Elementary

Variation in the Implementation of Educative Curriculum Materials for Elementary Science Teacher Educators in Two Course Contexts: An Exploratory Case Study

Educative curriculum materials (ECM) have been shown to support K-12 teacher learning, but little is known about teacher educators’ use of ECM. In this study, we report on enactments of ECM designed to support the development of preservice elementary teachers’ content knowledge for teaching about matter in two different courses to understand how teacher educators use ECM. Participants were two full professors teaching science content and science methods courses for elementary preservice teachers at a public university in the Pacific Northwest.

Author/Presenter

Josie C. Melton

Jamie N. Mikeska

Year
2025
Short Description

Educative curriculum materials (ECM) have been shown to support K-12 teacher learning, but little is known about teacher educators’ use of ECM. In this study, we report on enactments of ECM designed to support the development of preservice elementary teachers’ content knowledge for teaching about matter in two different courses to understand how teacher educators use ECM.

Lifting Noticing: Critical Events That Mathematics Teacher Educators Notice During Coaching Cycles

Building on research on teacher noticing, the goal of this study was to understand what and how mathematics teacher educators notice critical events and how they make connections to consider the characteristics of distinguished coach noticing, meaning the noticing we would hope those coaching would attain to support teachers. We interviewed 29 mathematics teacher educators in two different experience groups and asked them to respond to vignettes of coach–teacher interactions.

Author/Presenter

Julie M. Amador

Ryan Gillespie

Jennifer Kruger

Adam Hanan

Jeffrey Choppin

Kenley Ritter

Year
2025
Short Description

Building on research on teacher noticing, the goal of this study was to understand what and how mathematics teacher educators notice critical events and how they make connections to consider the characteristics of distinguished coach noticing, meaning the noticing we would hope those coaching would attain to support teachers. We interviewed 29 mathematics teacher educators in two different experience groups and asked them to respond to vignettes of coach–teacher interactions.

Lifting Noticing: Critical Events That Mathematics Teacher Educators Notice During Coaching Cycles

Building on research on teacher noticing, the goal of this study was to understand what and how mathematics teacher educators notice critical events and how they make connections to consider the characteristics of distinguished coach noticing, meaning the noticing we would hope those coaching would attain to support teachers. We interviewed 29 mathematics teacher educators in two different experience groups and asked them to respond to vignettes of coach–teacher interactions.

Author/Presenter

Julie M. Amador

Ryan Gillespie

Jennifer Kruger

Adam Hanan

Jeffrey Choppin

Kenley Ritter

Year
2025
Short Description

Building on research on teacher noticing, the goal of this study was to understand what and how mathematics teacher educators notice critical events and how they make connections to consider the characteristics of distinguished coach noticing, meaning the noticing we would hope those coaching would attain to support teachers. We interviewed 29 mathematics teacher educators in two different experience groups and asked them to respond to vignettes of coach–teacher interactions.

Effective Strategies for Learning and Teaching in Times of Science Denial and Disinformation

The modern information landscape offers an abundance of options to learn about science topics, but it is also ripe for the spread of mis- and disinformation and science denial. Science education can play a pivotal role in mitigating harm from untruthful information, strengthening trust in science, and fostering a more informed and critically engaged public. Across the articles in this special issue, 10 pedagogical strategies to address mis- and disinformation in the classroom were synthesized.

Author/Presenter

K. C. Busch

Doug Lombardi

Year
2025
Short Description

The modern information landscape offers an abundance of options to learn about science topics, but it is also ripe for the spread of mis- and disinformation and science denial. Science education can play a pivotal role in mitigating harm from untruthful information, strengthening trust in science, and fostering a more informed and critically engaged public.

An Emerging Theory of School-based Participatory Science

Participatory science conducted in formal K–12 settings has many benefits, including the potential to engage teachers and students authentically in the scientific enterprise and to make learning more meaningful. Despite these benefits and others, school-based participatory science (SBPS) is not widespread. In this essay, we put forth a theory of SBPS that is emerging from a four-year study of efforts to integrate participatory science in elementary classrooms.

Author/Presenter

P. Sean Smith

Christine L. Goforth

Sarah J. Carrier

Meredith L. Hayes

Sarah E. Safley

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2025
Short Description

Participatory science conducted in formal K–12 settings has many benefits, including the potential to engage teachers and students authentically in the scientific enterprise and to make learning more meaningful. Despite these benefits and others, school-based participatory science (SBPS) is not widespread. In this essay, we put forth a theory of SBPS that is emerging from a four-year study of efforts to integrate participatory science in elementary classrooms.

Getting Unstuck Together: Creating Personally Authentic Programming Projects in a 4th Grade Classroom

Background and Context
Learning to create self-directed and personally authentic programming projects involves encountering challenges and learning to get unstuck.

Author/Presenter

Paulina Haduong

Karen Brennan

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2024
Short Description

Teachers play a central role in designing structures which encourage the development of students’ individual creative capacity and the classroom’s sense of community. We offer considerations for designing engaging and collaborative experiences in elementary and intermediate computing education.

Facilitating Collaborative Inquiry into Practice Around Artifacts of Mathematics Teaching

Although there has been increasing attention to the importance of teacher agency in professional development, there has been little attention to what it takes to facilitate collaborative work that both centers teachers’ assets and expertise and leads to productive learning. This paper presents a framework for focused and responsive facilitation of productive discourse around instructional practice in teacher learning communities.

Author/Presenter

Caroline B. Ebby

Brittany Hess

Lizzy Pecora

Jennifer Valerio

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2024
Short Description

Although there has been increasing attention to the importance of teacher agency in professional development, there has been little attention to what it takes to facilitate collaborative work that both centers teachers’ assets and expertise and leads to productive learning. This paper presents a framework for focused and responsive facilitation of productive discourse around instructional practice in teacher learning communities.

Development of a Questionnaire on Teachers' Beliefs, Preparedness, and Instructional Practices for Teaching NGSS Science with Multilingual Learners

The limited availability of research instruments that reflect the vision of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) restricts the field's understanding of whether and how teachers are making instructional shifts called for by the standards. The need for such instruments is particularly urgent with teachers of multilingual learners (MLs), who are called on to make shifts in how they think about and enact instruction related to both science and language.

Author/Presenter

Scott E. Grapin

Courtney Plumley

Eric Banilower

Alycia J. Sterenberg Mahon

Laura Craven

Kristen Malzahn

Joan Pasley

Abigail Schwenger

Alison Haas

Okhee Lee

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2024
Short Description

The limited availability of research instruments that reflect the vision of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) restricts the field's understanding of whether and how teachers are making instructional shifts called for by the standards. The need for such instruments is particularly urgent with teachers of multilingual learners (MLs), who are called on to make shifts in how they think about and enact instruction related to both science and language. The purpose of this study was to develop and gather validity evidence for a questionnaire that measures elementary teachers' beliefs, preparedness, and instructional practices for teaching NGSS science with MLs.

Understanding Variation in Integrated STEM Practice as Measured by the STEM Observation Protocol (STEM-OP)

To better understand integrated STEM education, this work explored scores on the STEM Observation Protocol (STEM-OP), a newly developed observation protocol for use in K-12 science and engineering classrooms. The goals of this work were to better understand how integrated STEM might look throughout an integrated STEM unit and identify limitations of the instrument when examining daily scores and full unit implementation scores. The work takes a mixed methods approach to first examine what scores may be typically seen with daily and unit implementations.

Author/Presenter

Emily A. Dare

Elizabeth A. Ring-Whalen

Year
2024
Short Description

To better understand integrated STEM education, this work explored scores on the STEM Observation Protocol (STEM-OP), a newly developed observation protocol for use in K-12 science and engineering classrooms. The goals of this work were to better understand how integrated STEM might look throughout an integrated STEM unit and identify limitations of the instrument when examining daily scores and full unit implementation scores.

Understanding Variation in Integrated STEM Practice as Measured by the STEM Observation Protocol (STEM-OP)

To better understand integrated STEM education, this work explored scores on the STEM Observation Protocol (STEM-OP), a newly developed observation protocol for use in K-12 science and engineering classrooms. The goals of this work were to better understand how integrated STEM might look throughout an integrated STEM unit and identify limitations of the instrument when examining daily scores and full unit implementation scores. The work takes a mixed methods approach to first examine what scores may be typically seen with daily and unit implementations.

Author/Presenter

Emily A. Dare

Elizabeth A. Ring-Whalen

Year
2024
Short Description

To better understand integrated STEM education, this work explored scores on the STEM Observation Protocol (STEM-OP), a newly developed observation protocol for use in K-12 science and engineering classrooms. The goals of this work were to better understand how integrated STEM might look throughout an integrated STEM unit and identify limitations of the instrument when examining daily scores and full unit implementation scores.