Classroom Practice

The session will feature the experiences, outcomes, and materials from two engineering-oriented DR K-12 projects. The two projects, INFUSE and INSPIRES, use different approaches to teacher professional development with the goal of preparing science teachers to infuse or integrate engineering into their classrooms. They have both developed a unique set of materials designed to impact science and technology outcomes (working on a combination of curriculum development, professional development, and research).

In this interactive panel symposium, presenters will draw from a set of active DR K-12 projects to explore a diverse array of resources, models, and tools (RMTs) designed to operationalize varying perspectives on scientific modeling in elementary, middle, and secondary classrooms across disciplinary domains.

Often the most we know about our colleagues’ on-the-ground support of teachers is what we read in the methods sections of research articles, or what has been reified many times over in their published teacher learning materials. We rarely get to see, much less experience, one another’s approaches to supporting teachers. This session will open up the black-box of our work with teachers for discussion and scrutiny.

Over the past five years, research teams at Western Washington University and North Carolina State University have each conducted longitudinal studies to examine elementary teacher development in mathematics and science. Specifically, they have investigated the development of pre-service/novice teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and instructional practices during teacher preparation and into their initial years of teaching. 

The vision of meaningful learning in science from NGSS and the National Research Council’s A Framework for K-12 Science Education requires reform efforts that address 1) curricular issues (what is being taught); and 2) pedagogical practices (what teaching will look like with emphasis on both the practices of science and engineering and the integration of the Common Core State Standards – English Language Arts).