literacy with diverse student groups. The study involved third, fourth, and fifth grade students at six elementary schools in a large urban school district during the 2001 through 2004 school years. Significance tests of mean scores between pre‐ and posttests indicated statistically significant increases each year on all measures of science at all three grade levels. Achievement gaps among demographic subgroups sometimes narrowed among fourth grade students and remained consistent among third and fifth grade students. Item‐by‐item comparisons with NAEP and TIMSS samples indicated overall positive performance by students at the end of each school year. The consistent patterns of positive outcomes indicate the effectiveness of our intervention in producing achievement gains at all three grade levels while also reducing achievement gaps among demographic subgroups at the fourth grade. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 726–747, 2008     

An instructional intervention's impact on the science and literacy achievement of culturally and linguistically diverse elementary students

This research examined the impact of the first‐year implementation of an instructional intervention to promote achievement and equity in science and literacy for culturally and linguistically diverse elementary students. The research addressed three areas: (a) overall science and literacy achievement, (b) achievement gaps among demographic subgroups, and (c) comparison with national (NAEP) and international (TIMSS) samples of students. The research involved 1,523 third‐ and fourth‐grade students at six elementary schools in a large urban school district. Significance tests of mean scores between pre‐ and posttests indicate statistically significant increases on all measures of science and literacy at both grade levels. While achievement gaps widened with third graders on some of the measures, the gaps tended to narrow with fourth graders. The results based on item‐by‐item comparisons with NAEP TIMSS samples of students indicated overall positive performance of the students in the research at the end of the school year. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 42: 857–887, 2005     

Changes in epistemological beliefs in elementary science students

Epistemological beliefs, or beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing, are currently a target of increased research interest. The present study examined two research questions: (1) how do epistemological beliefs change over time? and (2) what role do gender, ethnicity, SES, and achievement play in their development? The study was correlational with an ethnically diverse sample of 187 fifth grade students (46% Latino, 27% Anglo, and 27% African American, and 67% low SES). Self-report questionnaires that tapped four dimensions of beliefs (source, certainty, development, and justification) were given to students at two time points during the course of a nine-week science unit. Results showed that students became more sophisticated in their beliefs about source and certainty of knowledge over time, but that there were no reliable changes in development and justification. There also were no main or moderating effects of gender or ethnicity, but there were main effects of SES and achievement. Low SES and low achieving children had less sophisticated beliefs in comparison to average SES and high achieving children. There were no significant interactions between gender, ethnicity, SES, and achievement for any of the four belief measures. Results are discussed in terms of personal and contextual factors and their role in the facilitation of epistemological belief development.     

ICT/media uses and college entry for students from diverse backgrounds

This study examined the effects of two types of Information communication technology and media (ICT/media) use on college access using ICT/media to obtain college information as a mediator paying focused attention to English language learners. The study analyzed the Educational Longitudinal Study (ELS) from the US Department of Education, employing a survival analysis with structural equation modeling components. The results demonstrated that the frequent use of a computer for independent learning had significantly positive direct, indirect, and total effects on college entry for both English language learners and native English-speaking students. However, the digital gameplay had significantly negative effects. The study discusses the implications of using ICT/media.     

Learning with collaborative inquiry: a science learning environment for secondary students

When inquiry-based learning is designed for a collaborative context, the interactions that arise in the learning environment can become fairly complex. While the learning effectiveness of such learning environments has been reported in the literature, there have been fewer studies on the students’ learning processes. To address this, the article presents a study of science learning in a computer-supported learning environment called Collaborative Science Inquiry (CSI), which integrates guided inquiry principles for activity design, employs modelling and visualisation tools for promoting conceptual understanding and incorporates key computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) elements for enabling students’ collaboration. With the aim of understanding the process of students’ conceptual changes supported by the CSI learning environment as used in a secondary school, data on students’ test achievements, responses to learning tasks and peer discussions in collaboration were collected, analysed and discussed. The results of the qualitative and quantitative data analysis indicated that guided inquiry coupled with CSCL elements facilitated by the CSI system can engage students in inquiry activities and promote their conceptual understanding in a progressive way.     

Improving nature of science instruction in elementary classes with modified science trade books and educative curriculum materials

This study investigated the effect of including explicit nature of science (NOS) content in read-alouds of elementary science trade books on the teaching and learning of NOS. We focused on three aspects of NOS: the creative, the empirical, and the inferential NOS. The trade books were read aloud by teachers in three hierarchical levels: Level I served as a control and consisted of a trade book that remained unmodified, Level II consisted of a trade book that had been modified to include explicit references to NOS, and Level III consisted of a modified trade book accompanied by educative curriculum materials that were aimed at improving the teachers' views of NOS as well as supporting teaching about NOS. We used the Views of Nature of Science Questionnaire-form CE (VNOS-CE) preintervention and postintervention to determine changes in teachers' views of NOS and interviews preintervention and postintervention to determine changes in students' views. Audio recordings of read-alouds were used to determine changes in teaching practice, including the frequency and the quality (i.e., naïve or informed) of the NOS references in the discussions. Interviews were used to determine teachers' perceptions of the modified trade books and educative curriculum materials. We found that both teachers and students developed more informed views of the targeted NOS aspects after the intervention and that teachers addressed NOS more often, and in a more informed manner, when they had trade books that explicitly supported NOS instruction and educative curriculum materials that supported their learning about NOS. Furthermore, they perceived the intervention materials favorably. Teachers' views and practices were able to change in tandem because of the intervention materials that supported explicit NOS instruction. We highlight the need for more widespread development of similar educative curriculum materials.     

Curriculum design for inquiry: Preservice elementary teachers' mobilization and adaptation of science curriculum materials

Curriculum materials are crucial tools with which teachers engage students in science as inquiry. In order to use curriculum materials effectively, however, teachers must develop a robust capacity for pedagogical design, or the ability to mobilize a variety of personal and curricular resources to promote student learning. The purpose of this study was to develop a better understanding of the ways in which preservice elementary teachers mobilize and adapt existing science curriculum materials to plan inquiry‐oriented science lessons. Using quantitative methods, we investigated preservice teachers' curriculum design decision‐making and how their decisions influenced the inquiry orientations of their planned science lessons. Findings indicate that preservice elementary teachers were able to accurately assess how inquiry‐based existing curriculum materials are and to adapt them to make them more inquiry‐based. However, the inquiry orientations of their planned lessons were in large part determined by how inquiry‐oriented curriculum materials they used to plan their lessons were to begin with. These findings have important implications for the design of teacher education experiences that foster preservice elementary teachers' pedagogical design capacities for inquiry, as well as the development of inquiry‐based science curriculum materials that support preservice and beginning elementary teachers to engage in effective science teaching practice. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47:820–839, 2010     

Modes of engagement in science inquiry: A microanalysis of elementary students' orientations toward phenomena at a summer science camp

Most science educators advocate the importance of hands-on activities for learning in science. However, little research has been directed at understanding the students' orientations toward phenomena and the ways in which these orientations influence the learning experience. Through microanalyses of videotape data of a summer science camp for elementary school children, we characterize students' orientations when exploring natural phenomena as modes of engagement. The six frequently observed orientations toward phenomena include exploration mode (to find out about the object and study its basic properties), engineering mode (a focus on making something happen), pet care mode (a personal connection focused on nurturing), procedural mode (an imitation and step-following orientation), performance mode (soliciting attention using the phenomenon as a prop), and fantasy mode (an imaginative play activity which builds on some aspect of the phenomena). These modes of engagement helped provide personal contexts in which the students' interactions with phenomena took shape, and these modes were arguably as important an influence on personal contexts as other conceptual or contextual influences. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Engaging elementary students in learning science: an analysis of classroom dialogue

Research over a long period of time has continued to demonstrate problems in the teaching of science in school. In addition, declining levels of participation and interest in science and related fields have been reported from many particularly western countries. Among the strategies suggested is the recruitment of professional scientists and technologists either at the graduate level or advanced career level to change career and teach. In this study, we analysed how one beginning middle primary teacher engaged with students to support their science learning by establishing rich classroom discussions. We followed his evolving teaching expertise over three years focussing on his communicative practices informed by socio-cultural theory. His practices exemplified a non-interactive dialogical communicative approach where ideas were readily discussed but were concentrated on the class acquiring acceptable scientific understandings. His focus on the language of science was a significant aspect of his practice and one that emerged from his professional background. The study affirms the theoretical frameworks proposed by Mortimer and Scott (Meaning making in secondary science classrooms, 2003) highlighting how dialogue contributes to heightened student interest in science.     

Assessing elementary school support for inquiry

Increasingly in elementary schools, there has been a focus on the influence of school-level factors on students’ learning. The way in which the learning environment is organised in schools and classrooms is likely to influence students’ opportunities to carry out inquiry. Most studies have focused on the effects of the amount of schooling, rather than effects attributable to support for inquiry in the school context. This study clarifies aspects of school contexts that support inquiry at the school level and describes the development of an inventory to assess school contexts. The Primary School Characteristics Inventory has three components named Motivation for Student Inquiry, Organisational Structures to Support Inquiry and Structures to Support Inquiry Strategies in School. The instrument was effective for identifying schools with varying levels of support for inquiry, suggesting that some schools might need to modify the school context if students are to carry out inquiry in a self-directed way.     

Professional development in inquiry‐based science for elementary teachers of diverse student groups

As part of a larger project aimed at promoting science and literacy for culturally and linguistically diverse elementary students, this study has two objectives: (a) to describe teachers' initial beliefs and practices about inquiry‐based science and (b) to examine the impact of the professional development intervention (primarily through instructional units and teacher workshops) on teachers' beliefs and practices related to inquiry‐based science. The research involved 53 third‐ and fourth‐grade teachers at six elementary schools in a large urban school district. At the end of the school year, teachers reported enhanced knowledge of science content and stronger beliefs about the importance of science instruction with diverse student groups, although their actual practices did not change significantly. Based on the results of this first year of implementation as part of a 3‐year longitudinal design, implications for professional development and further research are discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 1021–1043, 2004     

中小学科学教师探究教学观的国际研究述评

探究教学成为国际科学教育领域的热点问题,中小学科学教师的探究教学观直接影响他们的教学实践,本文综合考察了国际上有关该领域的研究成果,以期对探究教学理论和实践研究提供启示。