Assessing students' understanding of inquiry: What do prospective science teachers notice?

Abstract

The theoretical construct of teacher noticing has allowed mathematics teacher educators to examine teacher thinking and practice by looking at the range of activities that teachers notice in the classroom. Guided by this approach to the study of teacher thinking, the central goal of this exploratory study was to identify what prospective science teachers notice when evaluating evidence of student understanding in another teacher's inquiry-based unit. Our results are based on the qualitative analysis of 43 prospective teachers' evaluations of assessment evidence presented to them in the form of a video case and associated written artifacts. Analysis of our data revealed two major categories of elements, Task-General and Task-Specific, noticed by our study participants. Task-General elements included attention to learning objectives, independent student work, and presentation issues and they often served to guide or qualify the specific inquiry skills that were evaluated. Task-Specific elements included the noticing of students' abilities to perform different components of an investigation. In general, study participants paid attention to important general and specific aspects of student work in the context of inquiry. However, they showed preferential attention to those process skills associated with designing an investigation versus those practices related to the analysis of data and generation of conclusions. Additionally, their interpretations of assessment outcomes were largely focused on the demonstration of general science process skills; much less attention was paid to the analysis of the epistemological validity or scientific plausibility of students' ideas. Our results provide insights into the design of meaningful learning experiences for prospective teachers that elicit, challenge, and enrich their conceptions of student understanding in the context of inquiry. ß

Impact of a student-teacher-scientist partnership on students' and teachers' content knowledge, attitudes toward science, and pedagogical practices

“…Engaging K‐12 students with authentic inquiry experiences that progressively approximate scientific practice has been a consistent and major theme in science education reforms for the past half century (Abd‐El‐Khalick et al, ). While some progress has been achieved in this regard, much remains to be desired: K‐12 science instruction largely continues to be incommensurate with how scientists conduct their practice (Anderson, ; Talanquer, Tomanek, & Novodvorsky, ). Toward achieving this goal, reforms have called for, explicitly or implicitly, a three‐step process for effecting change.…”

Characterizing teacher attention to student thinking: A role for epistemological messages

“…Using a framework that delineates different features of student algebraic thinking (e.g., Manipulation of Symbols and Procedures; Reasoning with and about Representations), Walkoe analyzes how teachers' attention shifts among these different features over the course of a video club professional development experience. Similarly, Talanquer et al (2013) assess their teachers' abilities to notice specific aspects of scientific inquiry (e.g., Asking Questions and Formulating Hypotheses; Interpreting and Evaluating Evidence). Notice that this work characterizing teacher attention is domain-(and even sub-domain-) specific; researchers articulate aspects of student ideas that are disciplinarily meaningful and track whether and how teachers are paying attention to those different aspects.…”

Exploring prospective teachers' assessment practices: Noticing and interpreting student understanding in the assessment of written work

“…Our work revealed that teachers' selection of assessment questions is largely influenced by the perceived cognitive demand and efficacy of the task, as well as by student characteristics such as perceived ability to answer a question. More recently, we investigated what prospective science teachers notice when engaged in the evaluation of evidence of student understanding in an inquiry‐based unit (Talanquer, Tomanek, & Novodvorsky, ). Our findings suggest that prospective science teachers pay preferential attention to student performance of process skills associated with designing an investigation versus those practices related to the analysis of data and generation of conclusions.…”