In this article, the authors argue for a design process in the development of educative curriculum materials that is theoretically and empirically driven. Using a designbased research approach, they describe their design process for incorporating educative features intended to promote teacher learning into existing, high-quality curriculum materials. The process entails analyzing a set of curriculum materials, characterizing students’ opportunities to learn through teachers’ enactment of the curriculum materials, and assessing students’ learning outcomes. The authors then describe ways in which both theoretical perspectives and empirical data guided their design, development, and refinement process for educative features to enhance the curriculum materials, and give examples of the resulting features. Given the current policy environment in which there are heightened expectations for science teaching at the elementary level, the authors argue that testing and refining processes for developing curricular supports for teachers is of paramount importance. While the illustrations provided focus on science curriculum materials and instruction, the authors argue that the principles and processes applied generalize to the design of educative features across subject-matter areas.

New reform documents underscore the importance of learning both the practices and content of science. This integration of practices and content requires sophisticated teaching that does not often happen in elementary classrooms. Educative curriculum materials—materials explicitly designed to support teacher and student learning—have been posited as a way to support teachers to achieve these ambitious goals, yet little is known about how elementary teachers actually use educative curriculum materials in their interactions with students. To address this gap, we used qualitative case study methods drawing mainly on videorecords of the enactments of lessons and teacher interviews to investigate how two fourth‐grade teachers enacted a curriculum unit enhanced with educative features. Evidence of language and teaching moves promoted by the educative features was observed in the teachers' enactments. Findings suggest that variation existed in the teacher–curriculum interactions within and across teachers and across the suite of educative features. The teachers drew on educative features that contained representations of teacher and student work to envision possibilities for teaching the lesson while they used other features for identifying main ideas for the lesson. Implications for curriculum developers and teacher educators are discussed based on the patterns found in the teachers' use of the educative curriculum materials. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 53: 422–449, 2016

The purpose of this study was to identify evidence in student work of teachers' uptake of educative features in educative curriculum materials. These are features in curriculum materials designed with the specific intent of supporting teacher learning and enactment. This study was prompted by previous work on educative curriculum materials and the need to determine how teachers' use of educative curriculum materials can influence student learning. Student work from two fourth-grade teachers' enactment of an electric circuits unit was analyzed for evidence of teachers' uptake of educative features, which included characteristics of quality for particular science practices. Findings from the student work revealed that the teachers used many of the supports in the educative curriculum materials, especially those that could be used directly with students. The student work also reflected characteristics of high-quality science practices, which were only supported within the educative features. This study supports and extends other work related to how teachers' use of educative curriculum materials may influence student learning and has implications for supporting teachers' productive engagement in teaching that supports the integration of science content and scientific practices, as emphasized in current reform efforts. # 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 52: 2015

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With the shifts in science education emphasizing the integration of science practices with science content, there is a need to know how teachers understand those science practices within their teaching practice. Our primary research question was, What do novice elementary teachers know about the science practices, in terms of what the practices are and how to engage students in the science practices? To answer that question, the current qualitative case study investigated how three novice elementary teachers' knowledge of the science practices is evident in their teaching practice across 4 years: 2 years in a practice‐based teacher education program and 2 years teaching. Data sources included videorecords of the teachers' science instruction, lesson plans, reflections, and interviews. The findings indicate that the novice elementary teachers' knowledge of the science practices and how to teach them varied, with their understanding of how to teach some science practices more evident than their knowledge of the nuances of the practices themselves. Across all of the science practices, they demonstrated a strong understanding that students should be the ones engaging in the intellectual work of the science practices, and not the teacher. As novice elementary teachers learn how to teach science, they may develop their science practice‐readiness, which can serve as a building block for understanding the science practices in greater depth with more teaching experience. The current study has implications for teacher educators when developing opportunities to support novices' understanding of the science practices in ways that can expand with more teaching experience.

Educational contexts are often seen as constraints in school settings. We propose a framework to analyze how teachers draw on their contexts to find resources to support their learning. Following five preservice elementary teachers into their first years of teaching, we draw on interviews, surveys, artifacts, and videorecords. We apply this framework to identify the resources available in elementary science teaching. Our findings show how some resources can cascade from higher levels (e.g., state standards and mistrust of science) and impact classroom opportunities. Our analysis highlights the importance of teacher education and school leadership in illuminating contextual resources available to teachers.

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