Learning the 'Grammar of Science': The Influence of a Physical Science Content Course on K-8 Teachers' Understanding of the Nature of Science and Inquiry

This conference paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association in Montreal, Quebec in April, 2005.The “nature of science” (NOS) typically refers to understanding science as a way of knowing or the values and assumptions inherent in the construction of scientific knowledge (Lederman, 1992). Science education in the U.S. has emphasized understanding NOS most recently as a critical component of scientific literacy within national reform documents including Science for All Americans (AAAS, 1990), Benchmarks for Science Literacy (AAAS, 1993) and the National Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996). Despite these emphases, however, Lederman's (1992) review of the research and studies since (e.g., Akerson, Abd-El-Khalick & Lederman, 2000; Bianchini & Colburn, 2000; Schwartz & Lederman, 2002) reveal that teachers generally do not possess informed views of NOS and inquiry. This study examined efforts to improve practicing K-8 teachers' understandings of NOS in the context of a science content course

Pre-Service Elementary Teachers' Field Experiences in Classrooms Led by Science Specialists

DOI 10.1007/s10972-008-9110-y http://www.springerlink.com/content/yq5p4925661g1757/fulltext.pdfThe purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of preservice elementary teachers in a content-specific field-based experience with elementary science specialists. Data collected from electronic discussions, interviews, and observations in the field revealed preservice teachers experienced a wide range of instructional and assessment strategies in specialists' classrooms, but failed to generalize aspects of the specialist model of science instruction to traditional models for delivery of science instruction at the elementary level. Implications for supporting preservice teachers' learning to teach science through participation in a field experience with specialists are discussed

Introductory Physics: Writing scheme teaches science to non-scientists

DOI: 10.1088/0031-9120/42/6/F05 http://iopscience.iop.org/0031-9120/42/6/F05/pdf/0031-9120_42_6_F05.pdfWriting-intensive activities can be made use of to implement a 'narrow-but-deep' approach in an undergraduate introductory physics course for non-science majors. In this approach, a carefully selected number of topics are treated not only in more detail but also with attention to developing them logically and rigorously. We teach a course that utilizes parts of an interdisciplinary text by Alan Lightman [1] and focuses on three subjects: (i) the conservation of energy, (ii) the second law of thermodynamics and (iii) the special theory of relativity

Across Content and Pedagogy: Seeking Coherence in NOS Instruction in Teacher Education Programs

This conference paper was presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching in New Orleans, LA.While reforms emphasize understanding the nature of science (NOS), a challenge in meeting the vision of the reforms is that teachers lack understandings consistent with contemporary views of NOS. Though teacher educators have successfully improved prospective teachers' views of NOS within science methods courses (Akerson et al., 2000) and specialized science content courses for teachers (Abd-El-Khalick, 2001; Hanuscin, et al., 2004), recent work questions whether such single-course efforts are sufficient to promote retention of improved views (Akerson, et al., 2006). From a conceptual change perspective, we examined the development of preservice elementary teachers' views of NOS across their program of study. Utilizing the VNOS-C (Lederman, et al., 2002), we conducted a pretest posttest for treated and comparison groups of both science content (physics) and pedagogy (methods) courses. 76% of participants who received NOS instruction in their science content course exhibited improved views, while only 14% of participants enrolled in a comparison section did so. Those who later enrolled in a methods course that emphasized NOS retained or further improved their views, while those who enrolled in a methods course in which NOS was not a primary focus reverted to their original views. Our findings underscore the importance of coherence in NOS instruction throughout teacher education

Teaching the Nature of Science Through Inquiry: The Results of a Three-year Professional Development Program

This conference paper was presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research on Science Teaching in Dallas, TX in April 2005.This study assessed the components of a three year professional development program on participants' views nature of science (NOS), instructional practice to promote students' appropriate NOS views, and the influence of participants' instruction on elementary student NOS views. Using the VNOS-B and associated interviews the researchers tracked the changes in NOS views of teacher participants throughout the professional development program. The teachers participated in an explicit-reflective activities, embedded in a program that emphasized scientific inquiry, along with training in pedagogy, to help them improve their own elementary students' views of NOS. Elementary students were interviewed using a modified VNOS-B to track changes in their NOS views, using classroom observations to note teacher influences on student ideas. Analysis of the VNOS-B and modified VNOS-B showed that teachers and most grades of elementary students improved their views of NOS. The teachers also improved in their science pedagogy, as evidenced by analysis of their teaching. Implications for teacher professional development programs are made

Bridging the Gap Between Preservice Teacher Education and Induction: NSTA Student Chapters as a Transitional Support

This is a conference paper that was presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Science Teacher Education in Sacramento, California.NSTA initiated the student chapter program in 2001 to “maintain a connection to future teachers as they enter the profession and create a conduit as the 'new' teacher workforce enters the classroom” (NSTA, 2009, p. 1). The purpose of the student chapters is to provide preservice teachers of science opportunities to access and use support resources and enhance their professional development (NSTA, 2009). The role of professional organizations in the development of preservice teachers has been largely unexplored in the science education literature. As such, we sought to understand how a NSTA student chapter supported preservice teachers' professional development and the implications for teacher education

Teaching Against the Mystique of Science: Literature Based Approaches in Elementary Teacher Education

This conference paper was presented presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Science Teacher Education in Clearwater, FL.School science experiences shape learners' attitudes and beliefs about science. Yet, school experiences often consist of reading from a text, memorizing scientific facts, or conducting “verification” type laboratories, and thus may fail to accurately portray the nature of science. Lemke (1990) refers to this as the “mystique of science” in which teachers, often without realizing it, reinforce a set of harmful myths that impersonalize science and alienate learners. Our own reading of preservice teachers' science autobiographies (Koch, 1990) confirms that the images of science they hold are often inaccurate and oversimplified versions of this rich human and social endeavor. Indeed, when asked to “Draw A Scientist” (Chambers, 1983) our preservice elementary teachers overwhelmingly represent scientists as the stereotypical white male in a lab coat, similar to students and teachers in national studies (Barman, 1997; Moseley & Norris, 1999). Thus, they are likely to perpetuate such images through their own instruction, which can have profound consequences

Challenges and scaffolds for helping prospective teachers design science lessons using the 5E instructional mode

This conference paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Science Teacher Education in Clearwater, FL.The Learning Cycle was developed in 1967 by Karplus and Thier for the Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS). This inquiry-based teaching approach is based on three distinct phases of instruction: 1) exploration provides students with firsthand experiences with science phenomena; 2) concept introduction allows students to build science ideas through interaction with peers, texts, and teachers; (3) concept application asks students to apply these science ideas to new situations or new problems. Since Karplus and Thier introduced the Learning Cycle, several variations including different numbers of phases have been proposed; however, regardless of the number of phases they include, “each new version retains the essence of the original Learning Cycle—exploration before concept introduction” (Brown & Abell, 2007). A popular version of the Learning Cycle is the 5-E model--Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate (Bybee, 1997). It incorporates the three original Learning Cycle phases while adding two more: the Engage phase of the 5-E is designed to captivate students' attention and uncover their prior knowledge about the concept(s), while the Evaluate phase is an opportunity for the teacher to assess students' progress, as well as for students to reflect on their new understandings

Elementary Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Teaching the Nature of Science: An examination of Teachers Who are Effective in Improving their Students' Views

This conference paper was presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research on Science Teaching in Baltimore, MD in April 2008.This study explored components of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of three teachers who were found successful at improving elementary students' views of NOS. Assuming PCK for NOS to be similar to PCK for other science topics, we drew from the model of PCK developed by Magnusson, Krajcik, and Borko (1999). Our efforts reflect a critical re-examination of data from a previous study, or what Heaton (1998) refers to as secondary analysis, and relied on the following data sources (1) field notes and transcripts from professional development sessions, (2) videos, lesson plans, and field notes from observations of teachers' classroom teaching of NOS (3) video stimulated-recall interviews conducted with teachers following classroom observations (4) videos and transcripts from teachers' presentations of their teaching experiences and professional conferences, (5) teachers' written contributions to professional publications, and (6) a focus-group session held with teachers at the conclusion of the project. We found teachers held strong intentions to teach NOS, used strategies modeled for them in workshops with their students, adapted their curricula to emphasize NOS, supported student discourse about NOS using “kidfriendly” language, and used a variety of instructional strategies. Though the teachers informally assessed NOS views, they were less effective in formally assessing students' understandings