Science

This article explores how unstructured playtime in early childhood settings offers rich opportunities for science learning. Despite play being crucial for children’s development, its potential for science education remains largely untapped. We introduce our framework featuring three observational lenses—actions, exploration, and environment—to help educators identify specific scientific practices (such as planning investigations, analyzing data, and constructing explanations) that naturally emerge during child-led play.

This article explores how unstructured playtime in early childhood settings offers rich opportunities for science learning. Despite play being crucial for children’s development, its potential for science education remains largely untapped. We introduce our framework featuring three observational lenses—actions, exploration, and environment—to help educators identify specific scientific practices (such as planning investigations, analyzing data, and constructing explanations) that naturally emerge during child-led play.

Developing scientific literacy is necessary for students with disabilities (SWD) as it supports the ability to create solutions to real-world problems and understand current events, and it strengthens critical thinking, problem-solving, and complex communication skills. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate extant literature on inquiry-based science interventions for SWD in service of developing scientific practices. We identified 26 studies in 22 articles and 3 dissertations for inclusion in this review.

There is a compelling need to strengthen professional learning (PL) regarding systems thinking, since it crosses all disciplinary boundaries and is a crosscutting concept in the Next Generation Science Standards. Yet research has shown that effectively deploying systems thinking in the classroom is challenging both for students and for teachers.

This study aimed to explore the development of teachers’ knowledge of dialogue and argument through three specific knowledge bases: declarative, procedural, and epistemic. Additionally, the study sought to understand the implications of this knowledge for implementing a knowledge generation approach in classroom settings. To achieve these objectives, a multiple-case study was conducted with 12 elementary teachers who participated in a professional development (PD) program centered on the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH), an approach designed to promote knowledge generation.

Despite significant interest in Career and Technical Education (CTE), little is known about CTE teachers. Using ten years of Maryland administrative data, we find that almost one-fifth of CTE teachers enter the profession with a high school diploma or associate’s degree, reflecting state policies allowing trade/industry professional experience to substitute for higher degrees. Relatedly, CTE teachers are roughly twice as likely as non-CTE teachers to enter through alternative licensure pathways that bypass traditional teacher education (68% vs. 36%).

In our elementary science methods courses, we aim to shift our preservice teachers’ view of science instruction beyond teacher-directed, hands-on “touching and telling,” toward a student-centered approach that emphasizes scientific sensemaking. To that end, we have been emphasizing the sensemaking nature of the eight science and engineering practices (SEPs) defined in the Next Generation Science Standards.

In our elementary science methods courses, we aim to shift our preservice teachers’ view of science instruction beyond teacher-directed, hands-on “touching and telling,” toward a student-centered approach that emphasizes scientific sensemaking. To that end, we have been emphasizing the sensemaking nature of the eight science and engineering practices (SEPs) defined in the Next Generation Science Standards.

This study applies natural language processing and qualitative classroom video analyses to examine classroom discourse. Guided by hybridity theory, which emphasizes the benefits of blending everyday with academic language practices for expanding students’ opportunities to engage with disciplinary ideas, our study systematically identifies how teachers’ and students’ discursive resources operate in science classrooms.

Online professional learning (PL) is widely used to help rural teachers overcome geographical isolation and access quality teacher professional learning. Although there are a handful of studies examining the effectiveness of online PL, much of the existing research includes rural teachers without specifically focusing on what effective online PL means for them. In particular, the research offers limited guidelines on designing effective large-scale online PL programs for rural teachers.