Addressing Student Engagement During COVID-19: Secondary STEM Teachers Attend to the Affective Dimension of Learner Needs

This case study examines how a cohort of eleven induction secondary STEM teachers engaged learners during the onset of COVID-19 and their designs for student engagement given an online or blended teaching context in fall 2020. Participants attended a summer professional development workshop guided by trauma-informed teaching practices and learner engagement conceptual frameworks. Through the analysis of teacher artifacts and interviews, we identified dimensions of student engagement that teachers prioritized. Results indicate a marked increase in teachers’ attention to affective and social dimensions of learner engagement. We argue that teacher awareness and action in the affective domain of student engagement is critical during times of trauma

Influence of palaeoweathering on trace metal concentrations and environmental proxies in black shales

The mineralogical and chemical compositions of Lower Carboniferous (Tournaisian) marine black shale from the Kowala quarry, the Holy Cross Mountains, Poland, were investigated. This study focuses on disturbances in palaeoenvironmental proxies caused by palaeoweathering, which progressively changed the major and trace element abundances. Palaeomagnetic investigations reveal that the Devonian – Carboniferous succession was weathered during the Permian-Triassic by the infiltration of oxidizing fluids related to karstification following post-Variscan exhumation. The weathering process led to vermiculitization of chlorite, partial dissolution of calcite and replacement of pyrite by hematite and goethite. Moreover, the concentrations of some trace metals, including Co, Cu, Pb, Mo, Ni, As and U, significantly decreased. Consequently, some elemental abundance ratios that are used as environmental proxies, including U/Th, Ni/Co and V/Cr, were altered. Elements that are bound to iron sulphides (e.g., Mo) appear to be especially prone to mobilization by even a lightly weathered black shale. The documented weathering, including changes in elemental concentrations, can potentially create misinterpretations of the original palaeoenvironmental conditions. In addition, the palaeoweathering of the studied samples appears to have substantially changed the carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and molybdenum stable isotope values. The nitrogen and molybdenum stable isotope ratios, in particular, appear to be most sensitive to the effects of weathering and therefore are good indicators of (palaeo)weathering processes. The major cause of these changes is the decay of organic matter and pyrite. For the organic carbon stable isotopes ratios, the main factor that controlls this process appears to be the preferential degradation of labile organic matter. A combination of the total organic carbon (TOC), total sulphur (TS) content, Mo concentration and stable isotope compositions seems to be the most useful for identify (palaeo)weathering. Our results suggest that reductions in TS and Mo in tandem with diminished Mo stable isotope values in the absence of obvious changes to the TOC content provide the most compelling evidence of (palaeo)weathering

Science Teacher Educators as K-12 Teacher: Practicing What We Preach

Science teacher educators prepare and provide professional development for teachers at all grade levels. They seek to improve conditions in classroom teaching and learning, professional development, and teacher recruitment and retention. Science Teacher Educators as K-12 Teachers: Practicing What We Teach tells the story of sixteen teacher educators who stepped away from their traditional role and entered the classroom to teach children and adolescents in public schools and informal settings. It details the practical and theoretical insights that these members of the Association of Science Teacher Educators (ASTE) earned from experiences ranging from periodic guest teaching to full-time engagement in the teaching role. Science Teacher Educators as K-12 Teachers shows science teacher educators as professionals engaged in reflective analysis of their beliefs about and experiences with teaching children or adolescents science. With their ideas about instruction and learning challenged, these educators became more aware of the circumstances today\u27s teachers face. Their honest accounts reveal that through teaching children and adolescents, teacher educators can also renew themselves and expand their identities as well as their understanding of themselves in the profession and in relation to others. Science Teacher Educators as K-12 Teachers will appeal to all those with an interest in science education, from teacher educators to science teachers, as well as teacher educators in other disciplines. Its narratives and insights may even inspire more teacher educators to envision new opportunities to serve teachers, K-12 learners and the local community through a variety of teaching arrangements in public schools and informal education settings.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/facbooks2014/1047/thumbnail.jp

Supporting teacher candidates’ multidimensional reflection: a model and a protocol

In this conceptual paper, we present a professional practice-oriented Multidimensional Model of Reflective Practice (MMRP) and a Critical Incident Reflection (CIR) protocol as worthwhile tools for supporting teacher candidates (TCs) to become more self-directed, multi-faceted, and holistic in their reflective practice. The model presents reflection as a complex endeavor situated in a dynamic milieu. It emphasizes the complementary nature of professional competencies of knowledge, skills, and disposition, and the interrogation of an incident through technical, contextual, and critical reflection as well as reflection-in, -on, and -for-action. The CIR protocol provides scaffolding support for TCs as they move toward becoming independent reflective practitioners. Together, the MMRP and CIR protocol facilitate multidimensional reflection. We present a case for providing a more deliberate support for reflection. In doing this, we define reflection, highlight its common frameworks, and discuss the significance of intentional and systematic reflection on professional competencies. In the conclusion, we bring these ideas together to discuss the implications for a self-directed and agentic approach to reflection and professional growth

Using Digital Video for Professional Development in Urban Schools: A Preservice Teacher\u27s Experience with Reflection

This study used a variety of qualitative methods within the context of an exploratory single case study to examine the use of digital video as a means for a preservice teacher to capture personal teaching episodes and reflect on them as an integral part of her professional development. Results demonstrate how an urban preservice teacher\u27s work with digital video of her teaching promoted reflection and the development of teacher identity. Results also demonstrated how a teacher educator was able to use the digital video as a tool to help the beginning teacher identify effective practices

Science Teacher Educators as K-12 Teachers: Practicing what we teach

Science teacher educators prepare and provide professional development for teachers at all grade levels. They seek to improve conditions in classroom teaching and learning, professional development, and teacher recruitment and retention.Science Teacher Educators as K-12 Teachers: Practicing What We Teach tells the story of sixteen teacher educators who stepped away from their traditional role and entered the classroom to teach children and adolescents in public schools and informal settings. It details the practical and theoretical insights that these members of the Association of Science Teacher Educators (ASTE) earned from experiences ranging from periodic guest teaching to full-time engagement in the teaching role. Science Teacher Educators as K-12 Teachers shows science teacher educators as professionals engaged in reflective analysis of their beliefs about and experiences with teaching children or adolescents science. With their ideas about instruction and learning challenged, these educators became more aware of the circumstances today\u27s teachers face. Their honest accounts reveal that through teaching children and adolescents, teacher educators can also renew themselves and expand their identities as well as their understanding of themselves in the profession and in relation to others. Science Teacher Educators as K-12 Teachers will appeal to all those with an interest in science education, from teacher educators to science teachers, as well as teacher educators in other disciplines. Its narratives and insights may even inspire more teacher educators to envision new opportunities to serve teachers, K-12 learners and the local community through a variety of teaching arrangements in public schools and informal education settings.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/facbooks2013/1013/thumbnail.jp

Practicing What We Teach: A Self-Study in Implementing an Inquiry-Based Curriculum in a Middle Grades Classroom

A science teacher educator returned to teaching adolescents after more than 10 years in the professoriate. We studied his beliefs, practice and daily use of inquiry pedagogy while implementing a reform-based curriculum. Reflection on practice was evidenced by a weekly journal, classroom observations and debriefings, and extensive interviews. Newly developed practical knowledge from this experience shifted the science teacher educator’s beliefs away from the Piagetian structuralism espoused in prescribed curricula towards a more culturally responsive, student-driven approach to teaching science to middle grades students. The merits and limitations of curricula attempting to follow traditional scientific practices are discussed

Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, and Turnover Intention of Online Teachers in the K-12 Setting

The purpose of this study was to measure and explore factors influencing K-12 online teachers’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions. Using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1954), Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory of Satisfaction (1959, 1968), Meyer and Allen’s measure of Organizational Commitment (1997), and Fishbein and Ajzen’s Theory of Reasoned Action and Planned Behavior (1975), this mixed-methods study was conducted in public, private, charter, for-profit, and notfor-profit K-12 online schools in a single Southeastern state. The researchers used a sequential explanatory design by collecting and analyzing quantitative data and then qualitative data in two consecutive phases. Phase I included a 74-item survey with responses from 108 participants. Results revealed that K-12 online teachers have a moderate to high level of job satisfaction, which corresponds to their affective commitment to their organization and their intent to remain teaching in the online setting in the immediate, intermediate, and long-term future. Participants identified flexibility, meeting student needs, technical support, and their professional community as the most satisfying aspects of their jobs. Compensation, workload, missing face-to-face interaction with students, and unmotivated students were identified as least satisfying aspects of their work. In Phase II, eight qualitative focus group interviews were conducted and analyzed using constant comparative methods; these findings confirmed and illuminated quantitative results from Phase I. This study informs K-12 online school leaders, policymakers, and researchers of statistically significant variables that influence K-12 online teacher satisfaction, commitment, and retention