Incorporating English Language Teaching Through Science for K-2 Teachers

English learners are faced with the dual challenge of acquiring English while learning academic content through the medium of the new language (Lee et al. in J Res Sci Teach 45(6):726?C747, 2008; Stoddart et al. in J Res Sci Teach 39(8):664?C687, 2002) and therefore need specific accommodations to achieve in both English and the content areas. Teachers require higher quality and new forms of professional development to learn and meet the needs of their students. This study examines the impact of one professional development model that explicitly embedded language learning strategies into science inquiry lessons. It also demonstrates how teachers involved in the PD program improve their self-efficacy about language instruction embedded in content and how they interpret and implement the methodology.     

The Value of Applied Research: Retrieval Practice Improves Classroom Learning and Recommendations from a Teacher, a Principal, and a Scientist

Over the course of a 5-year applied research project with more than 1,400 middle school students, evidence from a number of studies revealed that retrieval practice in authentic classroom settings improves long-term learning (Agarwal et al. 2009; McDaniel et al., Journal of Educational Psychology 103:399–414, 2011; McDaniel et al. 2012; Roediger et al., Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied 17:382–395, 2011a). Retrieval practice, or the use of quizzes and exams to engage and enhance retrieval processes, has been widely established as an effective strategy for facilitating learning in laboratory settings (e.g., Roediger et al. 2011c). In this article, we review recent findings from applied research that demonstrate that retrieval practice enhances long-term classroom learning, delayed quizzes are particularly potent for retention, quizzes benefit students’ transfer to novel quiz items, and quizzes with feedback improve students’ learning and metacognitive awareness. In addition to generating evidence to support retrieval-based learning, these applied research studies also enhanced the professional development of the teachers, administrators, and scientists involved in the project. In this article, it is our hope that by sharing what we have learned from a variety of perspectives, applied scientific research in K-12 classrooms will continue to be explored and generated at local, state, and national levels, improving student learning and educational decision-making.     

POSSIBILITIES AND POTENTIAL BARRIERS: LEARNING TO PLAN FOR DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION IN ELEMENTARY SCIENCE

Research indicates that differentiated practices enhance the likelihood of meeting the needs of students who find literacy learning challenging (Tobin & McInnes, 2008; Tomlinson, 2003). The aim of the professional development project described here was to leverage these findings and to build the foundation for future research exploring if similar outcomes occurred in science. We wanted to examine teachers’ perceptions regarding planning and implementing Differentiated Instruction (DI) in science. Our workshops emphasized multimodal possibilities, so the project draws on research indicating that elementary students are able to demonstrate their understanding of science concepts in a variety of ways (Tippett, 2003) as well as research on DI in the context of language and literacy instruction. The study yielded insights about in-service teachers’ perceptions of the possibilities and potential barriers presented by DI in science.     

Development and use of a test instrument to measure biology teachers’ content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK)

Research on teachers’ professionalism and professional development has increased in the last two decades. A main focus of this line of research has been the cognitive component of teacher professionalism, i.e., professional knowledge. Most of the previous studies on teacher knowledge—such as the Learning Mathematics for Teaching (LMT) (Hill et al. 2004), the Professional Competence of Teachers, Cognitively Activating Instruction, and Development of Students´ Mathematical Literacy (COACTIV) (Baumert et al. 2010), and the Mathematics Teaching in the 21st Century (MT21) (Schmidt et al. 2007) studies—have been conducted in the field of mathematics teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and content knowledge (CK). There have been few comparable studies conducted with science teachers, especially biology teachers. To fill the gap, this study examines the development and use of instruments to measure biology teachers’ CK and PCK. In particular, this study describes a method to develop reliable, objective, and valid instruments measuring teachers’ CK and PCK in four steps by the use of empirical data of students. Additionally, the study explores whether CK and PCK might be measured as separate knowledge categories by using a paper-and-pencil test. This paper presents a theoretical model that guides test development and provides steps to develop and validate the instruments. Details are also provided regarding the computation of the Rasch scale score measures for 158 biology teachers. The results indicate that the instruments measured teachers’ CK and PCK in an objective, valid, and reliable way. This suggests that the new instruments can be used in combination with classroom observations to examine teaching quality and further its relation to student learning.     

Infusing Authentic Inquiry into Biotechnology

Societal benefit depends on the general public’s understandings of biotechnology (Betsch in World J Microbiol Biotechnol 12:439–443, 1996; Dawson and Cowan in Int J Sci Educ 25(1):57–69, 2003; Schiller in Business Review: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia (Fourth Quarter), 2002; Smith and Emmeluth in Am Biol Teach 64(2):93–99, 2002). A National Science Foundation funded survey of high school biology teachers reported that hands-on biotechnology education exists in advanced high school biology in the United States, but is non-existent in mainstream biology coursework (Micklos et al. in Biotechnology labs in American high schools, 1998). The majority of pre-service teacher content preparation courses do not teach students appropriate content knowledge through the process of inquiry. A broad continuum exists when discussing inquiry-oriented student investigations (Hanegan et al. in School Sci Math J 109(2):110–134, 2009). Depending on the amount of structure in teacher lessons, inquiries can often be categorized as guided or open. The lesson can be further categorized as simple or authentic (Chinn and Malhotra in Sci Educ 86(2):175–218, 2002). Although authentic inquiries provide the best opportunities for cognitive development and scientific reasoning, guided and simple inquiries are more often employed in the classroom (Crawford in J Res Sci Teach 37(9):916–937, 2000; NRC in Inquiry and the national science education standards: a guide for teaching and learning, 2000). For the purposes of this study we defined inquiry as “authentic” if original research problems were resolved (Hanegan et al. in School Sci Math J 109(2):110–134, 2009; Chinn and Malhotra in Sci Educ 86(2):175–218, 2002; Roth in Authentic school science: knowing and learning in open-inquiry science laboratories, 1995). The research question to guide this study through naturalistic inquiry research methods was: How will participants express whether or not an authentic inquiry experience enhanced their understanding of biotechnology? As respondents explored numerous ideas in order to develop a workable research question, struggled to create a viable protocol, executed their experiment, and then evaluated their results, they commented on unexpected topics regarding the nature of science as well as specific content knowledge relating to their experiments. Four out of five participants reported they learned the most during authentic inquiry laboratory experience.     

Promoting alphabet knowledge and phonological awareness in low socioeconomic child care settings: a quasi experimental study in five New Zealand centers

This study examined if professional development with teachers would increase children’s literacy skills in low socioeconomic early childhood settings in New Zealand and would lead to changes in teachers’ beliefs and practices and children’s abilities over an 8 week intervention period. Research indicates that children who have alphabetic and phonological awareness on school entry are well positioned to transition from emergent to conventional literacy (Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998). Although most children develop requisite knowledge and skills as part of early education in New Zealand, about 25 % of children do not (Nicholson, 2005) and struggle with beginning reading. One of the challenges is how teachers can foster emergent literacy within a holistic curriculum such as Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 1996), the New Zealand early childhood curriculum. A quasi experimental design was used in which teachers’ and children’s knowledge was pre and post tested in five early childhood centers. Teachers’ (n = 32) beliefs and phonemic awareness were tested using a questionnaire. A range of literacy measures which tested alphabet knowledge, phonemic awareness, ability to recognise and write their own name and the British Picture Vocabulary Test were used with children aged 3–5 years (n = 103). Professional development was offered to teachers at the beginning of the study in four centers; the fifth center was a control. In addition, teachers’ logbooks of how they promoted literacy were collected. Some changes in children’s skills were found, along with some differences in teachers’ beliefs and practices. The results suggest professional development with teachers to support children’s literacy needs to involve more intensive coaching and guiding.     

‘You Have to Give Them Some Science Facts’: Primary Student Teachers’ Early Negotiations of Teacher Identities in the Intersections of Discourses About Science Teaching and About Primary Teaching

In the broadest sense, the goal for primary science teacher education could be described as preparing these teachers to teach for scientific literacy. Our starting point is that making such science teaching accessible and desirable for future primary science teachers is dependent not only on their science knowledge and self-confidence, but also on a whole range of interrelated sociocultural factors. This paper aims to explore how intersections between different Discourses about primary teaching and about science teaching are evidenced in primary school student teachers’ talk about becoming teachers. The study is founded in a conceptualisation of learning as a process of social participation. The conceptual framework is crafted around two key concepts: Discourse (Gee 2005) and identity (Paechter, Women’s Studies International Forum, 26(1):69–77, 2007). Empirically, the paper utilises semi-structured interviews with 11 primary student teachers enrolled in a 1-year Postgraduate Certificate of Education course. The analysis draws on five previously identified teacher Discourses: ‘Teaching science through inquiry’, ‘Traditional science teacher’, ‘Traditional primary teacher’, ‘Teacher as classroom authority’, and ‘Primary teacher as a role model’ (Danielsson and Warwick, International Journal of Science Education, 2013). It explores how the student teachers, at an early stage in their course, are starting to intersect these Discourses to negotiate their emerging identities as primary science teachers.     

Epistemic trajectories: mentoring in a game design practicum

Innovative professionals rely on a specific ways of thinking to solve the nonstandard problems that come up in practice (Goodwin, Am Anthropol 96(3):606–633, 1994; Schön, The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action, 1983; Educating the reflective practitioner: toward a new design for teaching and learning in the professions, 1987; Sullivan, Work and integrity: the crisis and promise of professionalism in America, 1995). The professions have reproductive practices for transmitting these ways of thinking, such as practica (Schön, Educating the reflective practitioner: toward a new design for teaching and learning in the professions, 1987). In this paper, we examine the learning relationship between a mentor and team of college students through an ethnographic study of a game design practicum at a European arts school. To examine the role that the mentor played in this practicum, we use two theoretical constructs. Epistemic frames—the configurations of the skills, knowledge, identities, values, and epistemologies that professionals use to think in innovative ways—provide a model for examining professional expertise (Shaffer, Comput Educ, 46(3):223–234, 2006a). Epistemic network analysis (ENA) (Shaffer et al., Int J Learn Media, 1(2):33–53, 2009) is a method for quantifying changes in epistemic frames (Shaffer, The bicycle helmets of “Amsterdam”: computer games and the problem of transfer, 2010). Our results here suggest that the mentor leads the team on a path that illuminates the nature of learning to think professionally, as well the function of a mentor in that process. We argue that the mentor, rather than providing a direct map to a professional vantage point, scaffolds aspects of the epistemic frame of game design that, in turn, aid in the development of a more professional frame. Using ENA to understand the way that mentors help coach learners to develop epistemic frames should be useful for further studies of professional education, as well as for studies of apprenticeship-based programs for youth.     

Responding to Students’ Learning Preferences in Chemistry

This paper reports on a teacher’s and his students’ responsiveness to a new tetrahedral-oriented (Mahaffy in J Chem Educ 83(1):49–55, 2006) curriculum requiring more discursive classroom practices in the teaching of chemistry. In this instrumental case study, we identify the intentions of this learner-centered curriculum and a teacher’s development in response to this curriculum. We also explore the tensions this teacher experiences as students subsequently respond to his adjusted teaching. We use a Chemistry Teacher Inventory (Lewthwaite and Wiebe in Res Sci Educ 40(11):667-689, 2011; Lewthwaite and Wiebe in Can J Math Sci Technol Educ 12(1):36–61, 2012; Lewthwaite in Chem Educ Res Pract. doi:10.1039/C3RP00122A, 2014) to assist the teacher in monitoring how he teaches and how he would like to improve his teaching. We also use a student form of the instrument, the Chemistry Classroom Inventory and Classroom Observation Protocol (Lewthwaite and Wiebe 2011) to verify the teacher’s teaching and perception of student preferences for his teaching especially in terms of the discursive processes the curriculum encourages. By so doing, the teacher is able to use both sets of data as a foundation for critical reflection and work towards resolution of the incongruence in data arising from students’ preferred learning orientations and his teaching aspirations. Implications of this study in regards to the authority of students’ voice in triggering teachers’ pedagogical change and the adjustments in ‘teachering’ and ‘studenting’ required by such curricula are considered.     

School district triggers for reconstructing professional knowledge

In a recent publication, Senge (All systems go: the change imperative for whole system reform. Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, 2010, x) stated ??at no time in history has there been a more powerful need for a new vision of the purpose of education.?? Increasingly citizens, academics and practitioners are calling for radical changes to educational practices to meet the needs of a knowledge-based society in the twenty-first century (Dede in 21st Century skills: rethinking how students learn. Solution Tree Press, Bloomington, 2010; Hargreaves and Shirley in The fourth way: the inspiring future for educational change. Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, 2009). Accomplishing such substantive educational change requires that individual educators collectively reshape their personal professional knowledge (Connelly and Clandinin in Teachers as curriculum planners: narratives of experiences. OISE Press, Toronto, 1988; Elbaz in Curriculum Inq 11(1):43?C71, 1981) and adapt their personal mental models (Duffy in J Staff Dev 24(1):30?C36, 2003). In 2000, we began a longitudinal study on the role of a school district in facilitating significant educational reform which required adaptations to individual and collective mental models of professional practice. Annually we conducted intensive interviews with a large sample of teachers, school and system administrators in this large Ontario, Canada school district. Recently, we conducted a retrospective analysis of these data collected in order to identify the conditions necessary for a large organization to support knowledge-creation and dissemination. In this paper, we identify three school district actions that triggered individual educators to challenge and reconstruct their professional personal practical mental models of the teaching and learning. First, improved student learning became the central focus of the school district. Second, the school district stressed and created opportunities for educators to collectively engage in professional dialogue about their practice. Third, the school district emphasized the importance of educators individually and collectively using evidence to assess whether their actions improved student learning.     

The Use of Lego Technologies in Elementary Teacher Preparation

The need to reform science teacher preparation programs has been pointed out in research (Bryan and Abell in J Res Sci Teach 36:121–140, 1999; Bryan and Atwater in Sci Educ 8(6):821–839, 2002; Harrington and Hathaway in J Teach Educ 46(4):275–284, 1995). Science teachers are charged with the responsibility of incorporating both cognitive and non-cognitive parameters in their everyday teaching practices. This often results in their reluctance to teach science because they often lack disciplinary and/or pedagogical expertise required to promote science learning. The purpose of this study is to propose an alternative instructional approach in which Lego vehicles were used as a tool to promote pre-service elementary teachers’ development and to examine whether there are non-cognitive parameters that promote or obstruct them from using Lego Technologies as a teaching tool. The context of the study was defined by a teacher preparation program of a private university in a small Mediterranean country. A sample of 28 pre-service elementary teachers, working in five 5–6-member groups were involved in scientific inquiries, during which they had to use vehicles in order to solve scientific problems related to concepts such as gear functioning, force, and motion. The nature of their cognitive engagement in the scientific inquiry process, non-cognitive parameters contributing to their cognitive engagement, and the impact of their involvement in the process on their development were examined through qualitative analysis of pre- and post-inquiry interviews, presentations of their solutions to the scientific problems and of their personal reflective journals.     

Mathematics teachers’ learning: a conceptual framework and synthesis of research

How do practicing mathematics teachers continue to develop the knowledge and habits of mind that enable them to teach well and to improve their teaching over time? The question of how (and what) teachers learn lies at the crux of any effort to provide high-quality mathematics teaching for all students. This article reviews 106 articles written between 1985 and 2008 related to the professional learning of practicing teachers of mathematics. We offer a synthesis of this research, guided by Clarke and Hollingsworth’s (Teach Teach Educ 18(8):947–967, 2002) dynamic model of teacher growth. Their model emphasizes the recursive nature of teachers’ learning and suggests that growth in one aspect of teachers’ knowledge and practice may promote subsequent growth in other areas. We report the results in six major areas of teacher learning, identify several crosscutting themes in the literature, and make recommendations for future research aimed at understanding teachers’ professional learning.     

Because trucks aren’t bicycles: orthographic complexity as an important variable in reading research

Severe enduring reading- and writing-accuracy difficulties seem a phenomenon largely restricted to nations using complex orthographies, notably Anglophone nations, given English’s highly complex orthography (Geva and Siegel, Read Writ 12:1–30, 2000; Landerl et al., Cognition 63:315–334, 1997; Share, Psychol Bull 134(4):584–615, 2008; Torgesen and Davis, J Exp Child Psychol 63:1–21, 1996; Vellutino, J Learn Disabil 33(3):223, 2000). They seem rare in transparent orthography nations such as Finland, which use highly regular spelling and few spelling rules beyond letter sounds, and most children read and write with impressive accuracy by the end of Year 1 (Holopainen et al., J Learn Disabil 34(5):401–413, 2001; Seymour et al., Br J Psychol 94:143–174, 2003; Spencer and Hanley, Br J Psychol 94(1):1–29, 2003; J Res Read 27(1):1–14, 2004). Orthographic complexity has strong and diverse impacts on reading, writing and academic development (Aro, Learning to read: The effect of orthography, 2004; Galletly and Knight, Aust J Learn Disabil 9(4):4–11, 2004; Aust Educ Res 38(3):329–354, 2011). Despite these strong effects, orthographic complexity is rarely included as a variable in reading research studies considering evidence from both Anglophone (complex orthography) and transparent-orthography readers, or included in discussion of factors influencing results. This paper discusses the differences in reading-accuracy development and difficulties evidenced in studies of Anglophone (complex-orthography) and transparent-orthography readers. It then explores instances of orthographic complexity not being considered in studies where it may have impacted results. This disregarding of orthographic complexity as a variable in research studies appears an oversight, one likely to be contributing to continuing confusion on many aspects of reading and writing development in both healthy- and low-progress readers. Needs for research in these areas are discussed.     

Crossing the Border from Science Student to Science Teacher: Preservice Teachers’ Views and Experiences Learning to Teach Inquiry

Preservice science teachers face numerous challenges in understanding and teaching science as inquiry. Over the course of their teacher education program, they are expected to move from veteran science students with little experience learning their discipline through inquiry instruction to beginning science teachers adept at implementing inquiry in their own classrooms. In this study, we used Aikenhead’s (Sci Educ 81: 217–238, 1997, Science Educ 85:180–188, 2001) notion of border crossing to describe this transition preservice teachers must make from science student to science teacher. We examined what one cohort of eight preservice secondary science teachers said, did, and wrote as they both conducted a two-part inquiry investigation and designed an inquiry lesson plan. We conducted two types of qualitative analyses. One, we drew from Costa (Sci Educ 79: 313–333, 1995) to group our preservice teacher participants into one of four types of potential science teachers. Two, we identified successes and struggles in preservice teachers’ attempts to negotiate the cultural border between veteran student and beginning teacher. In our implications, we argue that preservice teachers could benefit from explicit opportunities to navigate the border between learning and teaching science; such opportunities could deepen their conceptions of inquiry beyond those exclusively fashioned as either student or teacher.     

Threshold capabilities: threshold concepts and knowledge capability linked through variation theory

The Threshold Capability Integrated Theoretical Framework (TCITF) is presented as a framework for the design of university curricula, aimed at developing graduates’ capability to deal with previously unseen situations in their professional, social, and personal lives. The TCITF is a new theoretical framework derived from, and heavily dependent upon, the ideas of the Threshold Concepts Framework (Meyer and Land 2003a; Land et al. 2006) and Capability Theory (Bowden and Marton 1998; Bowden et al. 2000; Bowden 2004). Capability theory is firmly based in phenomenography and variation theory, is concerned with the development of knowledge capability, but has had limited application in practice. The threshold concepts framework has enjoyed greater acceptance by a large range of academics in many fields. This acceptance has initially focussed on analytic studies of what constitutes a threshold concept—and the location and distribution of such concepts—in a given domain. In many instances subsequent attention has focussed on issues of pedagogy and assessment, including the design of curricula. We propose a merging of capability theory and the threshold concepts framework and argue that capability and variation theories provide the ideal mechanism for developing a strong pedagogical approach based on newly emerging knowledge of the critical features of threshold concepts within different domains.     

Connecting science to everyday experiences in preschool settings

In this paper I discuss the challenges of teaching science concepts and discourse in preschool in light of the study conducted by Kristina Andersson and Annica Gullberg. I then suggest a complementary approach to teaching science at this level from the perspective of social construction of knowledge based on Vygotsky’s theory (1934/1987). In addition, I highlight the importance of the relational aspect of knowing using feminist standpoint theory (Harding 2004). I also draw from feminist research on preservice elementary teachers’ learning of science to further underscore the connection between learning content and everyday experiences. Combining these research strands I propose that science needs to be grounded in everyday experiences. In this regard, the idea is similar to the choices made by the teachers in the study conducted by Andersson and Gullberg but I also suggest that the everyday experiences chosen for teaching purposes be framed appropriately. In and of itself, the complexity of everyday experiences can be impediment for learning as these researchers have demonstrated. Such complexities point to the need for framing of everyday experiences (Goffman 1974) so that children can do science and construct meaning from their actions. In the conclusion of my discussion of science and its discourse in preschool settings, I provide examples of everyday experiences and their framings that have the potential for engaging children and their teachers in science.     

Student-Generated Scientific Inquiry for Elementary Education Undergraduates: Course Development, Outcomes and Implications

While some researchers have argued for science classrooms that embrace open-inquiry by engaging students in doing science as scientists do (cf. National Research Council [NRC] 1996; Driver et al. in Sci Educ 84:287–312, 2000; Windschitl et al. in Sci Educ 87(1):112–143, 2008), others have argued that open-inquiry is impractical, ineffective, and perhaps even counter-productive towards promoting normative scientific ideas (cf. Kirschner et al. in Educ Psychol 41(2):75–86, 2006; Settlage in J Sci Teach Educ 18:461–467, 2007). One of the challenges in informing the debate on this issue is the scarcity of well-documented courses that engage students in open-inquiry characteristic of scientific research. This paper describes the design, implementation, and outcomes of such a course for undergraduates planning on becoming elementary teachers. The goal of the class was to immerse future teachers in authentic, open-inquiry (without specific learning goals related to scientific concepts) in hopes that students would come away with a deeper understanding of the nature of science (NOS) and improved attitudes towards science. Data collected from a variety of sources indicate that an authentic, open-inquiry experience is feasible to implement in an undergraduate setting, gives students a more sophisticated NOS understanding, improves students’ attitudes towards science and open-inquiry, and changes the way they intend to teach science in their future classrooms.