Elementary

Multimedia environments provide multiple resources for expression, collaboration, and knowledge-creation. Yet there is much to be learned about the design of such environments, the forms of collegial discourse that take place, and the benefits of participation. To this end, we study the 2017 STEM for All Video Showcase, a multimodal environment, that enabled educational researchers to share and discuss short videos depicting their federally-funded work to improve STEM education.

To develop students’ capacity for science and to engage them productively in science and engineering practices, science education reform efforts have focused on supporting teachers’ development of conceptual understandings through engagement with both disciplinary content and practices, including science teaching at the primary level. One topic of importance for primary science instruction focuses on Earth systems and, in particular, hydrological phenomena. Scientific modelling provides an effective, practice-based strategy for students’ conceptual development of water.

Meaningfully engaging students in the NGSS scientific practices requires that student ideas become the driving force of classroom activity. However, in order for student ideas to take on this new role, teachers must engage in responsive teaching in which they elicit, notice, and respond to the substance of student thinking. In this work, we explore a variety of types of responsive teaching and elaborate a specific type of responsive teaching—what we call epistemologically responsive science teaching.

Cognitive differences have historically led to deficit assumptions concerning the mathematical experiences that children with learning disabilities (LD) can access. We argue that the problem can be located not within children but instead as a mismatch between features of instruction and children’s unique learning abilities. In this paper, we investigate how one elementary school child, Jim, with specific visual motor integration differences constructed a unit fraction concept.

The Framework for K‐12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards propose that students learn core ideas and practices related to engineering as well as science. To do so, students will need high‐quality curricular materials designed to meet these goals. We report an efficacy study of an elementary engineering curriculum, Engineering is Elementary (EiE) that includes a set of hypothesized critical components designed to encourage student engagement in practices, connect engineering and science learning, and reach diverse students.

As teacher education shifts to focus on teaching beginners to do the work of teaching, assessments need to shift to focus on assessing practice. We focus on one teaching practice, eliciting student thinking, in the context of elementary mathematics. We describe assessments in two contexts (field and simulation). For each assessment, we describe the eliciting of three prospective teachers what could be seen about the skills of group of prospective teachers (N = 44).

As teacher education shifts to focus on teaching beginners to do the work of teaching, assessments need to shift to focus on assessing practice. We focus on one teaching practice, eliciting student thinking, in the context of elementary mathematics. We describe assessments in two contexts (field and simulation). For each assessment, we describe the eliciting of three prospective teachers what could be seen about the skills of group of prospective teachers (N = 44).

This brief describes how to support equity for students, teachers, and communities through place-based science education strategies.

Coleman, S., Chinn, P., Morrison, D., & Kaupp, L. (2019). How place-based science education strategies can support equity for students, teachers, and communities. STEM Teaching Tools.

This brief describes how to support equity for students, teachers, and communities through place-based science education strategies.

Coleman, S., Chinn, P., Morrison, D., & Kaupp, L. (2019). How place-based science education strategies can support equity for students, teachers, and communities. STEM Teaching Tools.

This graphic is designed to support students, teachers, and families in thinking across timescales to understand socio-ecological relationships to place across time.