Understanding Inquiry Science Teaching in Context: A Case Study of an Elementary Teacher

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

Faculty Mentors in Teacher Induction: Developing a Cross-institutional Identity

ABSTRACT

Though the knowledge base on mentoring new teachers has grown exponentially in the past 30 years, researchers know less about university involvement in induction, and even less about the role that faculty mentors may play in induction. Drawing on interview, e-mail, and observational data from a yearlong mentoring relationship between a faculty mentor and 7 new teachers, the author examined a faculty mentor's role in supporting beginning teachers. Findings highlight the importance of identity development in assuming a cross-institutional role as a faculty mentor. The transition from teacher educator to teacher mentor requires the development of a mentor identity that is recognized and valued in the community of practice inhabited by classroom teachers.     

The Science Teacher Identity and the Use of Technology in the Classroom

Journal of Science Education and Technology - This study delves deeply into the conceptualization of science teacher identity in secondary schools, as this identity is considered a key variable in...     

A Case Study Exploring the Identity of an In-Service Elementary Science Teacher: a Language Teacher First

Teachers are central to providing high-quality science learning experiences called for in recent reform efforts, as their understanding of science impacts both what they teach and how they teach it. Yet, most elementary teachers do not enter the profession with a particular interest in science or expertise in science teaching. Research also indicates elementary schools present unique barriers that may inhibit science teaching. This case study utilizes the framework of identity to explore how one elementary classroom teacher’s understandings of herself as a science specialist were shaped by the bilingual elementary school context as she planned for and provided reform-based science instruction. Utilizing Gee’s (2000) sociocultural framework, identity was defined as consisting of four interrelated dimensions that served as analytic frames for examining how this teacher understood her new role through social positioning within her school. Findings describe the ways in which this teacher’s identity as a science teacher was influenced by the school context. The case study reveals two important implications for teacher identity. First, collaboration for science teaching is essential for elementary teachers to change their practice. It can be challenging for teachers to form an identity as a science teacher in isolation. In addition, elementary teachers new to science teaching negotiate their emerging science practice with their prior experiences and the school context. For example, in the context of a bilingual school, this teacher adapted the reform-based science curriculum to better meet the unique linguistic needs of her students.

     

The Science Methods Course in the Context of the Total Teacher Education Experience

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

在线课堂互动中教师身份认同模糊化及其重构

新冠肺炎疫情期间,线下到线上教学模式的改变,引发了课堂互动的变化.在线课堂互动空间的分隔、互动情感的阻隔以及互动边界的区隔,使课堂互动更具不确定性,教师身份认同也由此模糊化,并呈现出角色冲突化、身份边缘化、情感整饰化及主体缺场化的特征.教师身份认同模糊化的重构路径之一是发展情境化认知,即在不确定性中理解自我与世界,教师通过此认知方式,获得对在线课堂互动问题复杂性的洞见.教师借助情境化认知,打开情感通道,唤起对学生的连带感通心.经由情感的升华体验,教师更新道德生命力,创造共同求真的叙事文化.在对共同道德的追寻中,教师不断重构身份认同.后疫情时期,讨论教师身份认同模糊化的价值,不仅在于促使教师省察身份认同模糊化对专业发展的阻抑,更重要的是帮助教师转变视角,看到身份认同模糊化中孕育着新的成长契机.     

The Ethico-politics of Teacher Identity

Identity is a contemporary buzzword in education, referencing the individual and the social, the personal and the political, self and other. Following Maggie MacLure, we can think of identity in terms of teachers 'arguing for themselves', or giving an account of themselves. Yet in the wake of poststructuralism's radical de-centering of the subject and its highlighting of a number of impediments to agency, we might well ask how teachers are to give an account of themselves? This paper offers reading of identity that recognizes its paradoxical aspects, yet also contains scope for ethical agency. The latter is explored via a 'diagram' that utilizes Foucault's four axes of ethics to elaborate a framework for thinking about teacher identity as ethical self-formation and for engaging in what I refer to here as 'identity work'. This approach to thinking about teacher identity recognizes our discursive determination, yet also offers scope for recognizing and building ethical agency.     

Promoting Issues-based STSE Perspectives in Science Teacher Education: Problems of Identity and Ideology

Although science, technology, society and environment (STSE) education has gained considerable force in the past few years, it has made fewer strides in practice. We suggest that science teacher identity plays a role in the adoption of STSE perspectives. Simply put, issues-based STSE education challenges traditional images of a science teacher and science instructional ideologies. In this paper, we briefly describe the development of a multimedia documentary depicting issues-based STSE education in a teacher’s class and its subsequent implementation with 64 secondary student-teachers at a large Canadian university. Specifically, we set out to explore: (1) science teacher candidates’ responses to a case of issues-based STSE teaching, and (2) how science teacher identity intersects with the adoption of STSE perspectives. Findings reveal that although teacher candidates expressed confidence and motivation regarding teaching STSE, they also indicated decreased likelihood to teach these perspectives in their early years of teaching. Particular tensions or problems of practice consistently emerged that helped explain this paradox – including issues related to: control and autonomy; support and belonging; expertise and negotiating curriculum; politicization and action; and biases and ideological bents. We conclude our paper with a discussion regarding the lessons learned about STSE education, teacher identity and the role of multimedia case methods.     

Reconsidering the Study of Mathematics Instructional Practices: The Importance of Curricular Context in Understanding Local and Global Teacher Change

This paper discusses the case of one teacher, Jackie, whose instructional practices illuminate the importance of textbooks and student/parent expectations in shaping pedagogy. Jackie teaches in the Plainview district, which offers parents and students a choice between a reform-oriented, integrated curriculum (Core Plus) and a more conventional algebra sequence (the University of Chicago series). Each day, Jackie teaches two very different sections of accelerated eighth-grade mathematics using each of these curricular materials. Drawing from students’ survey responses, classroom observations, and teacher interview data, we show ways in which Jackie’s pedagogy differs considerably between the two courses and we shed light on reasons underlying this variation.By examining one teacher who enacts different practices in each of the two curricular contexts, this paper highlights factors that contribute to teachers’ enacted curricula – factors that have been understated in previous mathematics education research on teacher development. The study establishes the importance of distinguishing between global and local teacher change, and suggests implications for future studies of teaching and reform.     

Curriculum as Experienced by Students: How Teacher Identity Shapes Science Notebook Use

This mixed-methods case study examined the notebook entries of one class of 22 second graders as a way of examining how teacher identity shaped the way students experienced their science curriculum. These notebook entries were created during lessons with three different teachers over the course of one school year, using similar kit-based materials to teach science. The entries were coded for inquiry phase, percent missing or incomplete entries, and driving force (teacher-driven, student-driven, or balanced); chi-squared analyses revealed significant differences among the notebook entries created by the same students during lessons taught by each of the three teachers. Qualitative observations of each teachers' instruction around notebook use supported these quantitative differences, and suggested that the differences in curriculum as experienced by students could be attributed to differences in teacher identity, both who the teacher is and what they do in the classroom. These findings indicate that students' notebooks are useful tools for examining how teachers' identities might shape how elementary students experience science curriculum, and that they can be used to help structure more effective professional development plans for each teacher.     

Science Teacher Learning of MBL-Supported Student-Centered Science Education in the Context of Secondary Education in Tanzania

Science teachers from secondary schools in Tanzania were offered an in-service arrangement to prepare them for the integration of technology in a student-centered approach to science teaching. The in-service arrangement consisted of workshops in which educative curriculum materials were used to prepare teachers for student-centered education and for the use and application of Microcomputer Based Laboratories (MBL)—a specific technology application for facilitating experiments in science education. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected to study whether the in-service arrangement impacted teacher learning. Teacher learning was determined by three indicators: (1) the ability to conduct MBL-supported student centered science lessons, (2) teachers’ reflection on those lessons and (3) students’ perceptions of the classroom environment. The results of the research indicate that the teachers’ were able to integrate MBL in their science lessons at an acceptable level and that they were able to create a classroom environment which was appreciated by their students as more investigative and open-ended.     

Embracing Institutional Authority: The Emerging Identity of a Novice Teacher Educator

This self-study explores the emerging identity of a first-time teacher educator using a framework that views identity as natural, institutional, discursive, and affinity. This framework provided an opportunity to unpack empirically how these various strands of identity intersected within the classroom of a novice teacher educator. Situated in the context of an elementary social studies methods classroom, this study reveals various struggles with the institutional authority of being a teacher educator. Issues such as how preservice teachers perceive a novice teacher educator, the acknowledgment of lack of experience, and the process of negotiating institutionalized and systemic power within the classroom are discussed. Because this study also featured a mentor professor as a critical friend, the implications of self-study work and mentoring first-time teacher educators are also featured in the discussion section. Considering the importance of identity in shaping the practice of new teachers, this self-study reveals the importance of further complicating the emerging and evolving identities of new teacher educators.     

Developing a Reform-Minded Science Teaching Identity: The Role of Informal Science Environments

Recommendations for reform in science education around the world set high goals for beginning elementary teachers. Concurrently, existing literature indicates a number of challenges that beginning elementary teachers face. In this paper an argument is put forward about the integration of informal science environments in elementary teacher preparation, as a means for supporting beginning elementary teachers develop reform-minded science teaching identities. Essentially, the purpose of this paper is to explore the links between teacher identity, reform recommendations, and informal science environments. In doing so, a discussion of the theoretical construct of teacher identity in conjunction with reform recommendations is offered, followed by a summary of existing literature about the challenges that beginning elementary teachers face. Subsequently, the advantages and unique opportunities that informal science environments offer for teacher learning and development are discussed through a review of related literature. Following this review, a set of theoretical and methodological limitations of existing literature are identified. Based on these limitations, a research agenda is framed to address the theoretical, methodological and research implications that the idea of integrating informal science environments and approaches to elementary teacher preparation holds.     

Teacher Identity: Claiming Me

This article speaks to the reality of the lived experiences of student of color in society today: navigating the structures of diversity in a white world. For many, the author’s story resonates with what they feel at their core of belonging and unbelonging. It answers the age old questions, “Who am I?” and “What is my purpose?” The article gives pre-service teachers of color the ability to claim agency about who they are and what their purpose is in life. The author’s story is one of self-authorship. With the hope that White middle class teachers will better understand their students, the author also gives insight into the struggles and realities student of color face on a daily basis.     

试论"做中学"科学教育的文化境脉与学生身份

"做中学"科学教育以建构主义为价值取向,力图创建以情境理论为基础的文化境脉,建构与文化境脉相联系的、互动的、体现参与的学生身份,并探讨由传统学校教育向实习场和实践共同体转化中如何确立学生身份等问题.