Five Strategies to Support all Teachers: Suggestions to Get Off the Slippery Slope of Cookbook Science Teaching

Many teachers shudder at the thought of implementing an inquiry curriculum. Perhaps they envision a rowdy classroom with little learning. Maybe they wonder, How will this connect to all the standards? Fortunately, these legitimate concerns can be addressed, and all students can engage in thoughtfully constructed inquiry science experiences. In this article, we outline five strategies that we have used with elementary school teachers as they moved from a cookbook approach in science to an approach that is inquiry-based. Having presented these five strategies in a linear format, we know that on the surface this may seem close to the slippery slope of cookbook science teaching, but we also know that thoughtful practitioners working in classrooms across the country will see these strategies as interactive, overlapping, and nonsequential

Working Toward a Third Space in the Teaching of Elementary Mathematics

Building on work in the area of third space theory, this study documents one teacher’s efforts to create third spaces in an elementary mathematics classroom. In an attempt to link the worlds of theory and practice, I examine how the work of other theorists and researchers – inside and outside the field of education – can create new lenses for classroom practitioners. In addition, the article provides evidence that third spaces may be more difficult to realize than others have described. Rather than forcing a third space to emerge, what this study finds more important is creating an environment that will allow third spaces to surface more organically as students and teachers engage in the everyday life of the classroom

Book Review: Transforming Teacher Education: Reflections from the Field

Book review of: Transforming teacher education: Reflections from the field D. Carroll, H. Featherstone, J. Featherstone, S. Feiman‐Nemser and D. Roosevelt (Eds), 2007 Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 266 pp. ISBN 978‐1‐8917‐9233‐

Addressing the Research/Practice Divide in Teacher Education

Educational scholars often describe a research/practice divide. Similarly, students in teacher education programs often struggle to navigate the differences between university coursework and expectations they face in field-based placements. This self-study analyzes one researcher\u27s attempt to address the research/practice divide from the position of a teacher educator. Teaching in a university-based mathematics methods course during the academic year and an elementary classroom during the summer recess provided opportunities to make connections between research and practice. This article examines the effects this study had on the researcher\u27s instruction at the university level. Specifically, the article suggests ways for teacher educators to reconnect with classroom practice in an effort to remain relevant in the quickly changing world of P–12 education. In addition, the study suggests ways for teacher education programs to connect methods courses to authentic field-based experiences to help future teachers make connections between research and practice

Making the Work Interesting: Classroom Management Through Ownership in Elementary Literature Circles

Ryan Flessner\u27s contribution to Breaking the Mold of Classroom Management: What Educators Should Know and Do to Enable Student Success

Politics and action research: An examination of one school’s mandated action research program

Action research has been shown to empower educators, create lasting changes in schools, and have an impact on student learning outcomes. Given these positive results, many school leaders are beginning to mandate the use of action research within their schools. While some in the field have warned against mandating action research, there is little research examining the effects of doing so. This study examines the mandated school-wide action research program at Fieldstone Elementary. While some results align with the action research literature (importance of collaboration, necessity of time to conduct action research, etc.), this article also examines the political tensions surrounding these ideas. Implications for those interested in mandating action research programs are provided

Collaborating to improve inquiry-based teaching in elementary science and mathematics methods courses

This study examines the effect of promoting inquiry-based teaching (IBT) through collaboration between a science methods course and mathematics methods course in an elementary teacher education program. During the collaboration, preservice elementary teacher (PST) candidates experienced 3 different types of inquiry as a way to foster increased understanding of inquiry based teaching (IBT). The experiences included a PST driven science inquiry and a mathematics inquiry where PSTs were learners and a science inquiry where PSTs were teachers. During and following the semester of the collaboration, data were collected to assess the impact of the inquiry experiences on the PSTs’ understanding of IBT. Student work and teacher field notes suggest that PSTs were able to identify, confront and wrestle with the complexities of IBT

Have a Kids Inquiry Conference: Putting a Twist on the Typical Science Fair

In school, the traditional format for the formal sharing of science experiences has been the science fair. Although the format of science fairs may vary, the usual components consist of a step-by-step experimental process that students follow as they test different variables, construct a hypothesis, and collect data to support or disprove their hypothesis. Usually the science fair is conducted as a competitive event at which prizes are awarded for the best examples. Unfortunately, this type of science event has little connection to the real sharing that scientists do regularly. The National Science Education Standards (NSES) call for an approach to science that honors the scientific processes in which scientists actually engage (NRC 1996). A careful look shows that practicing scientists share informal talk daily and deliberately prepare for more formal sharing of their work through participation in professional conferences. Unlike the school science fair, the professional science conference is a noncompetitive place where scientists interact and share ideas. Work that is in process is often presented, and the giving and receiving of feedback is an integral part of the conference. One alternative to the traditional school science fair is a Kids Inquiry Conference (KIC; Saul et al. 2005). More along the lines of the professional science conference, a KIC encourages students to develop their own inquiry projects, carry them out using an inquiry-based model, and prepare for a public sharing event. In addition, preparing for and participating in a KIC can be a powerful professional development (PD) experience for teachers. In this article, we describe preparing for, implementing, and reflecting on the KIC that we--university faculty collaborating with elementary teachers--organized with 250 students and 12 teachers from two elementary schools. We\u27ll focus on the conference logistics--you bring the inquiry

Book review: Talking diversity with Teachers and Teacher educators

Book review of Cruz, B., Ellerbrock, C. R., Vásquez, A., & Howes, E. V. (2014). Talking diversity with teachers and teacher educators: Exercises and critical conversations across the curriculum. by Ryan Flessner and Susan C. Adamson

Using Inquiry-Based Teaching and Kids Inquiry Conferences to Strengthen Elementary Science Instruction and to Encourage More Students to Pursue Science Careers

For the past 20 years, there has been a push to improve the teaching and learning of science in elementary schools. One strong reason for this was the release of the National Science Education Standards (NRC 1996). The Standards articulated not only what K-12 students should know (science content standards), but also how science teachers needed to teach (teaching standards) and be continuously supported (professional development standards). The Standards also considered ways to support inquiry-based and meaningful science learning for K-12 students (program and system standards). According to the NRC, one ot:·the four reasons underpinning all of this is because the goals for science education within the school day are to educate students who could increase their economic productivity through the use of knowledge, understanding and skills of the scientifically literate person in their careers (1996, p. 13). Additional reasons for this push include greater attention to the STEM fields, evolving and expanding global networks, and an ever-increasing list of accountability mechanisms thrust upon schools and teachers (Marx and Harris 2006). Clearly, in order to pursue a career in a scientific field, children need knowledge and skills very different from those traditionally taught in elementary schools. Unfortunately, what occurs in elementary schools is the opposite of what the Standards advocate