Sustaining Reform-Based Science Teaching of Preservice and Inservice Elementary School Teachers

This study examined the influence of a professional development program based around commercially available inquiry science curricula on the teaching practices of 27 beginning elementary school teachers and their teacher mentors over a 2 year period. A quantitative rubric used to score inquiry elements and use of data in videotaped lessons indicated that education students assigned to inquiry-based classrooms during their methods course or student teaching year outperformed students without this experience. There was also a significant positive effect of multi-year access to the kit-based program on mentor teaching practice. Recent inclusion of a “writing in science” program in both preservice and inservice training has been used to address the lesson element that received lowest scores—evaluation of data and its use in scientific explanation.     

Planning for Reform-Based Science: Case Studies of Two Urban Elementary Teachers

The intent of national efforts to frame science education standards is to promote students’ development of scientific practices and conceptual understanding for their future role as scientifically literate citizens (NRC 2012). A guiding principle of science education reform is that all students receive equitable opportunities to engage in rigorous science learning. Yet, implementation of science education reform depends on teachers’ instructional decisions. In urban schools serving students primarily from poor, diverse communities, teachers typically face obstacles in providing reform-based science due to limited resources and accountability pressures, as well as a culture of teacher-directed pedagogy, and deficit views of students. The purpose of this qualitative research was to study two white, fourth grade teachers from high-poverty urban schools, who were identified as transforming their science teaching and to investigate how their beliefs, knowledge bases, and resources shaped their planning for reform-based science. Using the Shavelson and Stern’s decision model for teacher planning to analyze evidence gathered from interviews, documents, planning meetings, and lesson observations, the findings indicated their planning for scientific practices was influenced by the type and extent of professional development each received, each teacher’s beliefs about their students and their background, and the mission and learning environment each teacher envisioned for the reform to serve their students. The results provided specific insights into factors that impacted their planning in high-poverty urban schools and indicated considerations for those in similar contexts to promote teachers’ planning for equitable science learning opportunities by all students.     

Exploring the Relations of Inquiry-Based Teaching to Science Achievement and Dispositions in 54 Countries

Research in Science Education - This study, drawing on data from the third cycle of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and employing three-level hierarchical linear modeling...     

小学科学教学要走进自然

科学教育的主要教学目标应该放在培养小学生的好奇心上。这一要求明确地指明了科学教学除了课本和课堂教学的第三种教学方式——走到大自然中进行学习。因此,小学科学教学应该和自然紧密结合,帮助学生认识到自身和大自然以及我们所生活的社会之间所存在的关联,最终实现学有所用。     

Dilemmas of Teaching Inquiry in Elementary Science Methods

Because various definitions of inquiry exist in the science education literature and in classroom practice, elementary science methods students and instructors face dilemmas during the study of inquiry. Using field notes, instructor anecdotal notes, student products, and course artifacts, science methods course instructors created fictional journal entries to represent the experiences of both the instructors and students during instruction on inquiry. Identified dilemmas were varying definitions of inquiry, the struggle to provide sufficient inquiry-based science-learning experiences, perceived time constraints, determining how much course time should be slated for science instruction versus pedagogy instruction, instructors' and students' lack of inquiry-based learning experiences, grade versus trust issues, and students' science phobia. Instructors' attempts at dealing with these dilemmas included using analogies, increased field-experience time, modeling, and detailed rubrics.     

Teaching and Learning Nature of Science in Elementary Classrooms

Science & Education - Our goal in this article is to provide research-based strategies for embedding Nature of Science (NOS) into science instruction at the elementary level. We thus intend to...     

Beginning Elementary School Teachers and the Effective Teaching of Science

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

基础教育亟须加强人文教育与科学教育的融合

人教育与科学教育的融合是时代发展的必然趋势。在基础教育中，只有树立可持续发展的大教育观，改变关门办学、重智轻德、重理轻、重知识传授轻人的发展的现状，推进新课改的实施，才能实现人教育与科学教育的融合，促进学生的全面发展和可持续发展。     

自媒体在材料科学教学中的应用

材料科学是一门与人类社会应用和科学技术发展紧密相连的学科,在当前互联网和计算机技术高速发展的年代,传统的材料科学课堂教学已无法满足材料科学学子的需求。本文从我校材料学科的自媒体教学改革出发,探讨了自媒体在教学改革中的重要意义以及其应用方式,并结合我校统计数据进行分析,探索自媒体教学改革方向。     

常见初级钢琴教材的选择和运用

初学钢琴应使用什么教材,按照因材施教的原则,在选定主教材的同时,应尽可能再选用一两种其他同步教材为辅.教材不是万能的,既要重视教材,更要重视弹法.在教学中选择和运用好的教材,向学生传授正确的弹奏方法,激发学生学习钢琴的兴趣,发掘学生潜力,提高学生的音乐素质,才是最重要的.     

Perceptions of Reform-Based Teaching and Learning in a College Mathematics Class

This study investigated, from the students',professor's, and researchers' perspectives, the effects of a reform-based introductory undergraduate mathematics course, and the efforts of a mathematics professor to teach such a course. The class had been designed for teacher candidates of middle school mathematics and science (Grades 4 to 8) but was open to all qualified students. We addressed the following research question: What perceptions about learning and teaching mathematics emerged through the participants' experiences in a reform-based mathematics course? Results of the analysis of the data suggested that the teacher candidates and the professor took an important first step toward enculturation into a reform-based vision of mathematics learning and teaching. Implications for mathematics faculty and teacher education faculty interested in promoting reform-based mathematics are presented.     

Factors Affecting Science Teaching Efficacy of Preservice Elementary Teachers

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

Supporting Science Teacher Learning: The Role of Educative Curriculum Materials

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

Enhancing Self-Efficacy in Elementary Science Teaching With Professional Learning Communities

Emerging from Bandura’s Social Learning Theory, this study of in-service elementary school teachers examined the effects of sustained Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) on self-efficacy in science teaching. Based on mixed research methods, and a non-equivalent control group experimental design, the investigation explored changes in personal self-efficacy and outcome expectancy among teachers engaged in PLCs that featured Demonstration Laboratories, Lesson Study, and annual Summer Institutes. Significant changes favoring the experimental group were found on all quantitative measures of self-efficacy. Structured clinical interviews revealed that observed changes were largely attributable to a wide range of direct (mastery) and vicarious experiences, as well as emotional reinforcement and social persuasion.     

Inquiring into Teaching: Lesson Study in Elementary Science Methods

This article describes an innovative approach to developing preservice elementary science teachers’ classroom confidence and skills. Based on lesson study approaches, preservice candidates designed and taught integrated science–mathematics lessons during the semester before their student teaching. Working in teams, candidates designed and taught a common lesson in 3 different classrooms, critiquing and refining their lesson between each teaching activity. Data collected from observations of classroom teaching events, team reports, and individual reflections were analyzed qualitatively. Results indicate that, over the 3 teaching events, there were dramatic improvements in lesson design and delivery, the management of the learning environment, the quality of students’ engagements with meaningful content, and the quality of assessments and generation of student data. According to the website of the Lesson Study Research Group, there were more than 2,300 teachers in over 335 schools involved in lesson study in the U.S. as of May 2004 (www.tc.edu/lessonstudy/). Additional lesson study information, projects, and resources are available through a number of other websites, including www.lessonresearch.net (at Mills College) and www.uwlax.edu/sotl.lsp (at The University of Wisconsin–La Crosse)     

国外小学教师科学教学效能感研究的现状与展望

国外研究者分别探讨了小学教师科学教学效能感的测量、影响因素、来源及其转变,但这些研究多基于西方文化背景,由于测量工具单一而导致一些研究结论不一致。我国小学教师科学教学效能感的研究还是空白,因此,应基于我国的实情和文化环境进行一些开创性研究。本领域的一些研究难题也昭示了将来的研究方向。     

小学科学课的有效教学

1 围绕教学目标展开课堂教学 教学目标是教学的出发点和归宿．有效的教学必须以教学目标为中心。科学课的三维目标中,“科学概念”目标中包含重要的科学知识．其中的关键知识和核心概念是小学生必须要掌握的。如“树的器官包括根、茎、叶、花、果实和种子”。     

Elementary Preservice Teachers' Struggles to Define Inquiry-Based Science Teaching

Journal of Science Teacher Education -