Growing the tree of teacher knowledge: Ten years of learning to teach elementary science

Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is a much debated and studied construct. In this article, we adopt an all‐embracing view of PCK to examine the development of one elementary science teacher's knowledge over a 10‐year period. We portray this teacher's knowledge at three critical points in her career—as a student teacher, beginning teacher, and established teacher—and represent and analyze the growth of her science PCK using the metaphor of a knowledge tree. The tree metaphor shows that while science knowledge begins as the major branch of science PCK, it is soon overshadowed by the general teaching and interactive knowledge branches of science PCK; however, taken together, all three branches contribute over time to the formation of a healthy, established tree of science PCK. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 42: 767–790, 2005     

Roles, caring and learning to teach science

Classroom narratives and stories are rich and powerful in offering deep insights into classrooms and the reality of teaching—a reality critically re-examined in this forum. Discussing Maria’s narratives led to reflections about what it takes to support teachers to become agents of more equitable science practices. Factors such as time and identity-work are key dimensions of the authors’ struggle, but they also address understanding students in profound ways. The ways in which contradictions at different levels in the educational system can become sources of growth, reflection and action are discussed; yet no simple answers follow. Teaching and becoming a teacher are best understood as life-long processes of reflection and action and as political acts that entail challenging many boundaries. They also involve putting oneself into vulnerable roles and positions. This dialogue opens up many questions about how we can collaborate, guide and support both novices and experienced professionals in education as researchers, science staff developers, and teacher educators. It seeks to support the on-going quest to make science education authentic and equitable.     

Enhancing pedagogical content knowledge in elementary science

In this study, five elementary teachers and a university researcher developed and implemented problem‐based learning (PBL) experiences in the context of science teaching and learning. Collaborative inquiry was adopted as a methodology, while a variety of qualitative methods were used to examine the engagement and development of teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). A PCK model is used as a framework to examine teachers’ professional knowledge growth in areas such as orientations to teaching science, knowledge of science curriculum, knowledge of students’ understanding of science, knowledge of assessment, and knowledge of instructional strategies. Implications for how teachers may be supported when adopting instructional innovations are discussed.     

Differential effects of three professional development models on teacher knowledge and student achievement in elementary science

To identify links among professional development, teacher knowledge, practice, and student achievement, researchers have called for study designs that allow causal inferences and that examine relationships among features of interventions and multiple outcomes. In a randomized experiment implemented in six states with over 270 elementary teachers and 7,000 students, this project compared three related but systematically varied teacher interventions—Teaching Cases, Looking at Student Work, and Metacognitive Analysis—along with no‐treatment controls. The three courses contained identical science content components, but differed in the ways they incorporated analysis of learner thinking and of teaching, making it possible to measure effects of these features on teacher and student outcomes. Interventions were delivered by staff developers trained to lead the teacher courses in their regions. Each course improved teachers' and students' scores on selected‐response science tests well beyond those of controls, and effects were maintained a year later. Student achievement also improved significantly for English language learners in both the study year and follow‐up, and treatment effects did not differ based on sex or race/ethnicity. However, only Teaching Cases and Looking at Student Work courses improved the accuracy and completeness of students' written justifications of test answers in the follow‐up, and only Teaching Cases had sustained effects on teachers' written justifications. Thus, the content component in common across the three courses had powerful effects on teachers' and students' ability to choose correct test answers, but their ability to explain why answers were correct only improved when the professional development incorporated analysis of student conceptual understandings and implications for instruction; metacognitive analysis of teachers' own learning did not improve student justifications either year. Findings suggest investing in professional development that integrates content learning with analysis of student learning and teaching rather than advanced content or teacher metacognition alone. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 333–362, 2012     

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.     

Examining preservice teacher content and pedagogical content knowledge needed to teach reading in elementary school

Recently, increased attention has been placed on the importance of having knowledgeable and skilled teachers in order to influence reading achievement. Yet many international reports suggest that large numbers of children are not learning to read. How can we better prepare teachers with the necessary knowledge to teach reading? The current study examined the reading instructional knowledge of elementary education preservice teachers (N = 87) from two teacher education programmes. Programme A required five reading methods courses and Programme B required two methods courses. Findings indicate that the preservice teachers presented fairly robust levels of knowledge in the areas of phonological awareness, phonics, comprehension and vocabulary. However, we found statistically significant differences in knowledge based on the programme attended and the number of courses completed. Suggestions for improving reading teacher education are provided.     

A constructivist approach to change in elementary science teaching and learning

Constructivism is a set of beliefs that can be used by teachers to think about learning and teaching and to plan and enact a science curriculum. This paper is a fictional account of an elementary science teacher and her use of constructivism as a referent for her various roles as a science teacher. The paper also describes how the teacher came to teach in this manner, describing her involvement in staff development activities and an evolution in her thinking from an ojectivist to a constructivist system of semantics. Implications are presented for the reform of science education.     

促进有意义学习的小学科学课堂学习材料设计

理解的意义学习要求教师帮助学生选择、组织和整合相关信息,因此,学习材料必须是有意义的才能促进理解的意义学习,而对学习者有意义的材料应当是能够降低无关认知负荷和原生认知负荷,同时提高相关认知负荷的信息.提出三种促进有意义学习的小学科学课堂学习材料设计策略:明确目标;控制冗余;聚焦要义、突出关键材料等.     

Alternative perspectives on authentic learning environments in elementary science

There are multiple views of a learning environment, each having the potential to contribute to our understanding and valuing of learning. In this study, the teacher's view was positive, concerned with children's ownership of ideas and positive self esteem, and based primarily on a view that in order to learn, students need to be actively engaged in activities that are enjoyable and challenging. The researcher had two perspectives, both differing from the teacher's. Consistent with social constructivism the students interacted freely with one another, learned about structures, and produced models that reflected their goals. From this perspective the learning environment was rich. But there was something missing in this classroom — the utilization of resources to assist in reproducing the culture of science. From the perspective of cultural reproduction the learning environment was impoverished.Present approaches to the study of learning environments are grounded in a tradition of using questionnaires to elicit perceptions of the experiences and preferences of students and teachers in terms of constructs selected for their salience to researchers. Although these constructs have changed over the past 20 to 30 years to reflect theoretical models applied to the teaching and learning of science, the use of different methods and theories in the study of learning environments, particularly in elementary grades, offers the promise of improving the quality of learning and teaching science. Studies of elementary students undertaken by Roth and his colleagues in Canada (e.g., Roth, 1996) and Ritchie and Hampson (1996) in Australia are particularly relevant to this chapter. The studies have yielded implications for teaching and learning in terms of fresh theoretical perspectives based on the use of qualitative approaches to the study of learning environments in which technology was used to build ideas about canonical science.When Ms. Scott was first approached about participating in a study she agreed and suggested that building castles would provide a suitable context. Her grade 2 classroom was in an elementary school in the northern part of Florida and contained students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. The ethnic composition of the school was approximately 60% Caucasian and 25% African American with the remaining 15% consisting of Asian American and Hispanic students. Few students in grade 2 had limited English proficiency.The interpretative research methods used accessed multiple data sources and were responsive to experiences during intensive visits to the grade two classroom during a three week sequence of activities. Ms. Scott and her students were given multiple opportunities to discuss their roles in their own language. Artifacts from the classroom were collected and intensive analyses of videotapes and 35 mm photographs taken by the teacher were undertaken. This chapter is based on complementary perspectives which are presented in the next two sections. The first incorporates a narrative from Ms. Scott; the second is derived from the researcher's analysis and interpretation of data from the study.     

Predicting elementary science learning using national assessment data

This study made use of data collected during 1981—1982 from a random sample of 1960 nine-year-old students from 124 elementary schools involved in a national assessment of educational progress in science sponsored by the National Science Foundation. This data base was used in secondary analyses which probed the validity of a model of educational productivity involving a set of nine aptitudinal, instructional, and environmental variables which require optimization to increase student learning. When controlled for other factors, ability, motivation, class environment, home environment, amount of television viewing (negative direction), gender, and race were all found to be significantly related to achievement. For an attitude outcome, the factors linked with attitudinal attainment were ability, motivation, class environment, and race. Overall the findings supported the model of educational productivity and suggested that elementary science students' achievement and attitude are influenced jointly by a number of factors rather than one or two dominant ones. Also the study attests to the potential value of science education researchers performing secondary analyses on the high-quality random data bases generated as part of this national assessment.     

From professor to colleague: Creating a professional identity as collaborator in elementary science

This self‐study of collaboration examines the lived experiences of a university researcher and a classroom teacher who shared the work of teaching 6th grade science. Sharing teaching involved planning, enacting, assessing, and reflecting upon instruction, and became the context for telling stories of collaboration. I interpreted these stories using models of social identity that employ performance metaphors in the construction/deconstruction of multiple identities. The analysis uncovered several tensions in building a collaborative relationship: a) The tension created by my assumption of multiple roles including new teacher, researcher, and collaborator; b) the tension between my desired role of collaborator and the role of professor ascribed to me by the classroom teacher; and c) the tension of an outsider searching for a comfort zone in an established classroom community. The meanings of collaboration that emerged from this study have implications for others who embark upon university/school partnerships. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 548–562, 2000     

Learning to teach science for all in the elementary grades: What do preservice teachers bring?

Implicit in the goal of recent reforms is the question: What does it mean to prepare teachers to teach “science for all”? Through a teacher research study, I have encountered characteristics that may assist prospective elementary teachers in developing effective, inclusive science instruction. I describe these strengths, link them to requirements for teaching, and suggest how science teacher educators might draw on the strengths of their own students to support teaching practices aimed at universal scientific literacy. My conceptual framework is constructed from scholarship concerning best practice in elementary science education, as well as that which describes the dispositions of successful teachers of diverse learners. This study is based on a model of teacher research framed by the concept of “research as praxis” and phenomenological research methodology. The findings describe the research participants' strengths thematically as propensity for inquiry, attention to children, and awareness of school/society relationships. I view these as potentially productive aspects of knowledge and dispositions about science and about children that I could draw on to further students' development as elementary science teachers. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 845–869, 2002