Scaffolding Preservice Teachers' Evaluation of Children's Science Literature: Attention to Science-Focused Genres and Use

The use of an inquiry framework to support the development of learners' scientific literacy has been supported by research on learning in science and advocated by the major science standards and policy documents. To fully engage in inquiry, however, a wide range of tools, including both activities and texts, must be employed. The successful integration of text materials requires the selection of suitable texts. This, in turn, requires an in-depth understanding of the types of science books available and their potential uses within an inquiry framework. To support preservice teachers' development of these understandings, I examined the criteria they typically employ when evaluating texts in contextualized and uncontextualized settings. In these settings, students attended primarily to visual characteristics of texts or exhibited their limited understandings of science content and text use. These results were used to develop an evaluation framework that emphasizes use in inquiry over other typical evaluation criteria.