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 this study, we investigated the question: What happens when we ask preservice elementary teachers to explicitly attend to sensemaking as they plan for and reflect on their own science teaching? By analyzing their written lesson planning and reflection documents, we found that: (a) they attended to both the material and intellectual work associated with sensemaking, but didn’t explicitly distinguish between the two, (b) they attended to sensemaking occurring at various “grain sizes,” and (c) some of them improved, refined and/or deepened their understanding of how the various SEPs are used for different kinds of sensemaking as they shifted from the planning process to the reflecting process. Our findings demonstrate that with proper support, preservice teachers are capable of understanding that elementary science instruction can and should move beyond fun, hands-on science activities, in order to engage students in scientific sensemaking.
Ricketts, A., & Korb, M. (2025). Moving Beyond “Hands-On” instruction: Preservice elementary teachers focusing on sensemaking. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/1046560X.2025.2553359