Undergraduate

It’s Virtually Possible: Rethinking Preservice Teachers’ Field Experiences in the Age of COVID-19 and Beyond

This chapter offers lessons learned by teacher educators who guided preservice teachers in the modification of hands-on engineering lessons for virtual implementation during the spring 2020 semester as part of an NSF-funded project. PSTs delivered engineering lessons both synchronously and asynchronously to elementary school students and reported positive learning opportunities, gaining confidence and competence from their experiences.

Author/Presenter

Kristie S. Gutierrez

Jennifer J. Kidd

Min Jung Lee

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2021
Short Description

This chapter offers lessons learned by teacher educators who guided preservice teachers in the modification of hands-on engineering lessons for virtual implementation during the spring 2020 semester as part of an NSF-funded project.

The Price of Nice: How Good Intentions Maintain Educational Inequity

Being nice is difficult to critique. Niceness is almost always portrayed and felt as a positive quality. In schools, nice teachers are popular among students, parents, and administrators. And yet Niceness, as a distinct set of practices and discourses, is not actually good for individuals, institutions, or communities because of the way it maintains and reinforces educational inequity.

Author/Presenter

Angelina E. Castagno, Editor

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2019
Short Description

In The Price of Nice, an interdisciplinary group of scholars explores Niceness in educational spaces from elementary schools through higher education to highlight how this seemingly benign quality reinforces structural inequalities.

K–12 DREAMS to Teach Program at Morehouse College

This study explores the pathways to K–12 Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics instruction among Black/African American males in the Discovery Research Education for African American Men in STEM to Teach (DREAMS to Teach) program at Morehouse College, a Historically Black College and University located in Southwest Atlanta, Georgia. Many studies articulate the importance of cultural alignment between students and their instructors’ influence on STEM participation and persistence.

Author/Presenter

Cynthia Trawick

Thema Monroe-White

Jigsa A. Tola

Jamie P. Clayton

J. K. Haynes

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2020
Short Description

This study explores the pathways to K–12 Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics instruction among Black/African American males in the Discovery Research Education for African American Men in STEM to Teach (DREAMS to Teach) program at Morehouse College

Designing Educative Curriculum Materials for Teacher Educators: Supporting Elementary Teachers' Content Knowledge for Teaching about Matter

Building on the work of Ball and Cohen and that of Davis and Krajcik, as well as more recent research related to K12 teacher learning from and about curriculum materials, we seek to answer the question, How can educative curriculum materials be developed to support teacher educators in acquiring the knowledge needed for teaching science teachers?

Author/Presenter

Deborah Hanuscin

Emily J. Borda

Josie Melton

Jamie N. Mikeska

Year
2020
Short Description

Building on the work of Ball and Cohen and that of Davis and Krajcik, as well as more recent research related to K12 teacher learning from and about curriculum materials, we seek to answer the question, How can educative curriculum materials be developed to support teacher educators in acquiring the knowledge needed for teaching science teachers? We present a set of theoretically and empirically based design principles and conceptual examples of ways in which educative curriculum materials might be used to support teacher educators in developing the knowledge needed for teaching elementary pre-service teachers. Specifically, we focus on helping teacher educators develop prospective teachers’ content knowledge for teaching about the structure and properties of matter.We follow these examples with consideration of unanswered questions related to the use of educative curriculum materials by teacher educators. This poster was prepared for the 2020 Annual International NARST Conference.

Designing Educative Curriculum Materials for Teacher Educators: Supporting Elementary Teachers' Content Knowledge for Teaching about Matter

Building on the work of Ball and Cohen and that of Davis and Krajcik, as well as more recent research related to K12 teacher learning from and about curriculum materials, we seek to answer the question, How can educative curriculum materials be developed to support teacher educators in acquiring the knowledge needed for teaching science teachers?

Author/Presenter

Deborah Hanuscin

Emily J. Borda

Josie Melton

Jamie N. Mikeska

Year
2020
Short Description

Building on the work of Ball and Cohen and that of Davis and Krajcik, as well as more recent research related to K12 teacher learning from and about curriculum materials, we seek to answer the question, How can educative curriculum materials be developed to support teacher educators in acquiring the knowledge needed for teaching science teachers? We present a set of theoretically and empirically based design principles and conceptual examples of ways in which educative curriculum materials might be used to support teacher educators in developing the knowledge needed for teaching elementary pre-service teachers. Specifically, we focus on helping teacher educators develop prospective teachers’ content knowledge for teaching about the structure and properties of matter.We follow these examples with consideration of unanswered questions related to the use of educative curriculum materials by teacher educators. This poster was prepared for the 2020 Annual International NARST Conference.

Elementary Pre-service Teachers' Perceptions of Assessment Tasks to Measure Content Knowledge for Teaching about Matter

This study explores how 79 elementary pre-service teachers evaluate the importance and pertinence of assessment tasks, designed to elicit information about content knowledge for teaching (CKT) about matter—a foundational topic for physical science. Drawing on a cognitive perspective and using think-aloud procedures, we had the participants answer different assessment items that described teaching scenarios related to elementary science instruction for topics such as properties of matter, changes in matter, the model of matter, and conservation of matter.

Author/Presenter

Dante Cisterna

Jamie N. Mikeska

Allison Bookbinder

David L. Myers

Heena R. Lakhani

Luronne Vaval

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2020
Short Description

This study explores how 79 elementary pre-service teachers evaluate the importance and pertinence of assessment tasks, designed to elicit information about content knowledge for teaching (CKT) about matter—a foundational topic for physical science. Drawing on a cognitive perspective and using think-aloud procedures, we had the participants answer different assessment items that described teaching scenarios related to elementary science instruction for topics such as properties of matter, changes in matter, the model of matter, and conservation of matter. We aimed to explore (1) how familiar pre-service teachers felt these task scenarios were in regards to their (pre-service) teaching experience and (2) how important they considered these task scenarios for the work of elementary teachers. This poster was prepared for the 2020 Annual International NARST Conference.

Knowledge in Use: Examining Elementary Teachers’ Content Knowledge for Teaching (CKT) about Matter using Scenario-Based Assessment

This study explores how teachers across the United States answer and reason on “teacher assessment tasks” designed to elicit content knowledge for teaching (CKT) about matter and its interactions. It leverages a think aloud approach, where participants were asked to reason about different assessment items that described teaching scenarios related to elementary science instruction about topics such as properties of matter, changes in matter, the particulate model of matter, and conservation of matter.

Author/Presenter

Jamie Mikeska

Dante Cisterna

Heena R. Lakhani

Luronne Vaval

Allison Bookbinder

David L. Myers

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2020
Short Description

This study explores how teachers across the United States answer and reason on “teacher assessment tasks” designed to elicit content knowledge for teaching (CKT) about matter and its interactions. It leverages a think aloud approach, where participants were asked to reason about different assessment items that described teaching scenarios related to elementary science instruction about topics such as properties of matter, changes in matter, the particulate model of matter, and conservation of matter. Specifically, this study investigates: (1) To what extent do the participants use the intended knowledge and reasoning when responding to items designed to assess their CKT about matter and its interactions? and (2) When participants struggle to respond accurately to these items, what were their reasons for doing so? In particular, we were interested in examining the patterns in the nature of the knowledge they fail to leverage when responding to these CKT matter items. These presentation slides were prepared for the 2020 Annual International NARST Conference.

Science Strategy Interventions

Strategies and strategic processing within science education are designed to help students learn not only what scientists have come to understand about the world but also how they learn it. Although many domain-general strategies can be implemented in science classrooms, some strategies are either specific to science or are encouraged within science. Historically, concept development and conceptual change approaches and empirical investigations dominated science’s strategies and strategic processing.

Author/Presenter

Doug Lombardi

Janelle Bailey

Year
2020
Short Description

Strategies and strategic processing within science education are designed to help students learn not only what scientists have come to understand about the world but also how they learn it. Although many domain-general strategies can be implemented in science classrooms, some strategies are either specific to science or are encouraged within science. Historically, concept development and conceptual change approaches and empirical investigations dominated science’s strategies and strategic processing. More recently, argumentation, science as modeling, and the incorporation of socio-scientific topics dominate the strategies and strategic processing within science teaching and learning. Challenges to more widespread use of these approaches include lack of teacher experience and pedagogical knowledge around the strategies, as well as time and curricular limitations. Teacher education and professional development programs should seek to explicitly implement contemporary science strategy interventions to improve upon their use in K-12 classrooms and other learning environments. Doing so effectively will require well-researched and validated instructional scaffolds to facilitate the teaching and use of contemporary science learning strategies. This paper was prepared for the 2020 AERA Annual Meeting.

Tip: Leveraging Your Networks

If you are looking for online resources, many museums, universities, teacher networks, and educational organizations are curating lists. For example, the Exploratorium has created a Learning Toolbox featuring free materials addressing coronavirus science, as well as general science support for at-home learning.

Short Description

If you are looking for online resources, many museums, universities, teacher networks, and educational organizations are curating lists. For example, the Exploratorium has created a Learning Toolbox featuring free materials addressing coronavirus science, as well as general science support for at-home learning.

Discipline/Topic
Spotlight
online learning
Online Learning Toolkit Tags
Activity
Tip
Student
Teacher

Understanding Ebola

This is a free resource to educate the public about Ebola. The website includes an interactive model that allows teachers, students, and community members to actively explore the factors that influence a disease’s spread and mortality rate. 

Author/Presenter

Mark Bloom

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2015
Short Description

This is a free resource to educate the public about Ebola. The website includes an interactive model that allows teachers, students, and community members to actively explore the factors that influence a disease’s spread and mortality rate. Visit BSCS' collection of online resources