Truth, success, and faith: Novice teachers’ perceptions of what's at risk in responsive teaching in science

Robertson, Amy D.; Elliott, Leslie Atkins

doi:10.1002/sce.21568

Cited by 13 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…While the focus on vocabulary in literacy instruction tends to be dominant in practice, a different approach focusing on reading-and writing-to-learn pedagogies is influenced or driven by education researchers (For a comprehensive review, see Pearson et al, 2010;Wright et al, 2016;Yang, Kuo, & Jiang, 2020). Examples of these pedagogies include Seeds of Science, Roots of Reading (Barber, Pearson, & Cervetti, 2006;Robertson & Elliott, 2020), Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (Brown & Concannon, 2016;Guthrie, Wigfield, & Perencevich, 2004), Science Writing Heuristic (Hand, Shelley, Laugerman, Fostvedt, & Therrien, 2018), and Budding Science and Literacy Program (Sørvik et al, 2015).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Metalanguage in an Explicit Literacy Instruction on Scientific Explanation

Tang

Rappa

2020

Int J of Sci and Math Educ

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This paper illustrates the role of metalanguage in an explicit literacy instruction to talk about the forms and functions of scientific genres, particularly the genre of explanation. In the context of science, metalanguage refers to the technical terms for talking about scientific language using words like law, hypothesis, and evidence. Despite many efforts to use literacy strategies to address the challenges of learning scientific language, the conventional genres commonly found in science remain implicit in most science classroom teaching. In order to explicitly discuss the nature of scientific genres and how they are linked to scientific practices, scientific metalanguage provides a potential literacy tool. To illustrate this argument, we draw on a case study where four teachers and their grade nine students learned how to use a specific type of metalanguage to describe scientific explanation. Analysis of their classroom discourse showed that the use of the metalanguage facilitated explicit communication about the logical sequence, epistemic structure, and validity of scientific explanation. Based on the findings, we discuss the usefulness of metalanguage for teachers and students to describe and analyze scientific genres as well as how these genres are used to construct and communicate scientific knowledge.

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confidence: 99%

The Role of Metalanguage in an Explicit Literacy Instruction on Scientific Explanation

Tang

Rappa

2020

Int J of Sci and Math Educ

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“…There is preliminary evidence that they might not be able to. Robertson and Elliot ( 2020 ) found that novice physics instructors showed a hesitance to teach responsively, i.e., building on students’ beginning ideas without evaluation. An instructor cited concerns that they would risk damaging what students took to be the objective, impartial truth (Robertson & Elliot, 2020 ).…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We agree with Ladson-Billings ( 1997 ) that “[Culture] informs all human thought and activity and cannot be suspended as human beings interact with particular subject matters or domains of learning” (p. 700). While education researchers have expressed that the teaching of STEM subjects is an inherently political activity (Gutiérrez, 2017 ; Mendick, 2011 ; Prescod-Weinstein, 2020 ), many STEM instructors still express beliefs that their fields are objective and free of culture (Miller-Young et al, 2018 ; Robertson & Elliot, 2020 ). Little research has investigated how or why STEM instructors teach with CRP at HSIs, and how beliefs about the nature of disciplinary knowledge might play a role in those decisions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of epistemological beliefs in STEM faculty’s decisions to use culturally relevant pedagogy at Hispanic-Serving Institutions

Shultz

Nissen²,

et al. 2022

IJ STEM Ed

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Background The growing understanding of the oppressive inequities that exist in postsecondary education has led to an increasing need for culturally relevant pedagogy. Researchers have found evidence that beliefs about the nature of knowledge predict pedagogical practices. Culturally relevant pedagogy supports students in ways that leverage students’ own cultures through three tenets: academic success, cultural competence, and sociopolitical consciousness. If STEM practitioners believe that their disciplines are culture-free, they may not enact culturally relevant pedagogy in their courses. We investigated how and in what forms 40 faculty from mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology departments at Hispanic-Serving Institutions enacted culturally relevant pedagogy. We used the framework of practical rationality to understand how epistemological beliefs about the nature of their discipline combined with their institutional context impacted instructors’ decision to enact practices aligning with the three tenets of culturally relevant pedagogy. Results In total, 35 instructors reported using practices that aligned with the academic success tenet, nine instructors with the cultural competence tenet, and one instructor with the sociopolitical consciousness tenet. Instructors expressed and even lauded their disciplines’ separation from culture while simultaneously expressing instructional decisions that aligned with culturally relevant pedagogy. Though never asked directly, six instructors made statements reflecting a “culture-free” belief about knowledge in their discipline such as “To me, mathematics has no color.” Five of those instructors also described altering their teaching in ways that aligned with the academic success tenet. The framework of practical rationality helped explain how the instructors’ individual obligation (to the needs of individual students) and interpersonal obligation (to the social environment of the classroom) played a role in those decisions. Conclusions Instructors’ ability to express two contradictory views may indicate that professional development does not have to change an instructor’s epistemological beliefs about their discipline to convince them of the value of enacting culturally relevant pedagogy. We propose departmental changes that could enable instructors to decide to cultivate students’ cultural competence and sociopolitical consciousness. Our findings highlight the need for future research investigating the impacts of culturally relevant pedagogical content knowledge on students’ experiences.

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“…One is that they are reticent to elicit the ideas of their students because they fear that some ideas that are surfaced may be at odds with scientifically accepted ideas, and that students will end up accepting those incorrect ideas (Maskiewicz, 2015; Miller et al, 2018). Another concern that is voiced is that the time required to elicit and attend to student ideas conflicts with the goals of curricular coverage (Levin, 2008), and the time necessary to respond to students' ideas will result in the sacrifice of content covered (Robertson & Atkins Elliott, 2020). While common concerns, this way of thinking is antithetical to the modern vision of science teaching and learning as represented in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013) in the United States.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating the impact of eliciting and being responsive to students' initial ideas on productive disciplinary engagement across a unit

2022

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In this study, we examined the ways in which two middle school science teachers elicited and were responsive to students' initial science ideas for explaining an anchoring phenomenon while teaching the same model‐based learning unit focused on plate tectonics. Data sources included student models, classroom video, and classroom artifacts. Our analysis revealed a connection between the elicitation of initial ideas, teacher responsiveness to those ideas, and the continued use of those ideas by the students across the unit as evidenced in their individually constructed models. In both classrooms, variation in initial ideas seen on the first day narrowed as students engaged in activities designed to challenge their ideas and present the scientifically accepted explanation of the phenomenon. In one classroom, however, far more ideas were surfaced early, and those ideas were utilized by students as they made sense of the phenomenon. In the other classroom, far fewer ideas were surfaced early and those that were all but disappeared once the unit activities began suggesting student ideas were less likely to be utilized as a sense‐making resource. This study contributes to a growing understanding of the importance of eliciting and responding to students' initial ideas in students' productive disciplinary engagement across an instructional unit.

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Truth, success, and faith: Novice teachers’ perceptions of what's at risk in responsive teaching in science

Cited by 13 publications

References 69 publications

The Role of Metalanguage in an Explicit Literacy Instruction on Scientific Explanation

The Role of Metalanguage in an Explicit Literacy Instruction on Scientific Explanation

The role of epistemological beliefs in STEM faculty’s decisions to use culturally relevant pedagogy at Hispanic-Serving Institutions

Investigating the impact of eliciting and being responsive to students' initial ideas on productive disciplinary engagement across a unit

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