Learning to teach science for all in the elementary grades: What do preservice teachers bring?

Howes, Elaine V.

doi:10.1002/tea.10049

Cited by 62 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 46 publications

(33 reference statements)

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“…This finding is consistent with-and may provide additional insight about-other research indicating the child-centered perspective of many preservice elementary teachers (e.g., Abell, Bryan, & Anderson, 1998;Davis, in press;Howes, 2002). Here, even when preservice teachers point to the same strengths or weaknesses of instructional materials that science education researchers would, their rationales for their critiques are often quite different.…”

Section: Synthesis and Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Preservice elementary teachers' critique of instructional materials for science

Davis

2006

Sci. Ed.

106

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Science teachers must adapt curriculum materials, so preservice teachers must develop beginning proficiency with this authentic task of teaching. What criteria do they use when they critique these materials in preparation for adapting them, when they develop the criteria themselves and when they are given a set of criteria from which to choose? These results indicate that the 20 participating preservice elementary teachers held a sophisticated set of criteria for critiquing instructional materials; for example, they paid attention to scientific inquiry and instructional goals. In some cases, providing options from which they could select as a part of the instructional approach taken in the class allowed the preservice teachers to engage in substantive critique of the instructional materials along criteria not prominent in their initial set. Even with explicit support, however, the preservice teachers did not engage in substantive critique about how scientific content is represented. Furthermore, they typically describe inquiry as important to incorporate to promote student interest, not to engage students in genuine scientific activity. It is concluded that critique activities used in science methods courses should be authentic and scaffolded to be optimally effective. Critique along especially challenging dimensions needs systematic, explicit, and perhaps more consistent support.

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Section: Synthesis and Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Preservice elementary teachers' critique of instructional materials for science

Davis

2006

Sci. Ed.

106

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“…Second, beginning elementary teachers tend to have unsophisticated beliefs about the nature of science (e.g., Abd-el-Khalick, 2001), again as is typically assumed, though we also noted some exceptions to this trend in the literature. Third, beginning elementary teachers seem initially to want to engage, interest, motivate, and/or manage their students, though they also experience change in this focus (e.g., Abell, Bryan, & Anderson, 1998;Howes, 2002). They recognize that knowing about their students' ideas and backgrounds is important, but do not know what to do with information they glean with regard to those ideas or backgrounds.…”

Section: Overcoming Challenges Through Addressing Goalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beginning teachers moving toward effective elementary science teaching

Davis

Smithey

2009

Science Education

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ABSTRACT:We use a 10-year program of research centered on iterations of one elementary science methods course as a vehicle for exploring three important and interrelated goals for the learning of beginning elementary teachers. These include learning about inquiryoriented science teaching, using science curriculum materials effectively, and anticipating and working with students' ideas in instruction. For each goal we discuss how the literature informs our thinking, describe relevant aspects of our design of the course, and present findings of our research with regard to preservice teachers' experiences in and learning from aspects of the course. For each goal, we also highlight examples from our longitudinal work following the preservice teachers into their early years as elementary teachers, to provide a glimpse of teachers' trajectories related to each of the themes. We close with a discussion of implications for research and practice in elementary science teacher education.

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“…Beginning teachers need to learn how to address problems of practice such as engaging students in science, organizing instruction and developing productive learning communities-and in doing so, develop their knowledge, teaching practices, and dispositions. Preservice teachers recognize these problems of practice as important, though from a somewhat different perspective (Abell, Bryan, & Anderson, 1998;Davis et al, 2006;Howes, 2002;Schwarz et al, 2008). They want to engage their own students in interesting and real-world science information, teach science in a manner that is more fun, exciting and relevant than it frequently was for them as former students, and fix science misconceptions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing preservice elementary teachers' knowledge and practices through modeling‐centered scientific inquiry

Schwarz

2009

Science Education

127

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Preservice elementary teachers face many challenges in learning how to teach science effectively, such as engaging students in science, organizing instruction, and developing a productive learning community. This paper reports on several iterative cycles of design-based research aimed at fostering preservice teachers' principled reasoning around these problems of practice through modeling-centered scientific inquiry. The first design cycle introduced preservice teachers to modeling and simulation software tools in an effort to advance their understanding of science and technology; the second used an instructional framework embodying modeling-centered inquiry to advance their views of effective science teaching and their lesson-planning practices; the third engaged preservice teachers in analyzing and modifying curriculum materials using reform-based criteria to foster effective curriculum materials use. Outcomes from these iterations indicate that the preservice teachers were most likely to advance their knowledge and practices within a coherent approach that focused on a core scientific practice such as modeling-centered inquiry, provided opportunities to unpack and apply robust tools such as reform-based instructional frameworks, and addressed their perceived problems of practice. The findings from this set of approaches are compared to others in an effort to point toward promising future directions for effective science teacher education.

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Learning to teach science for all in the elementary grades: What do preservice teachers bring?

Abstract: Implicit in the goal of recent reforms is the question:

Cited by 62 publications

References 46 publications

Preservice elementary teachers' critique of instructional materials for science

Preservice elementary teachers' critique of instructional materials for science

Beginning teachers moving toward effective elementary science teaching

Developing preservice elementary teachers' knowledge and practices through modeling‐centered scientific inquiry

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