A case study of specialized science courses in teacher education and their impact on classroom teaching

Specialized science courses (SSCs) integrate content knowledge (CK) with pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and prepare pre-service teachers (PSTs) for reform-oriented teaching. Studies of individual SSCs report positive short-term outcomes, including an increase in self-efficacy and CK. However, few studies explore the longer-term impact of SSCs on classroom teaching. We carried out an exploratory case study of three PSTs from a Norwegian teacher education program that included SSCs. In the context of their field practicum, we compared PSTs’ teaching of topics taught in SSCs (aligned lessons) with topics not taught in SSCs (unaligned lessons). Data collection consisted of field observations of one aligned and one unaligned lesson as well as stimulated recall interviews based on video recordings. In our analyses, we compared PSTs use of instructional strategies in aligned and unaligned lessons and how their knowledge for teaching 20 informed these instructional decisions. We found that SSCs supported PSTs in using more topic-specific instructional strategies when teaching aligned lessons. In the aligned lessons, their teaching was better informed by knowledge of students’ understandings in science. We also examined PSTs’ perceptions of how they drew upon SSCs in their classroom teaching. They reported that SSCs had a major impact on their CK, PCK and self-efficacy for science teaching. Through this study, we provide unique insights into how PSTs draw on SSCs in their classroom teaching. We include implications for further research and the design of SSCs

Teaching science with students in mind

With this thesis, I address gaps in research about how pre-service teachers (PSTs) develop and make use of knowledge for science teaching. In the project I used a qualitative case study approach to investigate seven PSTs’ science teaching, their use of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for pedagogical reasoning, and the sources contributing to their development of PCK. I explored how PSTs develop knowledge about students and instructional strategies. I also examined how they enacted these components of PCK. I videotaped the PSTs’ science teaching in grade 6–10 school practica in the first and third years of teacher education. I analyzed the videos to identify dimensions of quality instruction related to PCK. In their first-year school practica, the PSTs’ science instruction was student-centered, focusing on students’ prior knowledge and classroom discourse. However, the PSTs struggled to clearly communicate science concepts, and inquiry teaching was almost absent. In stimulated recall interviews performed shortly after some of the lessons, I used video recordings to prompt the PSTs to reconstruct thinking from the lessons. In their reflections, the PSTs shared nuanced knowledge about students, which informed their student-centered instruction with suitable instructional strategies. Specialized science courses, PST peers, and personal learning experiences were central sources of their PCK. I repeated video observations and stimulated recall interviews with three PSTs in third-year school practica. I examined whether and how experiences from specialized science teacher education courses, which intertwine content knowledge and PCK, made a difference in their classroom teaching. By comparing lessons, I found the PSTs’ instructional strategies and their reasons for selecting them were more grounded in science PCK and less in general pedagogy when they were teaching topics they had learned in specialized science courses. The PSTs viewed these courses as supporting their development of content knowledge, PCK, and self-efficacy for science teaching. Implications for teacher education includes that pre-service teachers’ prior knowledge of teaching may be a useful starting point for professional development, and teacher education courses that combine science and pedagogy seem to benefit PSTs when paired with opportunities to teach the same topics in school practica.Gjennom denne doktorgradsavhandlinga addresserar eg eit behov for forsking på korleis lærarstudentar utviklar og gjer seg bruk av fagdidaktisk kunnskap om naturfagundervising. Prosjektet vart gjennomført som ein kasusstudie av sju lærarstudentar si undervising i praksis på 6.-10. trinn på fyrste og tredje år i lærarutdanninga. Gjennom videoobservasjonar og intervju studerte eg korleis lærarstudentane utvikla kunnskap om elevar og kunnskap om undervisingsmetodar, og korleis dei sette slik kunnskap i verk i klasserommet. Videoopptak av all naturfagundervising til seks lærarstudentar første studieåret vart analysert ut frå ulike dimensjonar av kvalitetsundervisning, knytt til fagdidaktisk kunnskap. Undervisinga var elevsentrert. Det innebar at lærarstudentane la vekt på elevane sin tidlegare kunnskap og la til rette for opne samtalar om emnet i klasserommet. Lærarstudentane strevde med å formidla naturfagleg innhald tydeleg, og elevane fekk sjeldan høve til å utforska. I stimulerte gjenkallingsintervju kort tid etter nokre av timane gjengav lærarstudentar tenking frå situasjonane i klasserommet medan dei såg opptak frå timen. Lærarstudentane hadde nyansert kunnskap om elevane, og brukte denne kunnskapen til å gjera undervisinga elevsentrert, og ta i bruk høvelege undervisingsmetodar. Lærarstudentane oppgav at dei hadde slik samankopla kunnskap om elevar og undervisingsmetodar frå fagdidaktiske lærarutdanningskurs, medstudentar, og eigne erfaringar med læring. I tredjeårspraksis gjentok eg videoobservasjonar og stimulerte gjenkallingsintervju av tre lærarstudentar. Eg undersøkte om og korleis fagdidaktiske kurs frå lærarutdanninga hadde innverknad på undervisning i klasserommet. Resultat frå denne samanliknande studien viste at kursa utgjorde ein positiv skilnad. Særskilt var undervisingsmetodar og grunngjevingar for val av desse kopla meir til fagdidaktikk enn generell pedagogikk når lærarstudentane underviste i emne dei hadde hatt i fagdidaktiske kurs. Lærarstudentane oppfatta desse kursa som nyttige for eiga utvikling av kunnskap om fag og didaktikk og tru på eiga meistring i utøving av yrket. Funn frå prosjektet peikar mot at lærarutdannarar med fordel kan dra nytte av lærarstudentar sine tidlegare læringserfaringar. Funna viser òg at fagdidaktiske kurs er til nytte for lærarstudentane, særleg dersom dei får høve til å undervisa i dei same emna i praksis

Mathematics teachers’ levels of technological pedagogical content knowledge and information and communication technology integration barriers

Abstract: Many mathematics teachers struggle to effectively integrate information and communication technology (ICT) in their teaching and need continuous professional development programmes to improve their technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). This article aims to identify mathematics teachers’ levels of TPACK and barriers to integrating ICT as a means to inform their continuous professional development needs. The TPACK framework of Mishra and Koehler was used as a lens for this the study. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were utilised. Ninety-three mathematics teachers, who completed a quantitative questionnaire, reported higher levels of content, pedagogical, and pedagogical content knowledge, with comparatively lower levels of technology, technological pedagogical, and technological content knowledge. Ten of these participants also participated in semi-structured interviews and revealed six primary barriers to integrating ICT in the classroom, namely curriculum-related time constraints, technological infrastructure, impact of ICT use on the learning process, ineffective professional development, teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and poor leadership. Continuous professional development programmes addressing specific ICTintegration barriers can effect significant changes in teachers’ TPACK, which may promote better teaching and learning of mathematics

The Influence of Teacher Curricular Knowledge and Orientations to the Teaching and Learning of Science on Secondary Chemistry Curricula

Efforts to understand changes in teacher curricula following the adoption of reform-based standards, such as the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) remain incomplete and prior scholarship has identified several topics in the standards (e.g., nuclear chemistry and kinetics) that remain infrequently addressed in teachers’ introductory chemistry classes. This study provides an initial insight into how teachers decide what to teach, how they teach it, and why it might be valuable to include in their curriculum. To accomplish this, two teachers’ units on nuclear chemistry and kinetics were explored as part of a case study methodology. The research questions sought answers to help understand why some topics found in the standards remain marginalized in many teachers’ curricula while other topics receive extensive attention and coverage. Similarly, the study attempted to understand how teachers\u27 curricular knowledge and orientations to the teaching and learning of science influence their curricular decision-making process around the topics of nuclear chemistry and kinetics. Findings suggest that subject-matter knowledge as well as curricular knowledge plays a significant role in shaping how teachers understand a particular topic and what type of knowledge students should be developing. Both participants independently sought learning opportunities (e.g., professional development) to augment their subject-matter knowledge and curricular knowledge around a unit on nuclear chemistry but did not do so for a unit on chemical kinetics. Similarly, individual teachers’ orientations to the teaching and learning of science were generally consistent across the topics studied but differed greatly between the two participants. Both teachers also reported a desire to bring chemistry as it relates to the “real world” into their classes, though their understandings of what “real world” means differed significantly as did their subject-matter knowledge about each topic. For the goals underlying standards such as NGSS to be realized, further work must be done to understand barriers to implementation and for targeted professional development to be designed and offered to support those needs

Expert Teacher Contributions to Argumentation Quality During Inquiry Dialogue

The purpose of this study was to examine how expert teachers facilitate inquiry dialogue to contribute to argumentation quality during group discussions in elementary school classrooms. “Argument Literacy,” or the ability to comprehend and formulate arguments, is an important learning outcome identified by the recent Common Core State Standards. Given the value placed on argument skills, we need to know how teachers can support the development of argumentation in their students. This study examined the facilitation of three expert teachers as it related to the quality of argumentation generated by fifth-grade students engaging in inquiry dialogue. To do this, I analyzed six discussion transcripts from three teachers and conducted follow-up interviews with each teacher. First, I used the transcripts to track the development of student-generated argument threads, or sequences of argument features evoked to respond to a contestable question. After isolating each thread, I developed a record of teacher moves during the same discussion. I analyzed the relationship between the teacher moves and argument threads to explore how teacher moves related to argumentation quality. Following the identification of teacher moves, I interviewed teachers to explore their underlying beliefs concerning facilitation and how those related to specific facilitative interventions. The findings from the analysis of transcripts suggest that the use of argument threads can enhance existing frameworks for assessing argumentation quality. The use of thread length provided a more nuanced and contextually sensitive picture of quality and helped highlight teacher moves related to quality. The findings also revealed a set of seven commonly used moves that teachers use to support student argumentation. These moves generally focus on clarifying the process of the inquiry and the content of student statements. Teacher interviews offered additional insights into the underlying beliefs and principles that guided the teacher’s strategic use of moves. I identified three guiding principles, common among the teachers. These principles were shown to align with the more general teacher beliefs about inquiry dialogue and the role of argumentation. Finally, I explored the possible influences of the teachers’ background knowledge on their facilitation and discussed implications for future research and teacher professional development

Education to Employment: Designing a System that Works

Considering the education-to-employment system as a highway with three critical intersections -- enrolling in postsecondary education, building skills, and finding a job -- this research has determined places where students take wrong turns or fall behind, and why. With increased data and innovative approaches, employers, educators, governments and youth can create a better system

Academic Rigor: A Research Report

Rigor can be defined in any number of ways. We found an imbalance between the ways in which rigor has been defined by the Virginia Department of Education, and how education scholars define rigor in the respective academic disciplines. (1) The Commonwealth of Virginia defines rigor as college and career readiness as measured by attendance in post-secondary educational institution, achievement of high Standards of Learning (SOL) test scores, as well as participation in Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs. (2) Educational Psychologists tend to define rigor in ways that are generalizable across contexts. Researchers in this tradition focus on academic press, or the extent to which educational stakeholders, including students, are oriented towards demanding coursework. Studies in this tradition have also found that student motivation is crucial, and that this motivation is mediated by the extent to which tasks are challenging, related to the world outside of school, and provide opportunities for students to collaborate when problem solving. (3) Discipline-Based Scholars of Teaching and Learning define rigor in ways that reflect the core concepts of their discipline. Thus, a rigorous math class is one where students are encouraged to think mathematically, i.e. to use mathematical approaches to solve problems. Although specific pedagogical styles are discussed in this literature, the overall emphasis is on depth rather than breadth, with curricula being designed around building understanding of key concepts rather than covering (or efficiently delivering) factual information and procedural steps. In other words, a US history course might be organized around the way that the idea of freedom developed over the course of US history

Immersive Virtual Reality as a Tool to Make in K-12 Environments

Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) is beginning to be implemented into K-12 contexts. As this technology makes its way into more learning environments there is a need to not only understand how to address curricular goals with this technology, but which frameworks for learning best inform the use of this tool. In addition, previous research has called for a need to begin to explore how immersive VR can be used as a tool for creation in K-12 classrooms (Maas & Hughes, 2020). This multiple-case study aimed to address these needs by examining the use of VR as a tool to create digital artifacts with high school science educators through a professional development experienc