Classroom Practice

Developing Prospective Teachers’ Language-Expansive Noticing

Enacting reform-oriented, phenomenon-based instruction provides us an opportunity to more equitably teach science. Particularly, our teaching can be stronger when we elicit, notice and then use all students’ ideas and questions to inform how students collaborate to figure out phenomena. However, this is only possible if we learn to expansively notice the many language resources multilingual students have available for sharing their thinking, which requires teachers to see and hear beyond what has been traditionally privileged in school spaces.

Author/Presenter

María González-Howard

Carla Robinson

Sage Andersen

Mariana Vazquez Esparza

Nireyda Rodriguez

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2025
Short Description

Enacting reform-oriented, phenomenon-based instruction provides us an opportunity to more equitably teach science. Particularly, our teaching can be stronger when we elicit, notice and then use all students’ ideas and questions to inform how students collaborate to figure out phenomena. However, this is only possible if we learn to expansively notice the many language resources multilingual students have available for sharing their thinking, which requires teachers to see and hear beyond what has been traditionally privileged in school spaces. In this piece, we describe how we draw upon translanguaging theory and pedagogy to prepare prospective teachers to teach science with multilingual students.

Mathematics Teachers’ Interpretations of Students’ Perceptions of the Classroom Learning Environment: Opportunities for Inquiry

Research on mathematics teacher professional learning indicates that careful analysis of evidence of students’ reasoning and participation can prompt generative inquiry into instruction. Evidence of students’ own perceptions of instruction is noticeably absent in the literature. This absence is consequential, given the well-documented finding that mathematics teachers’ instructional decisions are shaped by assumptions they make about their students. Guided by an interpretive perspective on teaching and the literature on mathematics teachers’ professional learning, this study explores U.S.

Author/Presenter

Kara Jackson

Hannah J. Nieman

Daniela DiGiacomo

Fabio Campos

Nicholas Kochmanski

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2025
Short Description

Guided by an interpretive perspective on teaching and the literature on mathematics teachers’ professional learning, this study explores U.S. middle-grades mathematics teachers’ interpretations of evidence of students’ perceptions of key aspects of the mathematics classroom environment.

Mathematics Teachers’ Interpretations of Students’ Perceptions of the Classroom Learning Environment: Opportunities for Inquiry

Research on mathematics teacher professional learning indicates that careful analysis of evidence of students’ reasoning and participation can prompt generative inquiry into instruction. Evidence of students’ own perceptions of instruction is noticeably absent in the literature. This absence is consequential, given the well-documented finding that mathematics teachers’ instructional decisions are shaped by assumptions they make about their students. Guided by an interpretive perspective on teaching and the literature on mathematics teachers’ professional learning, this study explores U.S.

Author/Presenter

Kara Jackson

Hannah J. Nieman

Daniela DiGiacomo

Fabio Campos

Nicholas Kochmanski

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2025
Short Description

Guided by an interpretive perspective on teaching and the literature on mathematics teachers’ professional learning, this study explores U.S. middle-grades mathematics teachers’ interpretations of evidence of students’ perceptions of key aspects of the mathematics classroom environment.

Mathematics Teachers’ Interpretations of Students’ Perceptions of the Classroom Learning Environment: Opportunities for Inquiry

Research on mathematics teacher professional learning indicates that careful analysis of evidence of students’ reasoning and participation can prompt generative inquiry into instruction. Evidence of students’ own perceptions of instruction is noticeably absent in the literature. This absence is consequential, given the well-documented finding that mathematics teachers’ instructional decisions are shaped by assumptions they make about their students. Guided by an interpretive perspective on teaching and the literature on mathematics teachers’ professional learning, this study explores U.S.

Author/Presenter

Kara Jackson

Hannah J. Nieman

Daniela DiGiacomo

Fabio Campos

Nicholas Kochmanski

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2025
Short Description

Guided by an interpretive perspective on teaching and the literature on mathematics teachers’ professional learning, this study explores U.S. middle-grades mathematics teachers’ interpretations of evidence of students’ perceptions of key aspects of the mathematics classroom environment.

Mathematics Teachers’ Interpretations of Students’ Perceptions of the Classroom Learning Environment: Opportunities for Inquiry

Research on mathematics teacher professional learning indicates that careful analysis of evidence of students’ reasoning and participation can prompt generative inquiry into instruction. Evidence of students’ own perceptions of instruction is noticeably absent in the literature. This absence is consequential, given the well-documented finding that mathematics teachers’ instructional decisions are shaped by assumptions they make about their students. Guided by an interpretive perspective on teaching and the literature on mathematics teachers’ professional learning, this study explores U.S.

Author/Presenter

Kara Jackson

Hannah J. Nieman

Daniela DiGiacomo

Fabio Campos

Nicholas Kochmanski

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2025
Short Description

Guided by an interpretive perspective on teaching and the literature on mathematics teachers’ professional learning, this study explores U.S. middle-grades mathematics teachers’ interpretations of evidence of students’ perceptions of key aspects of the mathematics classroom environment.

“It Would Be Cool to Make Up My Own Activities”: Youth Voice in STEM Teaching and Learning

Fostering youth voice means supporting young people in expressing their ideas, taking ownership of their learning, and engaging with their communities in meaningful and impactful ways. Out-of-school-time (OST) science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programs have long provided these opportunities, empowering youth to drive their learning forward and see themselves as active contributors to the world around them.

Author/Presenter

Victoria Oliveira

Virginia Andrews

Patricia J. Allen

Gil G. Noam

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2025
Short Description

For the promotion of youth voice to be successful, out-of-school-time (OST) program facilitators and classroom teachers need a common understanding of what quality looks and sounds like and support for implementing higher-quality instructional strategies. For well over a decade, the Dimensions of Success (DoS) observation system has provided such support in OST settings and, more recently, in middle-grade classrooms. In this article, we first demonstrate how DoS defines quality Youth Voice in OST and classroom settings through four vignettes based on observations of grade 5–8 classrooms and OST program observations, then provide strategies for educators to promote higher-quality Youth Voice by building on youth ideas and encouraging decision-making that drives their STEM learning forward.

Early Childhood Teachers’ Use of Asset-based Computational Thinking Pedagogy: Centering Students’ Expertise and Life Experiences

Computational thinking (CT) is central to computer science, yet there is a gap in the literature on how CT emerges and develops in early childhood especially for children from historically marginalized communities. Yet, lack of access to computational materials and effective instruction can create inequities that have lasting effects on young children (Chaudry, et al., 2017). To alleviate the pervasiveness of such inequities and remedy the “pedagogical dominance of Whiteness” (Baines et al., 2018, p.

Author/Presenter

Lori Czop Assaf

Sean Justice

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2024
Short Description

Computational thinking (CT) is central to computer science, yet there is a gap in the literature on how CT emerges and develops in early childhood especially for children from historically marginalized communities. Understanding how teachers provide asset-based, culturally responsive opportunities for CT in early childhood classrooms remains largely unknown. The purpose of this paper is to share a subset of findings from a qualitative, ethnographic study that explored the ways in which early childhood teachers (ECT) learned and implemented CT using asset-based pedagogies.

Asset-based Computational Thinking in Early Childhood Classrooms: Centering Students’ Expertise in a Community of Learners

Computational thinking (CT) is central to computer science, yet there is a gap in the literature on the best ways to implement CT in early childhood classrooms. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how early childhood teachers enacted asset-based pedagogies while implementing CT in their classrooms. We followed a group of 28 early childhood educators who began with a summer institute and then participated in multiple professional learning activities over one year.

Author/Presenter

Lori Czop Assaf

Sean Justice

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2024
Short Description

Computational thinking CT is central to computer science, yet there is a gap in the literature on the best ways to implement CT in early childhood classrooms. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how early childhood teachers enacted asset-based pedagogies while implementing CT in their classrooms.

Expressive STEM Storymaking: Art, Literacy, and Creative Computing

This chapter features intersections of art, literacy, and creative computing. As a component of STEAM, creative computing augments story creation, or storymaking (Buganza et al., 2023; Compton & Thompson, 2018), prompting learners to explore expressive meaning making as collective interactions with texts. To signify a way of teaching that supports such learning activities, we propose expressive STEM as a design principle, illustrated here with examples from an elementary school and a preservice art education program in Texas, USA.

Author/Presenter

Sean Justice

Lori Czop Assaf

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2025
Short Description

This chapter features intersections of art, literacy, and creative computing. As a component of STEAM, creative computing augments story creation, or storymaking (Buganza et al., 2023; Compton & Thompson, 2018), prompting learners to explore expressive meaning making as collective interactions with texts. To signify a way of teaching that supports such learning activities, we propose expressive STEM as a design principle, illustrated here with examples from an elementary school and a preservice art education program in Texas, USA.

STEM Education with a Focus on Equity and Justice: Traditional Approaches, Contemporary Approaches, and Proposed Future Approach

The disproportionate impacts of societal challenges (e.g., climate change, air and water pollution) on minoritized groups expose systemic injustices and compels STEM educators to reframe the role of STEM education in society. In this article, we describe traditional approaches, contemporary approaches, and our proposed future approach in science and STEM education with a focus on equity and justice. First, we begin with conceptual framing for equity and justice.

Author/Presenter

Okhee Lee

Scott E. Grapin

Year
2025
Short Description

The disproportionate impacts of societal challenges (e.g., climate change, air and water pollution) on minoritized groups expose systemic injustices and compels STEM educators to reframe the role of STEM education in society. In this article, we describe traditional approaches, contemporary approaches, and our proposed future approach in science and STEM education with a focus on equity and justice.