Sample records for urban science teaching

  1. Highly qualified does not equal high quality: A study of urban stakeholders' perceptions of quality in science teaching

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Miranda, Rommel Joseph

    By employing qualitative methods, this study sought to determine the perceptions that urban stakeholders hold about what characteristics should distinguish a high school science teacher whom they would consider to demonstrate high quality in science teaching. A maximum variation sample of six science teachers, three school administrators, six parents and six students from a large urban public school district were interviewed using semi-structured, in-depth interview techniques. From these data, a list of observable characteristics which urban stakeholders hold as evidence of high quality in science teaching was generated. Observational techniques were utilized to determine the extent to which six urban high school science teachers, who meet the NCLB Act criteria for being "highly qualified", actually possessed the characteristics which these stakeholders hold as evidence of high quality in science teaching. Constant comparative analysis was used to analyze the data set. The findings suggest that urban stakeholders perceive that a high school science teacher who demonstrates high quality in science teaching should be knowledgeable about their subject matter, their student population, and should be resourceful; should possess an academic background in science and professional experience in science teaching; should exhibit professionalism, a passion for science and teaching, and a dedication to teaching and student learning; should be skillful in planning and preparing science lessons and in organizing the classroom, in presenting the subject matter to students, in conducting a variety of hands-on activities, and in managing a classroom; and should assess whether students complete class goals and objectives, and provide feedback about grades for students promptly. The findings further reveal that some of the urban high school science teachers who were deemed to be "highly qualified", as defined by the NCLB Act, engaged in practices that threatened quality in science teaching and often failed to display the characteristics which urban stakeholders hold as evidence of high quality in science teaching. Thus, the criteria for "highly qualified" prescribed by policy makers and politicians do not necessarily translate into effective science teaching in urban settings. These findings emphasize the importance of stakeholder involvement in the design of educational reform initiatives.

  2. Urban High School Teachers' Beliefs Concerning Essential Science Teaching Dispositions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Miranda, Rommel

    2012-01-01

    This qualitative study addresses the link between urban high school science teachers' beliefs about essential teaching dispositions and student learning outcomes. The findings suggest that in order to help students to do well in science in urban school settings, science teachers should possess essential teaching dispositions which include…

  3. Urban Elementary Teachers' Perspectives on Teaching Science to English Language Learners

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lee, Okhee; Maerten-Rivera, Jaime; Buxton, Cory; Penfield, Randall; Secada, Walter G.

    2009-01-01

    This descriptive study examined urban elementary school teachers' perceptions of their science content knowledge, science teaching practices, and support for language development of English language learners. Also examined were teachers' perceptions of organizational supports and barriers associated with teaching science to nonmainstream students.…

  4. A Longitudinal Study of Implementing Reality Pedagogy in an Urban Science Classroom: Effects, Challenges, and Recommendations for Science Teaching and Learning

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Borges, Sheila Ivelisse

    Statistics indicate that students who reside in forgotten places do not engage in science-related careers. This is problematic because we are not tapping into diverse talent that could very well make scientific strides and because there is a moral obligation for equity as discussed in Science for all (AAAS, 1989). Research suggests that one of the reasons for this disparity is that students feel alienated from science early on in their K--12 education due to their inability to connect culturally with their teachers (Tobin, 2001). Urban students share an urban culture, a way of knowing and being that is separate from that of the majority of the teacher workforce whom have not experienced the nuances of urban culture. These teachers have challenges when teaching in urban classrooms and have a myriad of difficulties such as classroom management, limited access to experienced science colleagues and limited resources to teach effectively. This leads them to leaving the teaching profession affecting already high teacher attrition rates in urban areas (Ingersol, 2001). In order to address these issues a culturally relevant pedagogy, called reality pedagogy (Emdin, 2011), was implemented in an urban science classroom using a bricolage (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005) of different theories such as social capital (Bourdieu, 1986) and critical race theory (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995), along with reality pedagogy to construct a qualitative sociocultural lens. Reality pedagogy has five tools, which are cogenerative dialogues, coteaching, cosmopolitanism, context, and content. In this longitudinal critical ethnography a science teacher in an alternative teaching certification program was supported for two years as she implemented the tools of reality pedagogy with her urban students. Findings revealed that the science teacher enacted four racial microaggressions against her students, which negatively affected the teacher-student relationship and science teaching and learning. As the tools of reality pedagogy were implemented the teacher-student relationship in the science classroom changed from negative to positive. This then impacted the teachers' decision whether to stay in the teaching profession. Where initially she wanted to leave teaching due to the disconnect with her culturally diverse urban students she decided to stay teaching in urban schools as a consequence of implementing reality pedagogy. In addition, students together with their science teacher were able to redefine the traditional science curriculum by including their community health and science concerns. This led to an increase in students' interest in school science because their urban science interests were incorporated in the science curriculum. Moreover, in order to inform other science teacher educators and teachers on how to implement reality pedagogy this study describes how it was implemented, the challenges that were encountered, and recommendations of an effective sequence of the tools.

  5. Reflective Pathways: Analysis of an Urban Science Teaching Field Experience on Noyce Scholar-Science Education Awardees' Decisions to Teach Science in a High-Need New York City School

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bischoff, Paul; French, Paul; Schaumloffel, John

    2014-01-01

    Awardees of the National Science Foundation's Noyce Scholars funds are required to teach science in high-need urban or rural school districts upon graduation. The purpose of this research was to analyze the reflective considerations that distinguish preservice Noyce Scholar science education majors committed to teaching in high-need New York City…

  6. Urban schools' teachers enacting project-based science

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tal, Tali; Krajcik, Joseph S.; Blumenfeld, Phyllis C.

    2006-09-01

    What teaching practices foster inquiry and promote students to learn challenging subject matter in urban schools? Inquiry-based instruction and successful inquiry learning and teaching in project-based science (PBS) were described in previous studies (Brown & Campione, [1990]; Crawford, [1999]; Krajcik, Blumenfeld, Marx, Bass, & Fredricks, [1998]; Krajcik, Blumenfeld, Marx, & Solloway, [1994]; Minstrell & van Zee, [2000]). In this article, we describe the characteristics of inquiry teaching practices that promote student learning in urban schools. Teaching is a major factor that affects both achievement of and attitude of students toward science (Tamir, [1998]). Our involvement in reform in a large urban district includes the development of suitable learning materials and providing continuous and practiced-based professional development (Fishman & Davis, in press; van Es, Reiser, Matese, & Gomez, [2002]). Urban schools face particular challenges when enacting inquiry-based teaching practices like those espoused in PBS. In this article, we describe two case studies of urban teachers whose students achieved high gains on pre- and posttests and who demonstrated a great deal of preparedness and commitment to their students. Teachers' attempts to help their students to perform well are described and analyzed. The teachers we discuss work in a school district that strives to bring about reform in mathematics and science through systemic reform. The Center for Learning Technologies in Urban Schools (LeTUS) collaborates with the Detroit Public Schools to bring about reform in middle-school science. Through this collaboration, diverse populations of urban-school students learn science through inquiry-oriented projects and the use of various educational learning technologies. For inquiry-based science to succeed in urban schools, teachers must play an important role in enacting the curriculum while addressing the unique needs of students. The aim of this article is to describe patterns of good science teaching in urban school.

  7. Bridging Theory and Practice: Using Hip-Hop Pedagogy As A Culturally Relevant Approach In The Urban Science Classroom

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Adjapong, Edmund S.

    This dissertation explores the context of urban science education as it relates to the achievement and engagement of urban youth. This study provides a framework for Hip-Hop Pedagogy, an approach to teaching and learning anchored in the creative elements of Hip-Hop culture, in STEM as an innovative approach to teaching and learning demonstrates the effect that Hip-Hop Pedagogy, as a culturally relevant approach to teaching has on teaching and learning in an urban science classroom. This study establishes practical tools and approaches, which were formed from by theory and research that transcend the traditional monolithic approaches to teaching science. Participants in this study are middle school students who attend an urban school in one of the largest school systems in the country. This research showed that as result of utilizing Hip-Hop pedagogical practices, students reported that they developed a deeper understanding of science content, students were more likely to identify as scientists, and students were provided a space and opportunities to deconstruct traditional classroom spaces and structures.

  8. Urban science classrooms and new possibilities: on intersubjectivity and grammar in the third space

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Emdin, Christopher

    2009-03-01

    In this article I explore research in urban science education inspired by the work of Kris Gutierrez in a paper based on her 2005 Scribner Award. It addresses key points in Gutierrez's work by exploring theoretical frameworks for research and approaches to teaching and research that expand the discourse on the agency of urban youth in corporate school settings. The work serves as an overview of under-discussed approaches and theoretical frameworks to consider in teaching and conducting research with marginalized urban youth in urban science classrooms.

  9. Voices of Reform: Infusion of Standards-Based Mathematics and Science Teaching in an Urban District.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Huinker, DeAnn; Coan, Cheryl; Posnanski, Tracy

    This study examined the impact of a systemic reform initiative to implement standards-based mathematics and science teaching and learning in one urban school district, noting its effect on teachers, principals, students, and classroom practice. Participants were a sample of elementary and secondary schools involved in the Milwaukee Urban Systemic…

  10. Urban Schools' Teachers Enacting Project-Based Science

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tal, Tali; Krajcik, Joseph S.; Blumenfeld, Phyllis C.

    2006-01-01

    What teaching practices foster inquiry and promote students to learn challenging subject matter in urban schools? Inquiry-based instruction and successful inquiry learning and teaching in project-based science (PBS) were described in previous studies (Brown & Campione, [1990]; Crawford, [1999]; Krajcik, Blumenfeld, Marx, Bass, & Fredricks,…

  11. Bridging Theory and Practice: Using Hip-Hop Pedagogy as a Culturally Relevant Approach in the Urban Science Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Adjapong, Edmund S.

    2017-01-01

    This dissertation explores the context of urban science education as it relates to the achievement and engagement of urban youth. This study provides a framework for Hip-Hop Pedagogy, an approach to teaching and learning anchored in the creative elements of Hip-Hop culture, in STEM as an innovative approach to teaching and learning demonstrates…

  12. Becoming an Insider: Teaching Science in Urban Settings

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Calabrese Barton, Angela; Berchini, Christina

    2013-01-01

    The discourse of urban science education is often framed by discussions of achievement gaps and limited resources. Although these realities are part of the urban education landscape, they focus on deficits--what urban youth and their teachers and schools lack. We argue that it is more productive to frame urban science education as a function of…

  13. Learning to teach science in urban schools

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tobin, Kenneth; Roth, Wolff-Michael; Zimmermann, Andrea

    2001-10-01

    Teaching in urban schools, with their problems of violence, lack of resources, and inadequate funding, is difficult. It is even more difficult to learn to teach in urban schools. Yet learning in those locations where one will subsequently be working has been shown to be the best preparation for teaching. In this article we propose coteaching as a viable model for teacher preparation and the professional development of urban science teachers. Coteaching - working at the elbow of someone else - allows new teachers to experience appropriate and timely action by providing them with shared experiences that become the topic of their professional conversations with other coteachers (including peers, the cooperating teacher, university supervisors, and high school students). This article also includes an ethnography describing the experiences of a new teacher who had been assigned to an urban high school as field experience, during which she enacted a curriculum that was culturally relevant to her African American students, acknowledged their minority status with respect to science, and enabled them to pursue the school district standards. Even though coteaching enables learning to teach and curricula reform, we raise doubts about whether our approaches to teacher education and enacting science curricula are hegemonic and oppressive to the students we seek to emancipate through education.

  14. Reflections on Success and Retention in Urban Science Education: Voices of Five African-American Science Teachers Who Stayed

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fraser-Abder, Pamela

    2010-01-01

    This study highlights the factors that contribute to excellence in urban science teaching as pinpointed by five urban African-American science teachers who have taught successfully in the urban system for over 10 years. These teachers shared their experiences and reflections on the qualities that contributed to their success and persistence as…

  15. Becoming urban science teachers by transforming middle-school classrooms: A study of the Urban Science Education Fellows Program

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Furman, Melina Gabriela

    The current scenario in American education shows a large achievement and opportunity gap in science between urban children in poverty and more privileged youth. Research has shown that one essential factor that accounts for this gap is the shortage of qualified science teachers in urban schools. Teaching science in a high poverty school presents unique challenges to beginner teachers. Limited resources and support and a significant cultural divide with their students are some of the common problems that cause many novice teachers to quit their jobs or to start enacting what has been described as "the pedagogy of poverty." In this study I looked at the case of the Urban Science Education Fellows Program. This program aimed to prepare preservice teachers (i.e. "fellows") to enact socially just science pedagogies in urban classrooms. I conducted qualitative case studies of three fellows. Fellows worked over one year with science teachers in middle-school classrooms in order to develop transformative action research studies. My analysis focused on how fellows coauthored hybrid spaces within these studies that challenged the typical ways science was taught and learned in their classrooms towards a vision of socially just teaching. By coauthoring these hybrid spaces, fellows developed grounded generativity, i.e. a capacity to create new teaching scenarios rooted in the pragmatic realities of an authentic classroom setting. Grounded generativity included building upon their pedagogical beliefs in order to improvise pedagogies with others, repositioning themselves and their students differently in the classroom and constructing symbols of possibility to guide their practice. I proposed authentic play as the mechanism that enabled fellows to coauthor hybrid spaces. Authentic play involved contexts of moderate risk and of distributed expertise and required fellows to be positioned at the intersection of the margins and the center of the classroom community of practice. In all, this study demonstrates that engaging in classroom reform can support preservice teachers in developing specialized tools to teach science in urban classrooms.

  16. Preparing Elementary Preservice Teachers for Urban Elementary Science Classrooms: Challenging Cultural Biases Toward Diverse Students

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Moore, Felicia M.

    2008-02-01

    This study reports the learning of elementary preservice teachers regarding diversity and teaching science in diverse urban elementary classrooms. From participating in a semester-long book club, the preservice teachers reveal their cultural biases, connect and apply their knowledge of diversity, and understand that getting to know their students are important elements for teaching science in diverse classrooms. These 3 things connect in ways that allow the preservice teachers to understand how their cultural biases impede student learning and gain new knowledge of diversity as they change their cultural biases. Implications of this study reveal that preservice teachers need opportunities to reveal, confront, challenge, and change their cultural models and to develop new models for teaching science in urban elementary classrooms.

  17. Ivestigating Earth Science in Urban Schoolyards

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Endreny, Anna; Siegel, Donald I.

    2009-01-01

    The Urban Schoolyards project is a two year partnership with a university Earth Science Department and the surrounding urban elementary schools. The goal of the project was to develop the capacity of elementary teachers to teach earth science lessons using their schoolyards and local parks as field sites. The university personnel developed lessons…

  18. Learning to teach science for social justice in urban schools

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vora, Purvi

    This study looks at how beginner teachers learn to teach science for social justice in urban schools. The research questions are: (1) what views do beginner teachers hold about teaching science for social justice in urban schools? (2) How do beginner teachers' views about teaching science for social justice develop as part of their learning? In looking at teacher learning, I take a situative perspective that defines learning as increased participation in a community of practice. I use the case study methodology with five teacher participants as the individual units of analysis. In measuring participation, I draw from mathematics education literature that offers three domains of professional practice: Content, pedagogy and professional identity. In addition, I focus on agency as an important component of increased participation from a social justice perspective. My findings reveal two main tensions that arose as teachers considered what it meant to teach science from a social justice perspective: (1) Culturally responsive teaching vs. "real" science and (2) Teaching science as a political act. In negotiating these tensions, teachers drew on a variety of pedagogical and conceptual tools offered in USE that focused on issues of equity, access, place-based pedagogy, student agency, ownership and culture as a toolkit. Further, in looking at how the five participants negotiated these tensions in practice, I describe four variables that either afforded or constrained teacher agency and consequently the development of their own identity and role as socially just educators. These four variables are: (1) Accessing and activating social, human and cultural capital, (2) reconceptualizing culturally responsive pedagogical tools, (3) views of urban youth and (4) context of participation. This study has implications for understanding the dialectical relationship between agency and social justice identity for beginner teachers who are learning how to teach for social justice. Also, it suggests teacher agency as an important domain of professional practice when measuring teacher learning from a situative perspective.

  19. Continued Effort and Success: An Urban Professional School Development Program

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Corrigan, Diane G.; Weber, Edward J.; Francis, Kiffany

    2013-01-01

    The PDS partnership between the Cleveland State University Master of Urban Secondary Teaching (MUST) program and the Cleveland School of Science and Medicine (CSSM) has an established history of preparing educators to teach in urban schools. Recently awarded the NAPDS Award for Exemplary Professional Development School Achievement, this…

  20. Faculty Teaching Perspectives about an Urban-Focused Teacher Education Program

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ukpokodu, Omiunota N.

    2017-01-01

    This qualitative study investigates the perspectives of faculty teaching engagement in a uniquely designed, collaborative urban-focused teacher education program. The study analyzes interviews conducted with seven participating faculty from both the School of Education and the College of Arts and Sciences in an urban university. The findings…

  1. Integrating Engineering into an Urban Science Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Meyer, Helen

    2017-01-01

    This article presents a single case study of an experienced physical science teacher (Janet) integrating engineering practices into her urban science classroom over a two-year time frame. The article traces how Janet's understanding of the role engineering in her teaching expanded beyond engineering as an application of science and mathematics to…

  2. Math Is All around Us: Exploring the Teaching, Learning, and Professional Development of Three Urban Mathematics Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cosby, Missy; Horton, Akesha; Berzina-Pitcher, Inese

    2017-01-01

    The MSUrbanSTEM fellowship program aims to support science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educators teaching in an urban context. In this chapter, we used a multiple case studies methodology to examine the qualitatively different ways three urban mathematics educators implemented a yearlong project in their mathematics classrooms…

  3. Urban Middle School Students' Reflections on Authentic Science Inquiry

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rivera Maulucci, María S.; Brown, Bryan A.; Grey, Salina T.; Sullivan, Shayna

    2014-01-01

    This study explores the experiences of six urban middle school students in an authentic science inquiry program. Drawing on data including teaching journal entries, student work folders, and semi-structured focus group interviews of six participants, the findings explore six dimensions of authentic science inquiry, an approach to science inquiry…

  4. Teaching Writing and Critical Thinking in Large Political Science Classes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Franklin, Daniel; Weinberg, Joseph; Reifler, Jason

    2014-01-01

    In the interest of developing a combination of teaching techniques designed to maximize efficiency "and" quality of instruction, we have experimentally tested three separate and relatively common teaching techniques in three large introductory political science classes at a large urban public university. Our results indicate that the…

  5. The Journey Begins: First Year Activities of the MUSI Mathematics/Science Resource Teachers. A Report on the Milwaukee Urban Systemic Initiative.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Huinker, DeAnn; Pearson, Gretchen

    The Urban Systemic Initiatives (USI) program is an effort sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that targets large urban school systems with the goal of sustainable implementation of high-quality, standards-based teaching for the purpose of attaining system-wide increases in students' learning of challenging mathematics and science.…

  6. The effect of an STC orientation to teaching on student academic performance and motivation in secondary earth science

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Corbin, Robert Arthur

    Student achievement gaps among subgroups remain a prevalent and critical issue in urban education systems. In many classes these students remain the target---and often the victims---of test-driven curriculum. Missing from their urban education is one of the most important aspects of a true education: a sense of place within that education. Science educators and educational researchers might consider the benefits of Sociotransformative Constructivism (STC) as a means of creating a more meaningful education for urban youth. This study examined the impact of an STC teaching orientation on student motivation and academic performance in secondary earth science students. The mixed methodology employed used both qualitative and quantitative data. Data collection consisted of STC activities, survey data, classroom observations, studentgenerated work and threaded discussions. Statistical analysis included independent t-tests of pre- and post-instruction concept maps. The results showed that the adaptation of an STC teaching orientation has a positive impact on student motivation and performance in secondary earth science.

  7. Improving Elementary Mathematics and Science Teaching and Learning: Lessons from a School-University Partnership

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Norman, Patricia J.; Nordine, Jeffrey

    2016-01-01

    The challenges of teaching elementary mathematics and science, particularly in urban settings, have been well documented. While evidence exists that sustained professional development in mathematics and science can promote inquiry-oriented instruction and bolster student achievement, little has been written about the particular challenges…

  8. US Urban Elementary Teachers' Knowledge and Practices in Teaching Science to English Language Learners: Results from the First Year of a Professional Development Intervention

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Santau, Alexandra O.; Secada, Walter; Maerten-Rivera, Jaime; Cone, Neporcha; Lee, Okhee

    2010-01-01

    The study examined US elementary teachers' knowledge and practices in four key domains of science instruction with English language learning (ELL) students. The four domains included: (1) teachers' knowledge of science content, (2) teaching practices to promote scientific understanding, (3) teaching practices to promote scientific inquiry, and (4)…

  9. First Year Site Visits to Milwaukee Urban Systemic Initiative Schools. A Report on the Milwaukee Public Schools Milwaukee Urban Systemic Initiative.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Huinker, DeAnn; Pearson, Gretchen; Posnanski, Tracy; Coan, Cheryl; Porter, Corrie

    The Urban Systemic Initiatives (USI) program is an effort sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that targets large urban school systems with the goal of sustainable implementation of high-quality, standards-based teaching for the purpose of attaining system-wide increases in students' learning of challenging mathematics and science.…

  10. Survey Results for First Wave Schools of the Milwaukee Urban Systemic Initiative. Report on Milwaukee Public Schools Milwaukee Urban Systemic Initiative.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Huinker, DeAnn; Coan, Cheryl; Mueller, Leah

    The Urban Systemic Initiatives (USI) program is an effort sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that targets large urban school systems with the goal of sustainable implementation of high-quality, standards-based teaching for the purpose of attaining system-wide increases in students' learning of challenging mathematics and science.…

  11. Second Year Site Visits to Milwaukee Urban Systemic Initiative Schools. Report for the Milwaukee Public Schools.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Huinker, DeAnn; Coan, Cheryl

    The Urban Systemic Initiatives (USI) program is an effort sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that targets large urban school systems with the goal of sustainable implementation of high-quality, standards-based teaching for the purpose of attaining system-wide increases in students' learning of challenging mathematics and science.…

  12. Exploring the Impact of Reality Pedagogy: Understanding Its Implementation on Urban Immigrant Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Taher, Tanzina; Mensah, Felicia Moore; Emdin, Christopher

    2017-01-01

    This ethnographic case study follows two urban immigrant students in their yearlong journey in an urban science classroom where the first two pedagogic tools of reality pedagogy (cogenerative dialogue and co-teaching) were implemented. This study examines the role reality pedagogy plays in the science classroom for these two students, while…

  13. Increasing Student Access to Qualified Science and Mathematics Teachers through an Urban School-University Partnership

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cavallo, Ann M. L.; Ferreira, Maria M.; Roberts, Sally K.

    2005-01-01

    Urban schools across the United States face a pervasive problem in their science and mathematics programs-a disproportionate number of the teachers in these classrooms are not certified, thus making them underqualified to teach these subject areas. Furthermore, urban schools deal with teacher shortages and attrition in these critical areas. The…

  14. Teaching science in a poor urban school in pakistan: Tensions in the life history of a female elementary teacher

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Upadhyay, Bhaskar; Calabrese Barton, Angela; Zahur, Rubina

    2005-09-01

    In this paper, we draw from a narrative life history approach to report in depth on the experiences of one teacher, Shagufta, in a high-poverty urban elementary school in Lahore, Pakistan. The purpose of reporting Shagufta's story is twofold. First, we want to make sense of her role as a science teacher - what should the children in her school learn in science, and why, if these children are expected by Pakistani society to leave formal education before the eighth grade? Second, what core tensions mark Shagufta's story as she has tried to craft her science teaching practice?

  15. Navigating role forces and the aesthetic|authentic caring dialectic: a novice urban science teacher's developmental trajectory

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rivera Maulucci, Maria S.

    2010-09-01

    Examining role forces and resources available to new teachers is crucial to understanding how teachers use and expand cultural, social, and symbolic resources and how they engage teaching for social justice and caring in urban science education. This critical narrative inquiry explores three levels of story. First, the narratives explore my role as a district science staff developer and my efforts to leverage district resources to improve students' opportunities to learn science. Second, the narratives explore the ways in which a novice science teacher, Tina, navigated role forces and the aesthetic|authentic caring dialectic in a high poverty, urban school. A third level of narrative draws on sociological theories of human interaction to explore role forces and how they shaped Tina's developmental trajectory. I describe how Tina expanded cultural, social, and symbolic resources to enact her teaching role.

  16. 4-H Chickquest: Connecting Agri-Science with STEM Standards in Urban Schools

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Horton, Robert L.; Krieger, Jackie; Halasa, Katrina

    2013-01-01

    While young students are more capable of scientific inquiry than previously believed, elementary school teachers are often inexperienced in and lack confidence with teaching science. ChickQuest is a 4-H-created embryology curriculum for third-graders that meets Ohio state science standards, teaches STEM skills, and promotes ongoing interaction…

  17. "But I Grew Up Here!" Science Inquiry, Pedagogy and Technology Through a Sociocultural Lens

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Meyer, Brian R.

    The majority of students in the urban setting are considered underrepresented. These students frequently perform below their proficiency level on standardized tests locally and nationally. If we treat education as the ticket out of the culture of poverty that underrepresented students find themselves, it is incumbent upon us to find pedagogical, content, and cultural methods that allow for these students to achieve at a high level. The purpose behind this case study was to determine the pedagogical, content and cultural knowledge of two urban junior high school science teachers with the specific intention of drawing on the mitigating factors in the use, or non-use, of technology by these respective classroom teachers. Participants in this case study included two teachers both of whom teach 7th and 8th grade science in the urban setting. Their students are deemed to be underachieving by local and state measures of assessment, and the schools in which they teach are both considered low on measures of socioeconomic status. Data were collected over an academic year and included: teacher and student interviews, classroom video recordings, student work, teacher plans, and researcher field notes. These data were analyzed using an inductive approach and a constant-comparative method. The teachers shared their beliefs about the schools and district in which they teach, about the students they teach, and about their own upbringing. These female teachers had many demographics in common, including the duration of their teaching careers, their age, their content area, their time teaching in the district, and their professed caring for their students and their students' success. Where they contrasted, however, was in their own educational background at the grade school level - one teacher grew up in a middle class suburban home while the other was raised in the urban setting. Another difference was in their early choice of career, as the suburban teacher knew she wanted to teach science while the urban teacher chose science from a marketability standpoint. Results from this study indicate that both teachers and students have established belief sets of what good teaching looks like, and both are able to know when those practices do not match the professed beliefs. Results from this study could play a significant role in the types of teachers that are hired in the urban setting. These results may also speak to the importance level that a school district places on professional development versus technological implementation.

  18. First-Year Urban Mathematics and Science Middle School Teachers: Classroom Challenges and Reflective Solutions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kelly, Angela M.; Gningue, Serigne M.; Qian, Gaoyin

    2015-01-01

    This study explored the challenges facing 1st-year alternatively certified teachers of mathematics and science in urban middle schools. Four teachers, participants in a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Robert Noyce Scholarship Program, were followed from preservice training through their 1st year of teaching, having taken part in…

  19. Exploring the contexts of urban science classrooms. Part 2: The emergence of rituals in the learning of science

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Emdin, Christopher

    2007-04-01

    In Part 1 of this paper, I described the corporate and communal nature of research, teaching, and learning in urban science classrooms as both a theoretical approach to understanding, and way of viewing practices within these fields. By providing a new approach to theorizing the cultural misalignments that are prevalent in urban schools, I look to provide an informative tool for investigating under-discussed dynamics that impact science teaching and learning. In this body of work, I further expose the nature of the corporate|communal by describing practices that define communal practice. I do so conversant of the fact that synthesizing my previous work on corporate and communal practices necessarily pushes science education researchers and teachers to look for somewhat tactile explications of communal practices. That is to say, if communal practices do exist within the corporate structures of science classrooms, how do they present themselves and how can they be targeted? This paper begins a journey into such a study and focuses on student transactions, fundamental interactions and rituals as a key to redefining and attaining success in urban science classrooms.

  20. Lessons Learned: Implementation of the Milwaukee Urban Systemic Initiative in Years One and Two. Report for the Milwaukee Public Schools.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Doyle, Lynn H.; Huinker, DeAnn

    The Urban Systemic Initiatives (USI) program is an effort sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that targets large urban school systems with the goal of sustainable implementation of high-quality, standards-based teaching for the purpose of attaining system-wide increases in students' learning of challenging mathematics and science.…

  1. Urban Science Classrooms and New Possibilities: On Intersubjectivity and Grammar in the Third Space

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Emdin, Christopher

    2009-01-01

    In this article I explore research in urban science education inspired by the work of Kris Gutierrez in a paper based on her 2005 Scribner Award. It addresses key points in Gutierrez's work by exploring theoretical frameworks for research and approaches to teaching and research that expand the discourse on the agency of urban youth in corporate…

  2. Language of poverty strategies: Implemented in the urban elementary science classroom

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jeanpierre, Bobby Jo

    2000-08-01

    This research study reports the results of school-based staff development models used at three urban elementary schools that had liaison teachers assisting classroom teachers in implementing instructional strategies in science teaching from "Language of Poverty," a curriculum framework designed to address the academic needs of disadvantaged students. The case study of two urban elementary schools and six classroom teachers, and survey and interview data results of a third school, uncovered insights into several areas of science teaching in urban settings. One conclusion is that in spite of substantial allocation of resources and assistance, teachers did not translate instructional strategies from "Language of Poverty" curriculum into their classroom practices in a way that would foster urban disadvantaged students' understanding of "big science concepts." A second conclusion is that the school-based staff development models were limited in their ability to address the diverse professional needs of all of its staff. Third, as it relates to students, discipline issues occurred in these urban classrooms across ethnicity and gender. And in addition to teachers being knowledgeable of relevant social and cultural group norms' application of this knowledge in an appropriate and consistent manner is needed to effectively address discipline concerns.

  3. Not Driven by High-Stakes Tests: Exploring Science Assessment and College Readiness of Students from an Urban Portfolio Community High School

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fleshman, Robin Earle

    2017-01-01

    This case study seeks to explore three research questions: (1) What science teaching and learning processes, perspectives, and cultures exist within the science classroom of an urban portfolio community high school? (2) In what ways does the portfolio-based approach prepare high school students of color for college level science coursework,…

  4. When Good Intentions and Reality Meet: Large-Scale Reform of Science Teaching in Urban Schools with Predominantly Latino ELL Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Johnson, Carla C.; Bolshakova, Virginia L. J.; Waldron, Tammy

    2016-01-01

    This study examined the ability of Transformative Professional Development (TPD) to transform science teacher quality and associated impact on science achievement, including particular focus on English Language Learners (ELL). TPD was implemented in a large, low-performing, urban district in the southwest with predominantly Latino ELL populations.…

  5. In-Service Science Teachers' and the Use of Multimedia as a Teaching Tool

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ameyaw, Y.; Quansah, E.

    2013-01-01

    The study investigated the attitudes of in-service teachers' towards the use of multimedia as a tool for science teaching in Junior High Schools in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The population sample consisted of 100 Junior High School (JHS) science teachers made up of 60 urban teachers and 40 rural teachers from three selected districts…

  6. Effects of Web based inquiry on physical science teachers and students in an urban school district

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stephens, Joanne

    An inquiry approach in teaching science has been advocated by many science educators for the past few decades. Due to insufficient district funding for science teaching, inadequate science laboratory facilities, and outdated science materials, inquiry teaching has been difficult for many science teachers, particularly science teachers in urban settings. However, research shows that the availability of computers with high speed Internet access has increased in all school districts. This study focused on the effects of inservice training on teachers and using web based science inquiry activities with ninth grade physical science students. Participants were 16 science teachers and 474 physical science students in an urban school district of a large southern U.S. city. Students were divided into control and experimental groups. The students in the experimental group participated in web based inquiry activities. Students in the control group were taught using similar methods, but not web based science activities. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected over a nine-week period using instruments and focus group interviews of students' and teachers' perceptions of the classroom learning environment, students' achievement, lesson design and classroom implementation, science content of lesson, and classroom culture. The findings reported that there were no significant differences in teachers' perception of the learning environment before and after implementing web based inquiry activities. The findings also reported that there were no overall significant differences in students' perceptions of the learning environment and achievement, pre-survey to post-survey, pre-test to post-test, between the control group and experimental group. Additional findings disclosed that students in the experimental group learned in a collaborative environment. The students confirmed that collaborating with others contributed to a deeper understanding of the science content. This study provides insights about utilizing technology to promote science inquiry teaching and learning. This study describes students' and teachers' perceptions of using web based inquiry to support scientific inquiry.

  7. Outreach and education in urban Los Angeles Schools: integration of research into middle and high school science curriculum through the NSF GK-12 SEE-LA program

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Daniel, J. C.; Hogue, T. S.; Moldwin, M. B.; Nonacs, P.

    2012-12-01

    A National Science Foundation Graduate Teaching Fellows in K- 12 Education program at UCLA (SEE-LA; http://measure.igpp.ucla.edu/GK12-SEE-LA/ ) partners UCLA faculty and graduate students (fellows) with urban middle and high school science teachers and their students to foster programs of science and engineering exploration that bring the environment of Los Angeles into the classroom. UCLA science and engineering graduate fellows serve as scientists-in-residence at four partner schools to integrate inquiry-based science lessons, facilitate advancements in science content teaching, and ultimately, to improve their own science communication skills. As part of their fellowship, graduate students are required to develop three "major" lessons, including one based on their PhD research at UCLA. During the first four years of the project, the SEE-LA fellows have developed a range of research-based activities, including lessons on sustainable fisheries, ecosystems and remote sensing, earthquakes, urban water quality including invertebrate observations, and post-fire soil chemistry, among others. This presentation will provide an overview of the SEE-LA GK-12 program and development of research lessons that also address California State Science Standards. We also discuss potential sustainability of GK-12 type outreach and education programs. The SEE-LA program has provided development of graduate student communication and teaching skills while also contributing significantly to the integration of science education into K-12 curriculum in Los Angeles schools.

  8. Between a rock and a hard place: Learning to teach science-for-all in an urban district

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Galosy, Jodie A.

    2005-07-01

    Science-for-all, a contemporary science education reform initiative, envisions science classrooms where all students have opportunities to deepen their understanding of scientific concepts and practices. However, national science achievement tests indicate the reality of science-for-all is still very much a work-in-progress. Science-for-all demands much of teachers, especially those working with student populations typically underserved by science education---students of color, students with limited English proficiency, and those from families with limited economic means. A large proportion of those students attend urban districts where they are likely to encounter novice science teachers. This qualitative study investigated learning to teach science-for-all in an urban school district. Seven early career middle and high school science teachers participated in the study. Data collection took place over a period of fourteen months, through interviews and observations with teacher participants, their schools, and in their professional development activities (including new teacher support induction programs). The study examines how new teachers' use of their personal, social, and conventional resources influenced their beliefs and practices relative to science-for-all. Three reform ideals serve as the study's focal points: content goals that emphasize understanding scientific concepts and practices, hands-on activities that support students' intellectual engagement, and literacy strategies that provide access for all students to scientific content. Few novices developed beliefs and practices that supported science-for-all. Those who did brought several key personal resources to their teaching. While these personal resources were important for teacher development, they were not sufficient; novices needed additional resources. Some teachers had access to reform-based conventional resources others did not have. However, personal and social resources shaped how novices used those resources and, in turn, their beliefs about students and teaching practices. Context-specific assistance was a particularly important social resource that was in short supply for most novices. The study provides evidence that progress towards science-for-all will require substantial attention to, and investment in, teacher learning across all dimensions of the professional continuum---pre-service, induction, and in-service. The study also provides insights in two critical areas: strengthening the resources available to early career urban science teachers and shaping resource use towards the goals envisioned in science-for all.

  9. Professional development, practice, and teacher discourse communities: How an urban high school science teacher negotiated inquiry practice

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Deneroff, Victoria Matzenauer

    This is an ethnographic case study of one urban high school science teacher who was attempting to use inquiry-based teaching in her practice. Rather than focusing on pedagogy, the study examines the social networks and communities of practice in which Marie Gonzalez participated. I make the argument that science teaching is a Discourse (Gee, 1990), and that teaching inquiry science means constructing an identity as a participant in what I call the Discourse of Inquiry. I also use discourse analysis to tease out a Discourse of Traditional Science Teaching. I conclude that the Traditional and Inquiry Discourses mediate a teacher's ideas of what it means to teach, and that, while Inquiry teachers are "bilingual", that is, able to participate in both Discourses, Traditional teachers are deaf to the Discourse of Inquiry. Moreover, in my study there is convincing evidence that administrators charged with evaluation were also unfamiliar with the Discourse of Inquiry and were therefore unable to provide support for Marie's inquiry practice. In light of these findings, it is not at all surprising that Marie found it quite difficult to use inquiry-based pedagogy. In order for teachers to adopt discourse-based reforms such as inquiry, the Discourse must be available to teachers in their workplaces.

  10. Becoming-Teacher: The Negotiation of Teaching Practice of First-Year Secondary Science Teachers Prepared in a Hybrid Urban Teacher Education Program

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Strom, Kathryn Jill

    2014-01-01

    While research suggests that new teachers work to put into practice the pedagogy learned from their preservice preparation programs during their first year of teaching, they often resort to traditional, teacher-centered pedagogies even when prepared to use innovative practices, particularly in urban schools. Relatively little is known, however,…

  11. Learning to teach science in urban schools by becoming a researcher of one's own beginning practice

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Furman, Melina; Calabrese Barton, Angela; Muir, Ben

    2012-03-01

    An urgent goal for science teacher educators is to prepare teachers to teach science in meaningful ways to youth from nondominant backgrounds. This preparation is challenging, for it asks teachers to critically examine how their pedagogical practices might adaptively respond to students and to science. It asks, essentially, for new teachers to become researchers of their own beginning practice. This study explores the story of Ben as he coauthored a transformative action research project in an urban middle school as part of a teacher education program and, later, over his first year of teaching at that same school. We describe how Ben and his partner teacher created innovative spaces for science learning. This offered Ben an opportunity to make some of his deeply engrained pedagogical beliefs come alive within a context of distributed expertise, which provided for him a space of moderate risk where he could afford the chances of failure without undermining how he felt about his own capacity as a teacher. Our study highlights the importance of creating reform opportunities within the context of teacher education programs that may help beginner teachers construct positive images of teaching that they can hold on to in their future practice.

  12. How the Cultural Contexts of Urban Teaching Affect Novice Science Educators: Implications for School Leaders

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Duncan, Marlina

    2014-01-01

    While the challenge to retain highly competent teachers affects all schools, the crisis is critical in urban districts, which historically suffer from high teacher turnover (Ingersoll, 2004). This high turnover is especially problematic in the content areas of science (Ingersoll & Perda, 2010). Through ethnographic case studies the first year…

  13. The Effect of a Collaborative Mentoring Program on Beginning Science Teachers' Inquiry-based Teaching Practice

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nam, Jeonghee; Seung, Eulsun; Go, MunSuk

    2013-03-01

    This study investigated how a collaborative mentoring program influenced beginning science teachers' inquiry-based teaching and their reflection on practice. The one-year program consisted of five one-on-one mentoring meetings, weekly science education seminars, weekly mentoring group discussions, and self-evaluation activities. The participants were three beginning science teachers and three mentors at the middle school level (7-9th grades) in an urban area of South Korea. For each beginning teacher, five lessons were evaluated in terms of lesson design/implementation, procedural knowledge, and classroom culture by using the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol. Five aspects of the beginning teachers' reflections were identified. This study showed that a collaborative mentoring program focusing on inquiry-based science teaching encouraged the beginning teachers to reflect on their own perceptions and teaching practice in terms of inquiry-based science teaching, which led to changes in their teaching practice. This study also highlighted the importance of collaborative interactions between the mentors and the beginning teachers during the mentoring process.

  14. Teaching Environmental Entrepreneurship at an Urban University: Greenproofing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Foster, Kevin; Jelen, Jonathan; Scott, Anasa

    2010-01-01

    The authors provide a case study of their own experience teaching Environmental Entrepreneurship. For the past six years, they have been teaching about sustainability through social entrepreneurship in an interdisciplinary partnership with faculty in management, engineering, and earth science. The authors have developed a course in Environmental…

  15. A storied-identity analysis approach to teacher candidates learning to teach in an urban setting

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ibourk, Amal

    While many studies have investigated the relationship between teachers' identity work and their developing practices, few of these identity focused studies have honed in on teacher candidates' learning to teach in an urban setting. Drawing upon narrative inquiry methodology and a "storied identity" analytic framework, I examined how the storied identities of science learning and becoming a science teacher shape teacher candidates' developing practice. In particular, I examined the stories of three interns, Becky, David, and Ashley, and I tell about their own experiences as science learners, their transitions to science teachers, and the implications this has for the identity work they did as they navigated the challenges of learning to teach in high-needs schools. Initially, each of the interns highlighted a feeling of being an outsider, and having a difficult time becoming a fully valued member of their classroom community in their storied identities of becoming a science teacher in the beginning of their internship year. While the interns named specific challenges, such as limited lab materials and different math abilities, I present how they adapted their lesson plans to address these challenges while drawing from their storied identities of science learning. My study reveals that the storied identities of becoming a science teacher informed how they framed their initial experiences teaching in an urban context. In addition, my findings reveal that the more their storied identities of science learning and becoming a science teacher overlapped, the more they leveraged their storied identity of science learning in order to implement teaching strategies that helped them make sense of the challenges that surfaced in their classroom contexts. Both Becky and Ashley leveraged their storied identities of science learning more than David did in their lesson planning and learning to teach. David's initial storied identity of becoming a science teacher revealed how he highlighted his struggle with navigating talkativeness in the class, but also his struggle being an authority figure in his classroom. At present, only Becky and Ashley pursued teaching in a high needs setting. A storied identity analysis provided as well an insight into their storied strategies, or the teaching strategies shaped by the stories the interns told about how they made sense of the challenges they faced in their teaching practice. There were five teaching strategies the interns named that were important in supporting their learning to teach were (1) building relationships with their students, (2) being resourceful and creative when faced with limited lab materials, (3) making science relevant to their students, (4) scaffolding their students in their learning, and (5) having a network of people as resources in helping them be better teachers and helping their students learn. Out of these five teaching strategies, I called those they named and highlighted as helping them teach in ways they valued and that connected back to their storied identity of science learning their storied strategies. Implications for further pushing storied identities as a tool for teacher educators to help pinpoint priorities that surface in teacher candidates' practice are discussed. An insight into the priorities that teacher candidates highlight in their practice as well as the storied strategies they name and use to deal with challenges that surface in their practice has potential in better helping teacher candidates navigate their developing practice.

  16. Perspectives from Pre-Service Mathematics and Science Teachers in an Urban Residency Program: Characteristics of Effective Mentors

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Garza, Rubén; Harter, Rod A.

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of our study was to examine mathematics and science pre-service teachers' perceptions of their mentoring experiences during their 1st year in the Teaching Residency Program for Critical Shortage Areas, an initiative designed to recruit, prepare, and retain teachers for high-need urban schools. Results from this mixed-methods study…

  17. A comparative study of self-efficacy, outcome expectancy, and retention of beginning urban science teachers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Klein, Nina

    The purpose of the multi-tiered study presented is to compare the effect of credentialing route on the self-efficacy, outcome expectancy, and retention of beginning urban science teachers serving students in a large urban school district in Southern California. Candidates from one traditional, university-based teacher education program and from two alternative programs, the Teach for America and District Intern Programs, were surveyed and interviewed during the second semester of their first year of teaching. To determine the potential of a difference in self-efficacy and outcome expectancy, the study gave teachers a modified version of the Science Teachers' Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI), developed and validated by Riggs and Enochs (1989). Two representative candidates from each program were then interviewed in order to probe for deeper understanding of possible sources of their efficacy and outcome expectancy. The final part of the study is an evaluation of retention data from the three programs, each to triangulate this information with data collected from the surveys, and comparing these retention rates with published data. The study provides data on unresearched questions about traditionally and alternatively credentialed science teachers in urban settings in California.

  18. What Kills Science in School?: Lessons from Pre-Service Teachers' Responses to Urban children's Science Inquiries.

    PubMed

    Matusov, Eugene

    2018-06-01

    This opportunistic case-study highlights striking differences in 6 urban children's and 12 preservice suburban middle-class teachers' perception of science and discuss consequences of science education and beyond. I found that all of the interviewed urban children demonstrated scientific inquiries and interests outside of the school science education that can be characterized by diverse simultaneous discourses from diverse practices, i.e., "heterodiscoursia" (Matusov in Culture & Psychology, 17(1), 99-119, 2011b), despite their diverse, positive and negative, attitudes toward school science. In contrast to the urban children's mixed attitudes to science, the preservice teachers view science negatively. They could not see science inquiries in the videotaped interviews of the urban children. There seemed to be many reasons for that. One of the possible reasons for that was that the preservice teachers tried to purify the science practice. Another reason was that they did not see a necessity to be interested and engaged in the curriculum that they are going to teach in future. The pedagogical consequences and remedies are discussed.

  19. The nature of culturally responsive pedagogy in two urban African American middle school science classrooms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bondima, Michelle Harris

    This ethnographic in nature study explores how two middle school science teachers who have classes populated by urban African Americans teach their students and how their students perceive their teaching. Since urban African American students continue to perform lower than desired on measures of science achievement, there is an urgent need to understand what pedagogical methodologies assist and hinder urban African American students in achieving higher levels of success in science. A pedagogical methodology that theorists posit assists subordinated school populations is culturally responsive pedagogy. Culturally responsive pedagogy is defined as a teaching methodology concerned with preparing students to question inequality, racism, and injustice. Teachers who use culturally responsive pedagogy respect the culture students bring to the class, and require that the teachers willingly do whatever is necessary to educate students (Nieto, 2000). The teacher participants were two female African Americans who were identified by their school supervisors as being highly effective with urban African American students. The researcher presented the teachers in separate case studies conducted over a data collection period of nine months. Data were collected by participant observation, interviews, and artifact collection. Data were analyzed by application of grounded theory techniques. Findings of the teachers' (and the students') beliefs about pedagogy that both assisted and hindered the students' performance in science were reported in a rich and nuanced storytelling manner based on multiple perspectives (teachers', students', and the researcher's). Pedagogical methodologies that the teachers used that assisted their students were the use of cultural metaphors and images in science and applications of motivational techniques that encouraged a nurturing relationship between the teacher and her students. Pedagogical methodologies that hindered students varied by teacher. Metaphorically, the teachers differed vividly. One was a nurturing mother, sister, and friend who assisted her students to cross the cultural line between the science classroom and their home and community. The other was a stern disciplinarian who painted a picture of order and hard work as keys for her students' success in school science. The researcher, who promotes a social justice ideology, made implications and recommendations for science teacher education and public policy.

  20. What to Teach and How to Teach It: Elementary Teachers' Views on Teaching Inquiry-Based, Interdisciplinary Science and Social Studies in Urban Settings

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Santau, Alexandra O.; Ritter, Jason K.

    2013-01-01

    Inquiry-based and interdisciplinary teaching practices exemplify constructivist approaches to education capable of facilitating authentic student learning; however, their implementation has proven particularly challenging within certain contexts in the United States. This qualitative study considers one such context via an investigation of…

  1. The Relative Influence of Formal Learning Opportunities versus Indicators of Professional Community on Changes in Science Teaching in Urban Schools

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McGee, Steven

    2016-01-01

    Previous research has shown that professional communities have the potential to be a powerful lever for continuous improvement in school settings. This research seeks to extend previous research by investigating the indicators of professional community that influence science teaching practice. This study took place in a network of urban…

  2. Professional Development in Person: Identity and the Construction of Teaching within a High School Science Department

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Deneroff, Victoria

    2016-01-01

    This is a narrative inquiry into the role of professional development in the construction of teaching practice by an exemplary urban high school science teacher. I collected data during 3 years of ethnographic participant observation in Marie Gonzalez's classroom. Marie told stories about her experiences in ten years of professional development…

  3. Teaching Science for Empowerment in an Urban Classroom: A Case Study of a Hmong Teacher

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Upadhyay, Bhaskar

    2009-01-01

    This is a case study of Lee, a Hmong teacher, who reflects on her own schooling experiences in order to develop a culturally sensitive pedagogy based on empowerment and funds of knowledge. The findings indicate that Lee teaches science effectively using culturally sensitive pedagogy--utilizing Hmong students' and parents' funds of knowledge in…

  4. Aligning the Cultures of Teaching and Learning Science in Urban High Schools

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tobin, Kenneth

    2006-09-01

    This paper analyzes teaching and learning in urban science classrooms in which most of the students are African American and from low-income homes. Their teachers are also racial minorities and yet they struggle to teach successfully across cultural boundaries. The first set of case studies involves a male teacher who taught in a high-energy way that produced structures for students to get involved in the doing of science. His verbal fluency and expressive individualism, involving emphatic gestures, rhythmic use of his body, and voice intonation maintained student participation. A second case study examines successful interactions among the students, involving an argument over competing models for chemical valence. Whereas the students interacted successfully, the teacher was frequently out of synchrony in terms of amplitude, pitch, and non-verbal actions. The key implication is the necessity for teachers and students to learn how to interact successfully in ways that produce positive emotional energy, a sense of belonging to the class, and a commitment to shared responsibility for one another's participation. Aligning the cultures of teaching and learning offers a possibility that fluent interactions will occur, afford success, and facilitate the learning of science.

  5. Hip-Hop, the "Obama Effect," and Urban Science Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Emdin, Christopher; Lee, Okhee

    2012-01-01

    Background/Context: With the ever increasing diversity of schools, and the persistent need to develop teaching strategies for the students who attend today's urban schools, hip-hop culture has been proposed to be a means through which urban youth can find success in school. As a result, studies of the role of hip-hop in urban education have grown…

  6. Videoconferencing in Math and Science Preservice Elementary Teachers' Field Placements

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Plonczak, Irene

    2010-03-01

    This study was designed to examine benefits and challenges of teaching through videoconferencing in the context of students’ field placement experiences, particularly as it relates to an inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning math and science. In the context of mathematics and science methods courses, preservice teachers, with the supervision of professors, field placement supervisors and cooperating teachers, taught a series of math and science lessons via video conferencing to 5th grade classes in a major urban public school. Two major results of this study indicate that: (1) teaching through videoconferencing highlights strengths and weaknesses in questioning skill techniques that are at the heart of an inquiry-based approach; (2) teaching through videoconferencing raises the intellectual challenge of teaching and allows preservice teachers to look face to face into their limited understanding of the content matter in math and science.

  7. Professional development in person: identity and the construction of teaching within a high school science department

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Deneroff, Victoria

    2016-06-01

    This is a narrative inquiry into the role of professional development in the construction of teaching practice by an exemplary urban high school science teacher. I collected data during 3 years of ethnographic participant observation in Marie Gonzalez's classroom. Marie told stories about her experiences in ten years of professional development focused on inquiry science teaching. I use a social practice theory lens to analyze my own stories as well as Marie's. I make the case that science teaching is best understood as mediated by socially-constructed identities rather than as the end-product of knowledge and beliefs. The cognitive paradigm for understanding teachers' professional learning fails to consistently produce transformations of teaching practice. In order to design professional development with science teachers that is generative of new knowledge, and is self-sustaining, we must understand how to build knowledge of how to problematize identities and consciously use social practice theory.

  8. An Exploratory Analysis of Student-Community Interactions in Urban Agriculture

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Grossman, Julie; Sherard, Maximilian; Prohn, Seb M.; Bradley, Lucy; Goodell, L. Suzanne; Andrew, Katherine

    2012-01-01

    Urban agriculture initiatives are on the rise, providing healthy food while teaching a land ethic to youth. In parallel, increasing numbers of university graduates are obtaining Extension work requiring the effective communication of science in a diverse, urban, low-income setting. This study evaluates a pilot service-learning program, the…

  9. Integration of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy into the Science Learning Progression Framework

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bernardo, Cyntra

    2017-01-01

    This study integrated elements of culturally relevant pedagogy into a science learning progression framework, with the goal of enhancing teachers' cultural knowledge and thereby creating better teaching practices in an urban public high school science classroom. The study was conducted using teachers, an administrator, a science coach, and…

  10. Science Specialists or Classroom Teachers: Who Should Teach Elementary Science?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Levy, Abigail Jurist; Jia, Yueming; Marco-Bujosa, Lisa; Gess-Newsome, Julie; Pasquale, Marian

    2016-01-01

    This study examined science programs, instruction, and student outcomes at 30 elementary schools in a large, urban district in the northeast United States in an effort to understand whether there were meaningful differences in the quality, quantity and cost of science education when provided by a science specialist or a classroom teacher. Student…

  11. Career moves of urban science teachers: Negotiating constancy, change, and confirmation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rinke, Carol Riegelman

    2007-12-01

    This dissertation addresses the issue of teacher retention in urban science classrooms, in which a revolving door of new teachers leads to an inexperienced teaching force and reduced academic attainment for students. Urban science teachers are particularly susceptible to attrition due to extensive professional opportunities outside the classroom. This study follows eight case study teachers in an urban school district in order to better understand how today's urban science teachers think about their careers and career moves. Based on traditional research on teacher retention and existing literature on teachers' professional lives, this study focuses in particular on urban science teachers' professional priorities, community participation, and process of career decision making in order to determine the ways in which these factors may be consequential for their career paths. The study uses a qualitative case study methodology. Data collection methods include a survey of all first, second, and third year science teachers in one urban district followed by the selection of eight case study teachers using a variety of demographic, certification, and workplace characteristics. In-depth case studies included monthly interviews and professional observations over parts of two school years. The experiences and perspectives of the eight case study teachers revealed three patterns. First, the eight case study teachers followed two distinct paths through the profession, those who aimed to integrate and were oriented toward the educational system and those who wanted to participate and oriented themselves away from the educational system. These professional trajectories were influential in shaping case study teachers' experiences in schools as well as their career directions. Second, the eight case study teachers continually considered their professional alternatives, either within or outside of the educational system. Finally, the case study teachers aimed to get past the challenges inherent in urban teaching and reach professional confirmation before moving on to new roles and responsibilities. These themes indicate the centrality of urban science teachers' professional orientations for recruitment, preparation, and retention, demonstrate the need for in-depth and longitudinal research on teacher retention, and suggest the pivotal nature of professional growth in career mobility.

  12. Fostering K-12 Inquiry-based Lesson Development on Regional Water Resource Issues in Los Angeles Urban Schools through the NSF UCLA SEE-LA GK-12 program

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hogue, T. S.; Burke, M. P.; Thulsirag, V.; Daniel, J.; Moldwin, M.; Nonacs, P.

    2010-12-01

    A National Science Foundation Graduate Teaching Fellows in K- 12 Education program at UCLA (SEE-LA; http://measure.igpp.ucla.edu/GK12-SEE-LA/ ) partners UCLA faculty and graduate students (fellows) with urban middle and high school science teachers and their students to foster programs of science and engineering exploration that bring the environment of Los Angeles into the classroom. UCLA graduate fellows serve as scientists-in-residence at four partner schools to integrate inquiry-based science lessons, facilitate advancements in science content teaching, and ultimately, to improve their own science communication skills. As part of their fellowship, graduate students are required to develop inquiry-based lessons in their partner classroom. During the first two years of the project, the SEE-LA fellows have developed a range of inquiry-based activities, from invertebrate observations in an urban stream system, to water and home energy consumption surveys, to a school biodiversity investigation, to a school-wide alternative energy fair, to engineering the cleanup of environmental disasters, such as the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Several of the current fellows have dissertation research in water resource related fields and are specifically integrating lessons specific to their research into their partner classrooms, including urban stream water quality, post-fire watershed behavior, beach water quality assessment and E. coli source tracking. This presentation will provide an overview of goals of the SEE-LA GK-12 program, development of inquiry-based water resource lessons and resulting engagement in the partner classrooms. University and local pre-college school partnerships provide an excellent opportunity to support the development of graduate student communication and teaching skills while also contributing significantly to the integration of science education into K-12 curriculum.

  13. Strange bedfellows in science teacher preparation: conflicting perspectives on social justice presented in a Teach For America—university partnership

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McNew-Birren, Jill; Hildebrand, Tyra; Belknap, Gabrielle

    2017-02-01

    Teach For America (TFA), a widespread and well-known route into the teaching profession, frequently partners with university-based education programs to prepare and certify its corps members. However, university-based teacher education programs frequently emphasize very different understandings of socially just education and priorities for training teachers from those of TFA. Accordingly, science teachers trained through TFA-university partnerships encounter conflicting understandings of science education, justice, and urban communities as they are introduced to teaching practice. In this ethnographic case study we explored the experiences and reactions of a cohort of TFA corps members in a science methods course as they engaged with TFA's perspective focused primarily on enhancing students' social mobility and the methods course emphasizing democratic equality through scientific engagement. The study considers intersections between TFA's approach to teacher preparation and sociocultural perspectives on equitable science teaching. The study also lends insight into the contradictions and challenges through which TFA science teachers develop understandings about their role as science teachers, purposes and goals of science education, and identities of the students and communities they serve.

  14. Identity, culture and shared experiences: The power of cogenerative dialogues in urban science classrooms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bayne, Gillian Ursula

    2007-05-01

    The research presented in this dissertation details four major examples of work that took place during a three-year longitudinal study in a small urban New York City public high school for high achieving youth. It aims to play a role in contributing to the understanding of the breakdown between and amongst those parties involved in urban science education. The work outlined herein responds to the calls for improvement within urban education, utilizing the experiences, knowledge and practices of its students, in order to help inform and improve science teaching and learning. Theoretical lenses upon which this critical ethnographic research is grounded primarily involve those that are socio-cultural in nature and examine the sociology of emotions. In this research, I address how urban students, who have been historically alienated by science, develop forms of culture, enact them in science classes and then make transitions from participating marginally toward participating more centrally, demonstrating increasing science and science-like practices with higher levels of expertise. This work involves investigating human agency and its expansion as it becomes increasingly incorporated and internalized into individual and collective habitus. The protocol utilized in this critical ethnography (videotapes of cogenerative dialogues, classroom practices and interviews; journal entries, field notes, student and teacher generated artifacts) facilitates the exploration and understanding of the ways by which aligning culture and expanding student roles, both inside and outside of the classroom can occur. The results of this study include concrete examples and interpretations of these expansions and, provide suggestions by which more adaptable forms of teaching and learning can be enacted. These practices ultimately benefit a wider variety of students who as result will become better at creating their own structures to succeed.

  15. The Science Program in Small Rural Secondary Schools.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Colton, R. W.

    Rural schools may have an advantage over urban schools in science teaching if sciences are perceived as means of exploring our surroundings, are presented as many viewpoints of one overall picture, and are taught in a form that deals with human situations. Collaboratively taught, rural science curricula can include study of agricultural ecology,…

  16. Learning Environment and Attitudes Associated with an Innovative Science Course Designed for Prospective Elementary Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Martin-Dunlop, Catherine; Fraser, Barry J.

    2008-01-01

    This study assessed the effectiveness of an innovative science course for improving prospective elementary teachers' perceptions of laboratory learning environments and attitudes towards science. The sample consisted of 27 classes with 525 female students in a large urban university. Changing students' ideas about science laboratory teaching and…

  17. An analysis of factors that influence secondary science teachers in an urban school district in South Texas to remain in the teaching profession

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Montoya, Bonnie

    This quantitative study is an examination of personal and professional factors that contribute to science teachers continuing to teach science in an urban area in South Texas despite the growing demands of the profession. This study examines why teachers in general leave the profession but focuses on what factors influenced these teachers to stay. Personal retention factors measured included being an effective teacher and positive rapport with students. Professional retention factors included administrative support and adequate time to meet professional obligations. There are 149 secondary science teachers in this large urban school district. Data was gathered from 109 of these educators to analyze factors personal and professional factors in regards to why these teachers remain in the field. For the purposes of this study a secondary science teacher will be any teacher who teaches science in grades 6-12, which is considered middle (6 through 8) and high school (9 through 12) in this area. The data for this quantitative study was collected by a paper survey (N=109) that was distributed at a professional learning session at the beginning of the school year. A Principal Component Analysis was run followed by three multiple regression analyses of the pertinent components to determine if there is any relationship between the demographics of the participants and personal and professional factors that cause these teachers to remain in the field. The results of this study will contribute to the literature regarding teacher education and theory that examines teacher practice affecting change. The results showed that professional factors like the amount of resources and the quality of those resources to assist teachers with job efficacy mattered as much as the personal factors such as positive teaching experience and an intrinsic sense of being an effective educator. Further implications of this study include an exploration of Generalist certifications at the middle grades compared to content specific requirements at the high school level. Also an inquiry into whether or not the Bachelor's degree and teacher certification area matter to their level of self-efficacy and job satisfaction in the field of science they have been assigned to teach.

  18. Leveraging complex understandings of urban education for transformative science pedagogy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Davis, Natalie R.; Ingber, Jenny; McLaughlin, Cheryl A.

    2014-12-01

    Despite the abundance of literature that attests to a myriad of complex and entrenched problems within urban education, the authors of this forum maintain that in addition to shedding light on oppressive structures and ideologies, critical pedagogues must remain steadfastly engaged in solution-oriented endeavors. Using Cheryl McLaughlin's analysis as a worthy starting point, we consider both old paradigms and new ideas regarding the transformation of public science education. Topics for discussion include theoretical framing, urban teacher preparation, science education reform approaches, and the role of scholarship. While it is evident that securing rigorous and empowering science education for diverse learners will require arduous, collective effort on many fronts, this text upholds a sense of optimism in the potential of activist-teacher-researchers to overcome barriers to liberatory science teaching and learning.

  19. Neighborhood Science Stories: Bridging Science Standards and Urban Students' Lives

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Burke, Christopher

    2007-01-01

    Shelter, distribution of resources, adaptation and food sources are all key topics in teaching fifth grade students ecosystems. These terms and ideas are often presented in value neutral terms in the standard science curriculum. These terms have radically different connotations in different communities. In this paper students' fictional narrative…

  20. ASAS Centennial Paper: animal science teaching: a century of excellence.

    PubMed

    Buchanan, D S

    2008-12-01

    Teaching has a long and varied history in the life of departments of animal science and the American Society of Animal Science. Some of the earliest reports from meetings of the society have strong indication that planning the curriculum was a prominent feature of the meetings. Teaching symposia were also included almost from the beginning. The society went through a lengthy period from the 1940s through most of the 1960s when teaching was not a prominent focus, but a symposium in 1968 appeared to be a catalyst for change, and, since that date, teaching has again been an important part of the meetings. In recent years, outstanding symposia and contributed papers have made the teaching section a vibrant entry. Departments of animal science have changed considerably since the early days in which "men taught boys" and the primary goal was to produce farmers. More female students, more urban students, interest in a wide variety of animals, and greatly diversified career goals have been emerging during the last few decades. Departments of animal science and the American Society of Animal Science are positioning to be able to respond to change and face the challenge of providing excellence in teaching during the next century.

  1. Improving Science Teacher Preparation through the APS PhysTEC and NSF Noyce Programs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Williams, Tasha; Tyler, Micheal; van Duzor, Andrea; Sabella, Mel

    2013-03-01

    Central to the recruitment of students into science teaching at a school like CSU, is a focus on the professional nature of teaching. The purpose of this focus is twofold: it serves to change student perceptions about teaching and it prepares students to become teachers who value continued professional development and value the science education research literature. The Noyce and PhysTEC programs at CSU place the professional nature of teaching front and center by involving students in education research projects, paid internships, attendance at conferences, and participation in a new Teacher Immersion Institute and a Science Education Journal Reading Class. This poster will focus on specific components of our teacher preparation program that were developed through these two programs. In addition we will describe how these new components provide students with diverse experiences in the teaching of science to students in the urban school district. Supported by the NSF Noyce Program (0833251) and the APS PhysTEC Program.

  2. Addressing Diversity in Health Science Students by Enhancing Flexibility through e-Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Penman, Joy; Thalluri, Jyothi

    2014-01-01

    The technological advancements for teaching and learning sciences for health science students are embedded in the Thalluri-Penman Good Practice Model, which aims to improve the learning experiences of science students and increase student retention and success rates. The model also links students from urban and rural areas, studying both on-and…

  3. Middle School Science Teachers' Perceptions of Social Justice: A Study of Two Female Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Upadhyay, Bhaskar

    2010-01-01

    The focus of this qualitative study is to document two middle school science teachers' perceptions of social justice and how these teachers implement various aspects of social justice in their science instruction. The two teachers teach science in an urban school that serves students from low-income, immigrant, and ethnic minority families. The…

  4. The Challenges and Success of Implementing Climate Studies Lessons for Pre-Professional Teachers at a Small Historically Black College to Engage Student Teaching of Science Pedagogy and Content Skill Based Learning.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Arnold, J.; Wider-Lewis, F.; Miller-Jenkins, A.

    2017-12-01

    This poster is a description of the challenges and success of implementing climate studies lessons for pre-service teachers to engage student teaching pedagogy and content skill based learning. Edward Waters College is a historical black college with an elementary education teacher program focused on urban elementary school teaching and learning. Pre-Service Elementary Educator Students often have difficulty with science and mathematics content and pedagogy. This poster will highlight the barriers and successes of using climate studies lessons to develop and enhance pre-service teachers' knowledge of elementary science principles particularly related to climate studies, physical and earth space science.

  5. Freezing out Injustice: Using ICE to Foster Democratic Inquiry

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Taylor, Monica; Klein, Emily J.; Carletta, Liz

    2016-01-01

    In an urban teacher residency program, preservice science teachers experience what it's like to teach for social justice through the use of a democratic inquiry stance, thus moving toward an understanding of teaching for social justice as larger than one individual teacher in a classroom.

  6. Using cogenerative dialogue to afford the teaching and learning of biology in an urban high school

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Otulaja, Femi Segun

    The body of research work presented in this dissertation integrates critical ethnography with video and conversation analyses in order to provide ways to articulate and understand the complexities associated with social life enactment as it unfolds during cogenerative dialogues and in the science classroom as the teacher and her students engage in science teaching and learning. The primary goal is to improve the teaching and learning of science in an urban science classroom at a public high school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In order to understand what is going on in the classroom and why, I worked with a female science teacher who identify as an African-American and her culturally diversified students in a biology class to examine teacher's and students' conscious and unconscious patterned actions, (i.e., classroom practices, that structure teaching and learning in the classroom. It is my belief that to improve science teaching and learning in the classroom, it is salient to improve science teacher's practices as a precursor to transforming students' practices. In order to ameliorate breaches in the fluency of encounters in the classroom, the teacher and her students need to establish and sustain critical, collaborative and collective conversations through cogen. I employ theoretical lenses of cultural sociology that I triangulate with sociology of emotions and critical pedagogy. I focus on culture as schemas and associated practices layered with the triple dialectics of agency, passivity and structure as new or hybridized/interstitial cultures that are produced get enacted in the science classroom to transform teacher's and her students' encounters with each other. The salient implication is that since encounters are imbued with emotions, teacher and her students learn to generate positive emotional energy during cogen that gets reproduced and transformed in the science classroom. Positive emotional energy creates resources that help to initiate and sustain interaction ritual chains that support synchrony, solidarity, sense of affiliation and identity that are necessary for the teacher to be successful as a science teacher and her students to be successful as science learners. Salient to the findings in this study is the need for teachers to envision teaching and learning as a collaborative and collective endeavor with their students. Teachers need the perspectives of others; and students are in the best position to provide the teacher with the authentic perspectives she needs to improve her practice. By being with and working with their teacher, students and teacher share their classroom experiences with each other, in an environment void of hegemony, in order to achieve their individual goals and collective motives in the urban science classroom. Teacher and her students get to know more about each other socially and culturally and are able to work through their differences to achieve success.

  7. Community Organizations' Programming and the Development of Community Science Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Varelas, Maria; Morales-Doyle, Daniel; Raza, Syeda; Segura, David; Canales, Karen; Mitchener, Carole

    2018-01-01

    In this study, we explored how science teacher candidates construct ideas about science teaching and learning in the context of partnerships with urban community-based organizations. We used a case study design focusing on a group of 10 preservice teachers' participation in educational programming that focused on environmental racism and connected…

  8. Using Learning Stories to Capture "Gifted" and "Hard Worker" Mindsets within a NYC Specialized High School for the Sciences

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pride, Leah D.

    2014-01-01

    All science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educators working in urban public school systems are expected to provide opportunities for students to develop foundational scientific literacy skills in mathematics and science learning. However, the demands on STEM educators teaching the "gifted" or…

  9. The Effects of Teachers' Social and Human Capital on Urban Science Reform Initiatives: Considerations for Professional Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yoon, Susan A.; Yom, Jessica Koehler; Yang, Zhitong; Liu, Lei

    2017-01-01

    Background: Recent research investigating the conditions under which science teachers can successfully implement science education reforms suggests that focusing only on professional development to improve content knowledge and teaching skills--often referred to as human capital--may not be enough. Increasingly, possessing social capital, defined…

  10. The Multicultural Science Framework: Research on Innovative Two-Way Immersion Science Classrooms.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hadi-Tabassum, Samina

    2000-01-01

    Reviews the different approaches to multicultural science teaching that have emerged in the past decade, focusing on the Spanish-English two-way immersion classroom, which meets the needs of Spanish speakers learning English and introduces students to the idea of collaboration across languages and cultures. Two urban two-way immersion classrooms…

  11. Transdisciplinary Learning and Teaching as Answers to Urban Sustainability Challenges

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Biberhofer, Petra; Rammel, Christian

    2017-01-01

    Purpose: This paper aims to explain the relevance of science-society interfaces and their potential for higher education institutions to engage stakeholders in supporting sustainable change in cities, via the transdisciplinary learning and teaching approach of the Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development Vienna.…

  12. Science and Technology of Rural Transport System. Teaching of Science and Technology in Rural Areas.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nagaraj, D. N.; Satheesh, H. L.

    Most science curriculum innovations seem to have their origins and emphases in urban intellectual concerns and their content generally caters to university bound students. The reason for the failure of rural students in science subjects may be the lack of relevancy of the program to the needs of individuals living in rural areas. Chapter 1…

  13. Determining discourses: Constraints and resources influencing early career science teachers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Grindstaff, Kelly E.

    This study explores the thinking and practices of five early-career teachers of grades eight to ten science, in relation to their histories, schools, students, and larger cultural and political forces. All the teachers are young women, two in their fourth year of teaching, who teach together in an affluent suburb, along with one first-year teacher. The other two are first-year teachers who teach in an urban setting. All of these teachers most closely associated good science teaching with forming relationships with students. They filtered science content through a lens of relevance (mostly to everyday life) and interest for students. Thus they filtered science content through a commitment to serving students, which makes sense since I argue that the primary motivations for teaching had more to do with working with students and helping people than the disciplines of science. Thus, within the discourse of the supremacy of curriculum and the prevalence of testing, these teachers enact hybrid practices which focus on covering content -- to help ensure the success of students -- and on relevance and interest, which has more to do with teaching styles and personality than disciplines of science. Ideas of good teaching are not very focused on science, which contradicts the type of support they seek and utilize around science content. This presents a challenge to pre- and in-service education and support to question what student success means, what concern for students entails and how to connect caring and concern for students with science.

  14. Social Activism in Elementary Science Education: A Science, Technology, and Society Approach to Teach Global Warming

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lester, Benjamin T.; Ma, Li; Lee, Okhee; Lambert, Julie

    2006-01-01

    As part of a large-scale instructional intervention research, this study examined elementary students' science knowledge and awareness of social activism with regard to an increased greenhouse effect and global warming. The study involved fifth-grade students from five elementary schools of varying demographic makeup in a large urban school…

  15. Investigating engagement, thinking, and learning among culturally diverse, urban sixth graders experiencing an inquiry-based science curriculum, contextualized in the local environment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kelley, Sybil Schantz

    This mixed-methods study combined pragmatism, sociocultural perspectives, and systems thinking concepts to investigate students' engagement, thinking, and learning in science in an urban, K-8 arts, science, and technology magnet school. A grant-funded school-university partnership supported the implementation of an inquiry-based science curriculum, contextualized in the local environment through field experiences. The researcher worked as co-teacher of 3 sixth-grade science classes and was deeply involved in the daily routines of the school. The purposes of the study were to build a deeper understanding of the complex interactions that take place in an urban science classroom, including challenges related to implementing culturally-relevant instruction; and to offer insight into the role educational systems play in supporting teaching and learning. The central hypothesis was that connecting learning to meaningful experiences in the local environment can provide culturally accessible points of engagement from which to build science learning. Descriptive measures provided an assessment of students' engagement in science activities, as well as their levels of thinking and learning throughout the school year. Combined with analyses of students' work files and focus group responses, these findings provided strong evidence of engagement attributable to the inquiry-based curriculum. In some instances, degree of engagement was found to be affected by student "reluctance" and "resistance," terms defined but needing further examination. A confounding result showed marked increases in thinking levels coupled with stasis or decrease in learning. Congruent with past studies, data indicated the presence of tension between the diverse cultures of students and the mainstream cultures of school and science. Findings were synthesized with existing literature to generate the study's principal product, a grounded theory model representing the complex, interacting factors involved in teaching and learning. The model shows that to support learning and to overcome cultural tensions, there must be alignment among three main forces or "causal factors": students, teaching, and school climate. Conclusions emphasize system-level changes to support science learning, including individualized support for students in the form of differentiated instruction; focus on excellence in teaching, particularly through career-spanning professional support for teachers; and attention to identifying key leverage points for implementing effective change.

  16. An exploratory study of the impact of an inquiry-based professional development course on the beliefs and instructional practices of urban inservice teachers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Suters, Leslie Ann

    Five urban teachers completed a total of 50 contact hours of professional development in which they: participated in authentic, inquiry-based experiences facilitated by a scientist; learned new science content related to the nature of science and scientific inquiry; developed inquiry-based lesson plans to implement in their classrooms; and developed science-specific strategies to mentor novice and experienced teachers. The focus of this research was to determine changes in their: beliefs and instructional practices; understanding of scientific literacy; and efficacy toward mentoring other teachers. A collective case study methodology was used in which participants completed questionnaires and were observed and interviewed, prior to and at the completion of the course. They were also asked to complete reflective journal questions during the course. While the teachers' beliefs did not change as measured by the Teacher's Pedagogical Philosophy Interview (TPPI) (teacher-centered beliefs for "Teacher Actions" and "Teacher and Content"; conceptual/student-centered for "Student Actions" and "Philosophy of Teaching"), their teacher-centered behaviors changed to conceptual/student-centered as measured by the Secondary Science Teachers Analysis Matrix (STAM). Their responses to the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES) generally correlated with their post-STAM results. Participants gained a better understanding of the creative aspect of the nature of science as measured by the Modified Nature of Scientific Knowledge Scale (MNSKS) instrument, while two novice teachers improved their personal science teaching efficacy after participation in the course as measured by the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI). Four of the five teachers felt better prepared to mentor others to use inquiry-based instruction. In contrast to these positive trends, their outcome expectancy beliefs (STEBI subscale) were generally lower than their perceived personal teaching efficacy before and after the course, which could be an indicator of the environment in urban schools where there is often little support or equipment for innovative practices in science. Generally there was a shift from traditional to constructivist instructional practices as measured by the STAM, while results varied for teacher beliefs and efficacy regarding science instruction as measured by the TPPI, CLES, and STEBI and teachers' understanding of the nature of science as measured by the MNSKS.

  17. An Assessment of Changes in Science Instruction and Science Facilities Initiated by NDEA Title III Funds Used for High School Science in Tennessee Between 1965 - 1970.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Davis, James Taylor

    In this investigation, questionnaires were sent to 64 selected urban and rural high schools that were participating in the NDEA Title III science programs. The study revealed that Title III funds were responsible for the improvement of science laboratories, teaching materials and equipment, and the educational advancement of teachers. New courses…

  18. Effectively using urban landscapes to teach biodiversity and echohydrology for introductory environmental science classes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pondell, C.; van Doorn, A.; MacAvoy, S. E.

    2017-12-01

    Urban environments offer students interesting opportunities to explore and examine how human modified landscapes influence biodiversity, nutrient cycling, and water quality. Students demanding applied field experiences from their undergraduate environmental science (ENVS) programs can be well served in urban settings. Here, we present strategies for integrating urban areas into the undergraduate field experience. Urban locations provide an opportunity for a different type of local "field-work" than would otherwise be available. In the intro level undergraduate ENVS class, we use our campus, the surrounding neighborhood and city as well as a nearby National Park for field exercises. Here we share lesson plans for field activities that can be completed with incoming undergraduate students, and show how these activities help students gain quantitative and investigative competency.

  19. Science and Technology of Water Lifting Devices. Teaching of Science and Technology in Rural Areas.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rao, P. Ramachandra; Rao, N. R. Nagaraja

    Most science curriculum innovations seem to have their origins and emphases in urban intellectual concerns and their content generally caters to university bound students. The reason for the failure of rural students in science subjects may be the lack of relevancy of the program to the needs of individuals living in rural areas. Chapter 1 of this…

  20. A Longitudinal Study of Implementing Reality Pedagogy in an Urban Science Classroom: Effects, Challenges, and Recommendations for Science Teaching and Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Borges, Sheila Ivelisse

    2016-01-01

    Statistics indicate that students who reside in "forgotten places" do not engage in science-related careers. This is problematic because we are not tapping into diverse talent that could very well make scientific strides and because there is a moral obligation for equity as discussed in "Science for all" (AAAS, 1989). Research…

  1. Development of the Teachers Supporting Teachers in Urban Schools Program: What Iterative Research Designs Can Teach Us

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shernoff, Elisa S.; Frazier, Stacy L.; Marinez-Lora, Ane; Atkins, Marc S.; Keel, Joanna

    2011-01-01

    The "Teachers Supporting Teachers in Urban Schools Project" is a 3-year study funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (Development and Innovation Study) and designed to enhance new teachers' effectiveness around the two strongest empirical predictors of attrition--classroom management and engaging learners--and connectedness to…

  2. Retired African American female urban middle school science teachers' beliefs and practices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Whitney, Frances M.

    The purpose of this paper is to give a voice to a dedicated group of professionals who unselfishly labored twenty-five plus years educating the children of America's poorest taxpaying citizens. These retired African American female urban middle school science teachers (RAAFUMSST) explain the experiences that gave them the fortitude to stay in the urban school system until their retirement. The goal is to give you a glimpse into the distractions, challenges, and victories the teachers encountered as they strove to teach science in an overcrowded, underserviced, and depressed urban school district of a major city. Most times sacrificing self for service, the participants of this study held fast to their beliefs that all of America's children, regardless of their parents' socioeconomic status, deserve a quality education. It is through individual interviews that the five retired science teachers of this project share their reflections on the events and circumstances that altered their labor of love. Critical Race Theory (CRT) serves as the theoretical frame for this study.

  3. An opportunity for success: Understanding motivation and learning from urban youth participation in an after school science program

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Catlin, Janell Nicole

    This dissertation is an ethnographic study that documents through student voice the untold stories of urban student motivation to learn and engage in science through the contexts of an after school science program and the students' in-school science classrooms. The purpose of this study is to add to the literature in science education on motivation of urban youth to learn and engage in science through thick and rich descriptions of student voice. This study addresses issues in educational inequity by researching students who are historically marginalized. The focus of the study is four middle school students. The methodology employed was critical ethnography and case study. The data sources included participant observations and field notes, interviews, student artifacts, Snack and Chat, autophotography, and the researcher's reflective journal. The findings of this study state that motivating factors for urban middle school students' learning and engaging in science include a flexible and engaging curriculum, that students are empowered and motivated to learn when teachers are respectful, that urban middle school science students hold positive images about scientists, themselves and knowing science, and that urban teachers of the dominant culture believe that their urban middle school science students are motivated. In using Sociotransformative Constructivism (STC) and Critical Race Theory (CRT) the researcher informs the issues of inequity and racism that emerge from historical perspectives and students' stories about their experiences inside and outside of school. The implications state that allowing for a flexible curriculum that motivates students to make choices about what and how they want to learn and engage in science are necessary science teaching goals for urban middle school students, it is necessary that teachers are conscious of their interactions with their students, diversifying the science field through educating and empowering all students through learning science is key, and to get teachers to the point of an anti-deficit view of urban education more positive stories told by and research done with White urban science teachers must be documented.

  4. An educational ethnography of teacher-developed science curriculum implementation: Enacting conceptual change-based science inquiry with Hispanic students

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Brunsell, Eric Steven

    An achievement gap exists between White and Hispanic students in the United States. Research has shown that improving the quality of instruction for minority students is an effective way to narrow this gap. Science education reform movements emphasize that science should be taught using a science inquiry approach. Extensive research in teaching and learning science also shows that a conceptual change model of teaching is effective in helping students learn science. Finally, research into how Hispanic students learn best has provided a number of suggestions for science instruction. The Inquiry for Conceptual Change model merges these three research strands into a comprehensive yet accessible model for instruction. This study investigates two questions. First, what are teachers' perceptions of science inquiry and its implementation in the classroom? Second, how does the use of the Inquiry for Conceptual Change model affect the learning of students in a predominantly Hispanic, urban neighborhood. Five teachers participated in a professional development project where they developed and implemented a science unit based on the Inquiry for Conceptual Change model. Three units were developed and implemented for this study. This is a qualitative study that included data from interviews, participant reflections and journals, student pre- and post-assessments, and researcher observations. This study provides an in-depth description of the role of professional development in helping teachers understand how science inquiry can be used to improve instructional quality for students in a predominantly Hispanic, urban neighborhood. These teachers demonstrated that it is important for professional development to be collaborative and provide opportunities for teachers to enact and reflect on new teaching paradigms. This study also shows promising results for the ability of the Inquiry for Conceptual Change model to improve student learning.

  5. Facilitating cultural border crossing in urban secondary science classrooms: A study of inservice teachers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Monteiro, Anna Karina

    Research acknowledges that if students are to be successful science, they must learn to navigate and cross cultural borders that exist between their own cultures and the subculture of science. This dissertation utilized a mixed methods approach to explore how inservice science teachers working in urban schools construct their ideas of and apply the concepts about the culture of science and cultural border crossing as relevant to the teaching and learning of science. The study used the lenses of cultural capital, social constructivism, and cultural congruency in the design and analysis of each of the three phases of data collection. Phase I identified the perspectives of six inservice science teachers on science culture, cultural border crossing, and which border crossing methods, if any, they used during science teaching. Phase II took a dialectical approach as the teachers read about science culture and cultural border crossing during three informal professional learning community meetings. This phase explored how teachers constructed their understanding of cultural border crossing and how the concept applied to the teaching and learning of science. Phase III evaluated how teachers' perspectives changed from Phase I. In addition, classroom observations were used to determine whether teachers' practices in their science classrooms changed from Phase I to Phase III. All three phases collected data through qualitative (i.e., interviews, classroom observations, and surveys) and quantitative (Likert items) means. The findings indicated that teachers found great value in learning about the culture of science and cultural border crossing as it pertained to their teaching methods. This was not only evidenced by their interviews and surveys, but also in the methods they used in their classrooms. Final conclusions included how the use of student capital resources (prior experiences, understandings and knowledge, ideas an interests, and personal beliefs), if supported by science practices and skills increases student cultural capital. With a greater cultural capital, the students experience cultural congruency between their cultures and the culture of science, enabling them to cross such borders in the science classroom. The implications such findings have on teacher training programs and professional development are discussed.

  6. Root and Branch Reform: Teaching City Kids about Urban Trees

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Walker, Mark

    2017-01-01

    In today's electronic age, suburban and city children are increasingly disconnected with the natural world. Studying trees allows children to learn about the world they live in and can teach a variety of useful topics contained within the National Curriculum in England. Knowledge of trees is specifically required in the science curriculum at key…

  7. Science education in an urban elementary school: Case studies of teacher beliefs and classroom practices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    King, Ken; Shumow, Lee; Lietz, Stephanie

    2001-03-01

    Through a case study approach, the state of science education in an urban elementary school was examined in detail. Observations made from the perspective of a science education specialist, an educational psychologist, and an expert elementary teacher were triangulated to provide a set of perspectives from which elementary science instruction could be examined. Findings revealed that teachers were more poorly prepared than had been anticipated, both in terms of science content knowledge and instructional skills, but also with respect to the quality of classroom pedagogical and management skills. Particularly significant, from a science education perspective, was the inconsistency between how they perceived their teaching practice (a hands-on, inquiry-based approach) and the investigator-observed expository nature of the lessons. Lessons were typically expository in nature, with little higher-level interaction of significance. Implications for practice and the associated needs for staff development among urban elementary teachers is discussed within the context of these findings.

  8. Exploring the contexts of urban science classrooms. Part 1: Investigating corporate and communal practices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Emdin, Christopher

    2007-04-01

    In this paper, I discuss the existence of varying ideologies and perspectives within urban science classrooms and uncover the importance of focusing on student and teacher practices as a means to bridge these disconnections. Specifically, I describe the existence of corporate and communal ideologies and the dynamics that create the misalignment between groups that hold allegiances to these varying belief systems. Utilizing three allied theoretical frames, this paper provides a multi layered and timely analysis of the teaching of science in an urban high school in New York City. I conjoin Bourdieu's sociocultural theory, an analysis of social life through the use of the structure|agency dialectic, and a theorizing of corporate and communal practice to embark on a journey into how African American and Latino/a students' ways of knowing and being can be utilized to meet the goal of improving their success in science.

  9. Preparing Mathematics and Science Teachers through a Residency Program: Perceptions and Reflections

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Garza, Rubén; Werner, Patrice

    2014-01-01

    The critical challenge of recruiting, preparing, and retaining high-quality mathematics and science teachers for high-need urban schools is complex. Therefore, identifying factors that support and impede a teaching residency program's implementation may have the potential to build an effective initiative that will benefit all stakeholders. The…

  10. Systematic Modeling versus the Learning Cycle: Comparative Effects of Integrated Science Process Skill Achievement.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Norman, John T.

    1992-01-01

    Reports effectiveness of modeling as teaching strategy on learning science process skills. Teachers of urban sixth through ninth grade students were taught modeling techniques; two sets of teachers served as controls. Results indicate students taught by teachers employing modeling instruction exhibited significantly higher competence in process…

  11. Culturally Responsive Physics Teaching: Content or Conveyance?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stewart, Taquan Seth

    2011-12-01

    This study, in response to the achievement gap in science and the lack of significant numbers of ethnic minorities in science fields, examined the effects of a Cultural Responsiveness Workshop and intervention on teacher practice, teacher discourse, and student perceptions and connectedness to physics. The sample was comprised of three high school physics teachers---2 teaching five 12th grade sections and one teaching five 9th grade sections of physics---in two separate urban schools in the same section of South Los Angeles. My research design was qualitative and examined eight culturally responsive indicators that, when applied, may increase student engagement and level of connectedness in urban high school physics classrooms: (1) proximity to students, (2) the ways in which they encouraged students, (3) positive reinforcement techniques, (4) modifications for individual learning types, (5) use of children's strengths, (6) scaffolding, (7) displaying an understanding of diverse cultures, and (8) displaying a personal regard for students of diverse cultures. When the study was completed and data was collected, I identified trends in the change in teacher discourse, behaviors, instructional practice, and perceptions of student engagement. My findings, discovered through classroom observations and focus groups, indicated a positive shift in each. Accompanying these shifts were positive shifts in level of student engagement and level of connectedness. There were also the unexpected findings of the need for teachers to receive feedback in a safe collaborative space and the use of culturally responsive teaching as a tool for behavioral management. My study found that there is a definite relationship between the use of the culturally responsive indicators observed, student engagement and student level of connectedness to physics when implemented in urban high school science classrooms.

  12. Preparing students for higher education and careers in agriculture and related fields: An ethnography of an urban charter school

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Henry, Kesha Atasha

    This study explored the preparation of students for higher education and careers in agriculturally-related fields at an urban charter high school. The data were collected through interviews, observations, and field notes. The data were analyzed by qualitative methodology with phenomenology as the theoretical framework. Findings indicated that administrators thought it was important to incorporate agricultural science courses into urban school curricula. They stated that agricultural science courses gave urban students a different way of looking at science and helped to enhance the science and technology focus of the school. Further, agricultural science courses helped to break urban students' stereotypes about agriculture and helped to bring in more state funding for educational programs. However they thought that it was more challenging to teach agricultural science in urban versus rural schools and they focused more on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) related careers. The students had mixed views about higher education and careers in agriculture. This was based on their limited knowledge and stereotypes about agricultural majors and career options. The students highlighted several key reasons why they chose to enroll in agricultural science courses. This included the benefits of dual science credits and the ability to earn an associate degree upon successful completion of their program. Students also loved science and appreciated the science intensive nature of the agricultural courses. Additionally, they thought that the agricultural science courses were better than the other optional courses. The results also showed that electronic media such as radio and TV had a negative impact on students' perceptions about higher education and careers in agriculturally-related fields. Conclusions and recommendations are presented.

  13. Urban 5th Graders Conceptions during a Place-Based Inquiry Unit on Watersheds

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Endreny, Anna Henderson

    2010-01-01

    This study aimed to determine how 33 urban 5th grade students' science conceptions changed during a place-based inquiry unit on watersheds. Research on watershed and place-based education was used as a framework to guide the teaching of the unit as well as the research study. A teacher-researcher designed the curriculum, taught the unit and…

  14. Rethinking Pedagogy in Urban Spaces: Implementing Hip-Hop Pedagogy in the Urban Science Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Adjapong, Edmund S.; Emdin, Christopher

    2015-01-01

    A significant amount of research regarding Hip-Hop Based Education (HHBE) fails to provide insight on how to incorporate elements of Hip-Hop into daily teaching practices; rather Hip-Hop based educators focus mainly on incorporating Hip-Hop culture into curricula. This study explores the benefits of using two specific Hip-Hop pedagogical practices…

  15. Urban fifth graders' connections-making between formal earth science content and their lived experiences

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Brkich, Katie Lynn

    2014-03-01

    Earth science education, as it is traditionally taught, involves presenting concepts such as weathering, erosion, and deposition using relatively well-known examples—the Grand Canyon, beach erosion, and others. However, these examples—which resonate well with middle- and upper-class students—ill-serve students of poverty attending urban schools who may have never traveled farther from home than the corner store. In this paper, I explore the use of a place-based educational framework in teaching earth science concepts to urban fifth graders and explore the connections they make between formal earth science content and their lived experiences using participant-driven photo elicitation techniques. I argue that students are able to gain a sounder understanding of earth science concepts when they are able to make direct observations between the content and their lived experiences and that when such direct observations are impossible they make analogies of appearance, structure, and response to make sense of the content. I discuss additionally the importance of expanding earth science instruction to include man-made materials, as these materials are excluded traditionally from the curriculum yet are most immediately available to urban students for examination.

  16. Solidarity and Conflict: Aligned and Misaligned Prosody as a Transactional Resource in Intra- and Intercultural Communication Involving Power Differences

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Roth, Wolff-Michael; Tobin, Kenneth

    2010-01-01

    This ethnographic study of teaching and learning in urban high school science classes investigates the ways in which teachers and students talk, gesture, and use space and time in interaction rituals. In situations where teachers coteach as a means of learning to teach in inner-city schools, successful teacher-teacher collaborations are…

  17. Collaborative activities for improving the quality of science teaching and learning and learning to teach science

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tobin, Kenneth

    2012-03-01

    I have been involved in research on collaborative activities for improving the quality of teaching and learning high school science. Initially the collaborative activities we researched involved the uses of coteaching and cogenerative dialogue in urban middle and high schools in Philadelphia and New York (currently I have active research sites in New York and Brisbane, Australia). The research not only transformed practices but also produced theories that informed the development of additional collaborative activities and served as interventions for research and creation of heuristics for professional development programs and teacher certification courses. The presentation describes a collage of collaborative approaches to teaching and learning science, including coteaching, cogenerative dialogue, radical listening, critical reflection, and mindful action. For each activity in the collage I provide theoretical frameworks and empirical support, ongoing research, and priorities for the road ahead. I also address methodologies used in the research, illustrating how teachers and students collaborated as researchers in multilevel investigations of teaching and learning and learning to teach that included ethnography, video analysis, and sophisticated analyses of the voice, facial expression of emotion, eye gaze, and movement of the body during classroom interactions. I trace the evolution of studies of face-to-face interactions in science classes to the current focus on emotions and physiological aspects of teaching and learning (e.g., pulse rate, pulse strength, breathing patterns) that relate to science participation and achievement.

  18. Hip-Hop Based Interventions as Pedagogy/Therapy in STEM: A Model from Urban Science Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Emdin, Christopher; Adjapong, Edmund; Levy, Ian

    2016-01-01

    Purpose: This paper aims to argue that providing youth of color with opportunities to explore content while reflecting on and sharing mental health concerns is an under-focused dimension of teaching and learning that has the potential to positively impact these students' academic achievement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics…

  19. Teacher Training in Urban Settings: Inquiry, Efficacy, and Culturally Diverse Field Placements

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McGlamery, Sheryl L.; Franks, Bridget A.; Shillingstad, Saundra L.

    2016-01-01

    This study describes two years of findings with a unique field experience (teaching science inquiry activities to African-American girls in a summer STEM camp) for preservice elementary education majors. It reports on the effects of the field experience, in conjunction with blocked science and mathematics methods courses, on preservice teachers'…

  20. Unpacking the Complex Relationship between Beliefs, Practice, and Change Related to Inquiry-Based Instruction of One Science Teacher

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lebak, Kimberly

    2015-01-01

    This case study examines the complex relationship between beliefs, practice, and change related to inquiry-based instruction of one science teacher teaching in a high-poverty urban school. This study explores how video-supported collaboration with peers can provide the catalyst for change. Transcribed collaborative dialogue sessions, written…

  1. What Motivates Science Teachers to Teach in Urban Settings? A Mixed Method Approach

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Alhashem, Fatimah

    2012-01-01

    The high rate of teacher turnover in the United States has prompted a number of studies into why teachers leave as well as why they stay. The present study aims to add to that knowledge specifically regarding why teachers choose to stay at urban schools. Several reasons teachers in general choose to stay have been identified in previous studies…

  2. 3D Visualization in Elementary Education Astronomy: Teaching Urban Second Graders about the Sun, Earth, and Moon

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Isik-Ercan, Zeynep; Kim, Beomjin; Nowak, Jeffrey

    This research-in-progress hypothesizes that urban second graders can have an early understanding about the shape of Sun, Moon, and Earth, how day and night happens, and how Moon appears to change its shape by using three dimensional stereoscopic vision. The 3D stereoscopic vision system might be an effective way to teach subjects like astronomy that explains relationships among objects in space. Currently, Indiana state standards for science teaching do not suggest the teaching of these astronomical concepts explicitly before fourth grade. Yet, we expect our findings to indicate that students can learn these concepts earlier in their educational lives with the implementation of such technologies. We also project that these technologies could revolutionize when these concepts could be taught to children and expand the ways we think about children's cognitive capacities in understanding scientific concepts.

  3. Creating contextually authentic science in a low-performing urban elementary school

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Buxton, Cory A.

    2006-09-01

    This article reports on a 2-year collaborate project to reform the teaching and learning of science in the context of Mae Jemison Elementary, the lowest performing elementary school in the state of Louisiana. I outline a taxonomy of authentic science inquiry experiences and then use the resulting framework to focus on how project participants interpreted and enacted ideas about collaboration and authenticity. The resulting contextually authentic science inquiry model links the strengths of a canonically authentic model of science inquiry (grounded in the Western scientific canon) with the strengths of a youth-centered model of authenticity (grounded in student-generated inquiry), thus bringing together relevant content standards and topics with critical social relevance. I address the question of how such enactments may or may not promote doing science together and consider the implications of this model for urban science education.

  4. Urban school leadership for elementary science instruction: Identifying and activating resources in an undervalued school subject

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Spillane, James P.; Diamond, John B.; Walker, Lisa J.; Halverson, Rich; Jita, Loyiso

    2001-10-01

    This article explores school leadership for elementary school science teaching in an urban setting. We examine how school leaders bring resources together to enhance science instruction when there appear to be relatively few resources available for it. From our study of 13 Chicago elementary (K-8) schools' efforts to lead instructional change in mathematics, language arts, and science education, we show how resources for leading instruction are unequally distributed across subject areas. We also explore how over time leaders in one school successfully identified and activated resources for leading change in science education. The result has been a steady, although not always certain, development of science as an instructional area in the school. We argue that leading change in science education involves the identification and activation of material resources, the development of teachers' and school leaders' human capital, and the development and use of social capital.

  5. Embedding Analogical Reasoning into 5E Learning Model: A Study of the Solar System

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Devecioglu-Kaymakci, Yasemin

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate how the 5E learning model affects learning about the Solar System when an analogical model is utilized in teaching. The data were gathered in an urban middle school 7th grade science course while teaching relevant astronomy topics. The analogical model developed by the researchers was administered to 20…

  6. Connecting Research to Teaching: Professional Communities: Teachers Supporting Teachers.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Adajian, Lisa Byrd

    1996-01-01

    Reviews research on importance of strong professional communities for supporting reform. National Center for Research in Mathematical Sciences Education (NCRMSE) found significant correlation between teachers' professional community and reformed mathematics instruction. Urban Mathematics Collaboratives (UMC), Quantitative Understanding: Amplifying…

  7. Using Cogenerative Dialogues to Improve Coteaching for Language Learner (LL) Students in an Inclusion Science Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Im, Sungmin; Martin, Sonya N.

    2015-01-01

    This paper presents findings from a study conducted in an urban elementary school in the United States with an English language learner (ELL) student and two teachers engaged in collaborative teaching in an inclusion science classroom. This study examines the efficacy of utilising cogenerative dialogues between an ELL student and his science…

  8. Science is for me: Meeting the needs of English language learners in an urban, middle school science classroom through an instructional intervention

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Johnson, Joseph A.

    2011-12-01

    This study involved an intervention in which I explored how the multimodal, inquiry-based teaching strategies from a professional development model could be used to meet the educational needs of a group of middle school students, who were refugees, newly arrived in the United States, now residing in a large urban school district in the northeastern United States, and learning English as a second language. This group remains unmentioned throughout the research literature despite the fact that English Language Learners (ELLs) represent the fastest growing group of K-12 students in the United States. The specific needs of this particular group were explored as I attempted daily to confront a variety of obstacles to their science achievement and help to facilitate the development of a scientific discourse. This research was done in an effort to better address the needs of ELLs in general and to inform best practices for teachers to apply across a variety of different cultural and linguistic subgroups. This study is an autoethnographic case study analysis of the practices of the researcher, working in a science classroom, teaching the described group of students.

  9. Teaching planetary sciences to elementary school teachers: Programs that work

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lebofsky, Larry A.; Lebofsky, Nancy R.

    1993-01-01

    Planetary sciences can be used to introduce students to the natural world which is a part of their lives. Even children in an urban environment are aware of such phenomena as day and night, shadows, and the seasons. It is a science that transcends cultures, has been prominent in the news in recent years, and can generate excitement in young minds as no other science can. Planetary sciences also provides a useful tool for understanding other sciences and mathematics, and for developing problem solving skills which are important in our technological world. However, only 15 percent of elementary school teachers feel very well qualified to teach earth/space science, while better than 80 percent feel well qualified to teach reading; many teachers avoid teaching science; very little time is actually spent teaching science in the elementary school: 19 minutes per day in K-3 and 38 minutes per day in 4-6. While very little science is taught in elementary and middle school, earth/space science is taught at the elementary level in less than half of the states. It was pointed out that science is not generally given high priority by either teachers or school districts, and is certainly not considered on a par with language arts and mathematics. Therefore, in order to teach science to our youth, we must empower our teachers, making them familiar and comfortable with existing materials. In our earlier workshops, several of our teachers taught in classrooms where the majority of the students were Hispanic (over 90 percent). However, few space sciences materials existed in Spanish. Therefore, most of our materials could not be used effectively in the classroom. To address this issue, NASA materials were translated into Spanish and a series of workshops for bilingual classroom teachers from Tucson and surrounding cities was conducted. Our space sciences workshops and our bilingual classroom workshops and how they address the needs of elementary school teachers in Arizona are addressed in detail.

  10. Mexican Identification. Project Mexico.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Castellano, Rita

    This document presents an outline and teacher's guide for a community college-level teaching module in Mexican identification, designed for students in introductory courses in the social sciences. Although intended specifically for cultural anthropology, urban anthropology, comparative social organization and sex roles in cross-cultural…

  11. Moving toward equitable, systemic science education reform: The synergy among science education and school-level reforms in an urban middle school

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kelly, Mary Kathryn

    The purpose of this study was to develop an understanding of the relationships among school-level and science education reform efforts and how, collectively, they contribute to the progress of equitable, systemic science education reform. A case study research design was employed to gather both qualitative and quantitative data between 1995 and 1999. The site of this study is a non-selective, urban middle school in a large district that participated in several reform efforts. These reforms include both efforts focused on school-level change and efforts focused on change in science teaching and learning. Its program incorporates aspects of several school-level reforms---from the underlying Paideia philosophy, to structural characteristics of middle schools, to site-based decision-making, to its status as a magnet school, to its participation as a professional development school. Further, the participation of all science teachers in the intensive, standards-based professional development offered by Ohio's systemic reform of mathematics and science created a critical mass of reform-oriented teachers who supported one another as they incorporated reform-based practices into their teaching. The interplay of the reform efforts has manifested in a high level of science achievement in comparison to the school's district. Addressing the third component of O'Day and Smith's model for systemic reform, the need for school-level change to enable implementation of curriculum frameworks and aligned policies, this study illustrates two important points. First, the high-quality teacher professional development increased teachers' capacity to change their practices by enhancing their knowledge of and skills in implementing standards-based teaching practices. Second, because of the synchrony among the school-level reforms and between the school-level and science education reforms, the context of Webster provided a supportive environment in which lasting changes in science teaching and learning were implemented. Science education reform efforts were mediated by the school's context to create an environment in which the reform practices could be implemented and sustained. Using Kahle's (1998) Equity Metric, this study demonstrates that the synergy of the policies and practices of school-level and science education reforms can contribute to the progress of equitable, systemic science education reform.

  12. The transformation of science and mathematics content knowledge into teaching content by university faculty

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Flynn, Natalie P.

    This study developed a survey from the existing literature in an attempt to illuminate the processes, tools, insights, and events that allow university science and mathematics content experts (Ph.D.'s) unpack their expertise in order to teach develop and teach undergraduate students. A pilot study was conducted at an urban university in order to refine the survey. The study consisted of 72 science or mathematics Ph.D. faculty members that teach at a research-based urban university. Follow-up interviews were conducted with 21 volunteer faculty to further explore their methods and tools for developing and implementing teaching within their discipline. Statistical analysis of the data revealed: faculty that taught while obtaining their Ph.D. were less confident in their ability to teach successful and faculty that received training in teaching believed that students have difficult to change misconceptions and do not commit enough time to their course. Student centered textbooks ranked the highest among tools used to gain teaching strategies followed by grading of exams and assignments for gaining insights into student knowledge and difficulties. Science and mathematics education literature and university provided education session ranked the lowest in rating scale for providing strategies for teaching. The open-ended survey questions were sub-divided and analyzed by the number of years of experience to identify the development of teaching knowledge over time and revealed that teaching became more interactive, less lecture based, and more engaging. As faculty matured and gained experience they became more aware of student misconceptions and difficulties often changing their teaching to eliminate such issues. As confidence levels increase their teaching included more technology-based tools, became more interactive, incorporated problem based activities, and became more flexible. This change occurred when and if faculty members altered their thinking about their knowledge from an expert centered perspective to a student centric view. Follow-up interviews of twenty faculty yielded a wide variety of insights into the complicated method of deconstructing expert science and mathematics content. The interviews revealed a major disconnect between education research and researchers and the science and mathematics content experts who teach. There is a pervasive disregard for science and mathematics education and training. Faculty members find little to no support for teaching. Though 81% obtained their Ph.D. with the intent to enter an academic setting, pedagogical training was non-existent or limited, both prior to and after obtaining faculty positions. Experience alone did not account for confidence or ability to successfully teach. Faculty that were able to 'think like a student' and view their material from a student's perspective' seemed to be the most confident and flexible in their teaching methods. Grading and having an open and interactive teaching style, being on the 'side of the students' also seemed to allow faculty to connect more deeply with the students and learn about common misconceptions and difficulties. Though most faculty claimed to not teach as they were taught and not recall having specific content difficulties, this essential interaction with many students facilitated a shift in thinking about their content. This shift allowed for a reversal from teacher centered classrooms to student centered. Multiple issues arise when teaching at a traditional larger lecture style found in the majority of universities science and mathematics courses that constrain and provide unique teaching challenges. Many faculty have developed unique tools to incorporate successful teaching strategies, such as daily pre-quizzes and smart-phone questioning as well as small group work, computer posted guides, strategic class breaks, and limiting lecture style in favor of a more active engaged classroom. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).

  13. The Iowa K-12 Climate Science Education Initiative: a comprehensive approach to meeting in-service teachers' stated needs for teaching climate literacy with NGSS

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stanier, C. O.; Spak, S.; Neal, T. A.; Herder, S.; Malek, A.; Miller, Z.

    2017-12-01

    The Iowa Board of Education voted unanimously in 2015 to adopt NGSS performance standards. The CGRER - College of Education Iowa K-12 Climate Science Education Initiative was established in 2016 to work directly with Iowa inservice teachers to provide what teachers need most to teach climate literacy and climate science content through investigational learning aligned with NGSS. Here we present teachers' requests for teaching climate with NGSS, and an approach to provide resources for place-based authentic inquiry on climate, developed, tested, and refined in partnership with inservice and preservice teachers. A survey of inservice middle school and high school science teachers was conducted at the 2016 Iowa Council of Teachers of Mathematics/Iowa Academy of Sciences - Iowa Science Teaching Section Fall Conference and online in fall 2016. Participants (n=383) were asked about their prior experience and education, the resources they use and need, their level of comfort in teaching climate science, perceived barriers, and how they address potential controversy. Teachers indicated preference for professional development on climate content and complete curricula packaged with lessons and interactive models aligned to Iowa standards, as well as training on instructional strategies to enhance students' ability to interpret scientific evidence. We identify trends in responses by teaching experience, climate content knowledge and its source, grade level, and urban and rural districts. Less than 20% of respondents reported controversy or negativity in teaching climate to date, and a majority were comfortable teaching climate science and climate change, with equal confidence in teaching climate and other STEM content through investigational activities. We present an approach and materials to meet these stated needs, created and tested in collaboration with Iowa teachers. We combine professional development and modular curricula with bundled standards, concepts, models, data, field activities, and sequences of individual and group investigational and student-driven inquiry prompts on climate science, climate change, and climate impacts. We identify key resource availability needed to teach place-based climate literacy aligned with NGSS as a standalone curriculum and through local impacts.

  14. Planning for Reform-Based Science: Case Studies of Two Urban Elementary Teachers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mangiante, Elaine Silva

    2018-02-01

    The intent of national efforts to frame science education standards is to promote students' development of scientific practices and conceptual understanding for their future role as scientifically literate citizens (NRC 2012). A guiding principle of science education reform is that all students receive equitable opportunities to engage in rigorous science learning. Yet, implementation of science education reform depends on teachers' instructional decisions. In urban schools serving students primarily from poor, diverse communities, teachers typically face obstacles in providing reform-based science due to limited resources and accountability pressures, as well as a culture of teacher-directed pedagogy, and deficit views of students. The purpose of this qualitative research was to study two white, fourth grade teachers from high-poverty urban schools, who were identified as transforming their science teaching and to investigate how their beliefs, knowledge bases, and resources shaped their planning for reform-based science. Using the Shavelson and Stern's decision model for teacher planning to analyze evidence gathered from interviews, documents, planning meetings, and lesson observations, the findings indicated their planning for scientific practices was influenced by the type and extent of professional development each received, each teacher's beliefs about their students and their background, and the mission and learning environment each teacher envisioned for the reform to serve their students. The results provided specific insights into factors that impacted their planning in high-poverty urban schools and indicated considerations for those in similar contexts to promote teachers' planning for equitable science learning opportunities by all students.

  15. Action Research Step-by-Step: A Tool for Educators to Change Their Worlds

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brighton, Catherine M.; Moon, Tonya R.

    2007-01-01

    Mr. Hartman is an honors-level and Advanced Placement science teacher in a diverse, urban high school where he has been teaching for the last 20 years. In recent years, Mr. Hartman has become increasingly more concerned with the lack of ethnic/cultural diversity in his advanced science classes. On the other hand, Mrs. Rodriguez is a principal in a…

  16. ``It depends on what science teacher you got'': urban science self-efficacy from teacher and student voices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bolshakova, Virginia L. J.; Johnson, Carla C.; Czerniak, Charlene M.

    2011-12-01

    In the United States today, urban schools serve the majority of high-poverty and high minority populations including large numbers of Hispanic students. While many Hispanic students perform below grade level in middle school science, the science teaching community as a whole is lacking elements of diversity as teachers struggle to meet the needs of all learners. Researchers have recognized that science teacher effectiveness, one consequence of self-efficacy among teachers, is associated with future science achievement and science-related careers of their students. This qualitative study explores how three science teachers' effectiveness in the classroom impacts students' science self-efficacy beliefs at one urban middle school. Hispanic students were the focus of this investigation due to demographics and history of underperformance within this district. Teachers' perspectives, as well as outside observer evaluations of instructional strategies and classroom climates were triangulated to explore dynamics that influence students' interests and motivation to learn science using a framework to link teachers' sense of efficacy (focusing on student outcomes). Findings suggest the impact teacher effectiveness can have on student outcomes, including strengthened student science self-efficacy and increased science achievement. Building awareness and support in teachers' sense of efficacy, as well as developing respectful and supportive relationships between educator/facilitator and pupil during the transition to middle school may construct permanence and accomplishment for all in science.

  17. Successful White teachers of Black students: Teaching across racial lines in urban middle school science classrooms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Coleman, Bobbie

    The majority of urban minority students, particularly Black students, continue to perform below proficiency on standardized state and national testing in all areas that seriously impact economically advanced career options, especially in areas involving science. If education is viewed as a way out of poverty, there is a need to identify pedagogical methodologies that assist Black students in achieving higher levels of success in science, and in school in general. The purpose of this study was to explore White teachers' and Black students' perceptions about the teaching strategies used in their low socioeconomic status (LSES) urban science classrooms, that led to academic success for Black students. Participants included three urban middle school White teachers thought to be the best science teachers in the school, and five randomly selected Black students from each of their classrooms. Methods of inquiry involving tenets of grounded theory were used to examine strategies teachers used to inspire Black students into academic success. Data collection included teacher and student interviews, field notes from classroom observations, group discussions, and questionaires. Data were analyzed using open, axial, and selective coding. The teachers' perceptions indicated that their prior belief systems, effective academic and personal communication, caring and nurturing strategies, using relevant and meaningful hands-on activities in small learner-centered groups, enhanced the learning capabilities of all students in their classrooms, especially the Black students. Black students' perceptions indicated that their academic success was attributable to what teachers personally thought about them, demonstrated that they cared, communicated with them on a personal and academic level, gave affirmative feedback, simplified, and explained content matter. Black students labeled teachers who had these attributes as "nice" teachers. The nurturing and caring behaviors of "nice" teachers caused Black students to feel a sense of community and a sense of belonging in their classrooms. Black students demonstrated that they respected and always "had the back" of these "nice" teachers. Results from this study could play a significant role in teacher retention and in informing best practices for preservice and other teachers who are struggling to meet the needs of LSES urban students.

  18. Educator's Guide for Mission to Earth: LANDSAT Views the World

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Tindal, M. A.

    1978-01-01

    This teacher's guide is specifically designed to provide information and suggestions for using LANDSAT imagery to teach basic concepts in several content areas. Content areas include: (1) Earth science and geology; (2) environmental studies; (3) geography; and (4) social and urban studies.

  19. A Survey to Assess Barriers to Urban Teaching Careers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Creasey, Gary; Mays, Jennifer; Lee, Robert; D'Santiago, Verenice

    2016-01-01

    The "Urban Teaching Barriers" survey was created to assess barriers to urban teaching careers. Pre-service teachers (N = 377) completed this instrument, along with questionnaires that assessed urban teaching intentions and urban teaching self-efficacy. Six barrier domains were identified that tapped concerns over (a) lack of resources,…

  20. The effectiveness of student team-achievement division (STAD) for teaching high school chemistry in the United Arab Emirates

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Balfakih, Nagib M. A.

    2003-05-01

    Education in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) faces major problems which may hinder its future development. These include low achievement in science and a negative attitude toward science subjects, which have resulted in a high number of student dropouts from the science track in high school. It is believed among UAE educators that the main reason is the way science that has been taught in its schools. A solution to this problem depends on finding effective teaching methods, which maintain student achievement, improve students' attitude and provide opportunities to develop essential scientific skills. The effectiveness of Student Team-Achievement Division (STAD) for teaching science to high school classes in the UAE was investigated. The sample was selected randomly. A representative group of UAE high school students was chosen from the northern province, which includes urban areas, and from the eastern province, which includes rural areas. The study involved sixteen tenth grade classes. During the second semester of the academic year 1998/1999, three units in the chemistry curriculum were covered. This study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of STAD in teaching high school chemistry in the UAE and to find out which groups, gender, area, and ability benefitted most.

  1. Girls and science education in Mauritius: a study of science class practices and their effects on girls

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Naugah, Jayantee; Watts, Mike

    2013-11-01

    Background: The population of Mauritius consists of 52% females and scientific literacy is seen to be of vital importance for all young people if they are to be sufficiently equipped to meet the challenges of a fast changing world. Previous research shows, however, that science is not popular among girls. This paper explores one of many reasons why few girls opt for science subjects after compulsory schooling. Purpose: This study investigated the approaches to teaching in four science classrooms in Mauritius, with particular emphases on the preferences of girls as they learn science. Sample: A total of 20 student interviews and 16 teacher interviews were conducted in four schools in Mauritius. The four mixed-faith schools comprised two all-girl schools (one state, one fee-paying), and two mixed-sex schools (one state, one fee-paying), within urban, suburban and rural situations. Design and method: 80 non-participant lessons were observed, of which 60 were science lessons while the remaining 20 non-science lessons were in economics, accounts and commerce. Group interviews with five pupils in each of the four schools were conducted and 16 individual interviews with teachers in the four schools gave an insight into the pedagogic approaches used for the teaching and learning of science. Results: Transmissive approaches to teaching, giving little opportunity for collaborative or activity-based learning, were found to be the most important factors in alienating the girls from science. Conclusions: There need to be radical changes in approaches to teaching to retain young girls' interest in the sciences.

  2. Culture, food, and language: Perspectives from immigrant mothers in school science

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hagiwara, Sumi; Calabrese Barton, Angela; Contento, Isobel

    2007-04-01

    The article explores the role of immigrant parents in middle school science as both teachers and learners as part of an urban middle school curriculum, the Linking in Food and the Environment (LiFE) program. The curriculum engaged parents as partners with science teachers to teach science through food. Over a 2-year period, parents attended a series of bilingual workshops, collaborated with classroom teachers, managed activities, guided student inquiry, and assisted in classroom management. The following study analyzes the role of culture, language, and identity as four mothers navigated their position as `insiders' in a science classroom.

  3. Between Local Culture and School Science: The Case of Provincial and Urban Students from Eastern Colombia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Medina-Jerez, William

    2008-03-01

    A lack of congruency between the teaching and learning of science and the student’s personal worlds has long been recognised by the international science education community as an issue deserving space in the research agenda. The purpose of this study was to explore the diversity of student reactions when subcultures such as family, community peers, and personal worldviews are considered along side the subculture of school science. Two-hundred and fifty students from urban and provincial schools in the northeastern region of Colombia (South America) participated. From this group, 18 students were interviewed. It was observed that students adopt a compartmentalisation of knowledge that is evident as both an avoiding strategy in the classroom and as a mechanism to differentiate between the natural world of their everyday situations and the one portrayed by a Westernised science instruction in the classroom. The findings reflect how multiple worldviews correlate with student frameworks as implanted by school science.

  4. The personal is professional: Connecting white urban middle school science teachers' biographies to their teaching of all students

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Oey, Esther Ruth

    The purpose of this study was to examine if and in what ways white, urban middle school science teachers use experiences of being marginalized or feeling different to connect to students coming from backgrounds unlike their own---especially students who are racially, culturally, linguistically and otherwise different from them, the school culture and the dominant society. Personal biography was used to frame this study. Data consisted of structured and semi-structured interviews and classroom observations of one female and two male science teachers gathered over one academic year. Results indicated that experiences with difference may be used to inform teachers' practices, but personal biography alone was insufficient to enable the teachers to reflect on their experiences with race, class, gender, and difference. Also, attending to emotions appeared to be an important factor in helping students develop cognitive skills in science classrooms.

  5. Comparative Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA): Interplay of discourses (D/D1) as third grade urban and suburban science students engage in hypothesis formulation and observation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mendoza, Carmen Irene Reyes

    This qualitative research project is a comparative analysis of Discourses (D/D1) while focused upon the science processes of hypothesis generation and observation in an urban versus suburban elementary science classroom. D designates the instructional and formal academic science Discourse and D1 represents the students' informal, social or home language D1iscourses. In particular, this research study is a critical discourse analysis that examines how the science processes of hypothesis formulation and observation are constituted through the interplay of classroom Discourses (D/D1) as two third grade science teachers teach the same kit-based, inquiry science lessons with their respective urban and suburban students. The research also considers ethnicity, social class, language, and the central role science teachers play mediating between children's everyday world and the world of science. Communicative approach and distinctive patterns of interaction between the European American teachers and their respective students are analyzed through a critical lens to examine underlying issues of equity and power embedded in the instructional Discourse of science. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) provides both the theoretical framework and analytical lens. The research informs development of linguistic-based "best" practices to contribute toward promoting greater science teacher awareness in creating linguistic environments that support all students' learning science Discourse and to serve as a springboard for future educational science researchers' use of CDA.

  6. A State Studies Approach to Teaching People About Their Environment.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bennett, Dean

    1984-01-01

    Highlights a workshop utilizing a four-volume sourcebook for K-12 science teachers and naturalists. The volumes contain 38 units focusing on land, water, atmosphere and weather, plants, animals, energy, natural ecosystems, urban areas, unusual and rare features, and problems and issues. A sample interdisciplinary activity on bullfrog development…

  7. Identifying Elements Critical for Functional and Sustainable Professional Learning Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Richmond, Gail; Manokore, Viola

    2011-01-01

    In this paper, we examined data collected as part of a 5-year project designed to foster reform-based urban science teaching through teachers' communities of inquiry. Drawing upon a distributed leadership framework, we analyzed teacher "talk" during professional learning community (PLC) meetings. This analysis yielded five elements:…

  8. Integrating Social Studies and Science: A Decision Making Lesson for Teaching American Government.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chiodo, John J.

    2000-01-01

    Presents a lesson for an United States Government class where the students work in groups in order to explore the tradeoffs among energy usage, transportation, environmental issues, and policy choices that must be made when solving urban transportation problems. Includes six handouts. (CMK)

  9. Denver Audubon Society's Urban Education Project: Volunteers Teaching Children.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hollweg, Karen S.

    This project was designed to give children opportunities to discover and to investigate plants, animals, and ecological relationships in their own neighborhoods. Through hands-on, natural science investigations, children have opportunities to find and observe a variety of plants and animals, look at them closely, sort them to analyze their…

  10. Teaching Planetary Sciences in Bilingual Classrooms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lebofsky, L. A.; Lebofsky, N. R.

    1993-05-01

    Planetary sciences can be used to introduce students to the natural world which is a part of their lives. Even children in an urban environment are aware of such phenomena as day and night, shadows, and the seasons. It is a science that transcends cultures, has been prominent in the news in recent years, and can generate excitement in young minds as no other science can. It also provides a useful tool for understanding other sciences and mathematics, and for developing problem solving skills which are important in our technological world. However, only 15 percent of elementary school teachers feel very well qualified to teach earth/space science, while better than 80% feel well qualified to teach reading; many teachers avoid teaching science; very little time is actually spent teaching science in the elementary school: 19 minutes per day in K--3 and 38 minutes per day in 4--6. While very little science is taught in elementary and middle school, earth/space science is taught at the elementary level in less than half of the states. Therefore in order to teach earth/space science to our youth, we must empower our teachers, making them familiar and comfortable with existing materials. Tucson has another, but not unique, problem. The largest public school district, the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD), provides a neighborhood school system enhanced with magnet, bilingual and special needs schools for a school population of 57,000 students that is 4.1% Native American, 6.0% Black, and 36.0% Hispanic (1991). This makes TUSD and the other school districts in and around Tucson ideal for a program that reaches students of diverse ethnic backgrounds. However, few space sciences materials exist in Spanish; most materials could not be used effectively in the classroom. To address this issue, we have translated NASA materials into Spanish and are conducting a series of workshops for bilingual classroom teachers. We will discuss in detail our bilingual classroom workshops and how they address the needs of elementary school teachers in Arizona.

  11. Supporting new science teachers in pursuing socially just science education

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ruggirello, Rachel; Flohr, Linda

    2017-10-01

    This forum explores contradictions that arose within the partnership between Teach for America (TFA) and a university teacher education program. TFA is an alternate route teacher preparation program that places individuals into K-12 classrooms in low-income school districts after participating in an intense summer training program and provides them with ongoing support. This forum is a conversation about the challenges we faced as new science teachers in the TFA program and in the Peace Corps program. We both entered the teaching field with science degrees and very little formal education in science education. In these programs we worked in a community very different from the one we had experienced as students. These experiences allow us to address many of the issues that were discussed in the original paper, namely teaching in an unfamiliar community amid challenges that many teachers face in the first few years of teaching. We consider how these challenges may be amplified for teachers who come to teaching through an alternate route and may not have as much pedagogical training as a more traditional teacher education program provides. The forum expands on the ideas presented in the original paper to consider the importance of perspectives on socially just science education. There is often a disconnect between what is taught in teacher education programs and what teachers actually experience in urban classrooms and this can be amplified when the training received through alternate route provides a different framework as well. This forum urges universities and alternate route programs to continue to find ways to authentically partner using practical strategies that bring together the philosophies and goals of all stakeholders in order to better prepare teachers to partner with their students to achieve their science learning goals.

  12. Voices of successful science teachers in an urban diverse single gender girls' school

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Malhan, Jyoti

    This research study was conducted as a qualitative case study of four successful science teachers of female students in a diverse, title 1, urban, public girls' school. The study was designed to hear the 'muted' voices of successful science teachers concerning their beliefs and practices when they effectively provide learning opportunities for female students of color in their classrooms. Ethic of Care, equity pedagogy and culturally responsive pedagogy, created the theoretical framework for interpretation of the powerful narratives and storytelling that influenced this group of successful teachers. Data were collected by conducting in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Constant comparative method and narrative analysis were used to code and categorize the data. Analysis was conducted after each interview to discover emergent themes. Teachers conducted member checks throughout the process. The findings from the study yielded the following: (1) teachers had a passion for science and incorporated ongoing scientific developments and real-life examples and applications in their teaching, (2) teachers adopted a caring, concerned, and student-centered approach to teaching, (3) teachers acknowledged certain benefits to a single-sex girls education which included fewer distractions, increased confidence and comfort level of students, (5) teachers built relationships with students that encouraged students to engage with rigorous course content and meet higher expectations for performance. Themes that emerged included: care, culturally responsive pedagogy and culturally relevant curriculum.

  13. Time and Temporality as Mediators of Science Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Roth, Wolff-Michael; Tobin, Kenneth; Ritchie, Stephen M.

    2008-01-01

    Few studies have focused on understanding how teaching and learning in classrooms are mediated by other dimensions of the organizational systems of which education is an integral part. Our 7-year ethnographic study of an urban high school shows how time and temporality constitute key practical and theoretical resources to the actors in the…

  14. On-line Resources for Teaching Sustainability

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bruckner, M. Z.; Larsen, K.; Buhr, S. M.; Kirk, K. B.; Ledley, T. S.; Manduca, C. A.; Mogk, D. W.; Savina, M. E.; Tewksbury, B. J.

    2012-12-01

    Sustainability encompasses broad interdisciplinary topics such as climate change, agricultural food production, and water resource use that include both scientific and societal components. Today's students will need to learn how to address complex, interdisciplinary, sustainability-related challenges throughout their lives. To support faculty in teaching complex concepts in sustainability to undergraduates, the Science Education Resource Center (SERC) now provides integrated access to all resources on teaching sustainability developed by projects hosted on SERC websites. Drawing extensively from collections developed by On the Cutting Edge: Professional Development for Geoscience Faculty, InTeGrate: Interdisciplinary Teaching of Geoscience for a Sustainable Future, the Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN), as well as more than 10 smaller projects, these resources include browsable access to (1) over 120 course descriptions submitted by faculty that provide information about course goals, assessments, and syllabi used in teaching courses with a sustainability focus, (2) over 160 faculty-submitted descriptions of activities that can be used to incorporate and address sustainability concepts, and (3) more than 90 interdisciplinary essays that highlight how faculty incorporate sustainability concepts into their teaching. The Sustainability Portal additionally includes several collections of lessons focused on a central theme, such as carbon footprint exercises and materials for teaching about energy that incorporate quantitative skills. The Sustainability Portal provides access to information about incorporating sustainability issues into geoscience courses and examples of how these concepts can be taught for topics such as geology and human health, public policy and Earth science, complex systems, urban students and urban environments, energy, and climate change. A rich collection of innovative pedagogical approaches conducive to teaching about sustainability are presented in the portal, including service learning, campus-based learning, experience-based environmental projects, and teaching with an Earth systems approach. Faculty can find more information about how to get involved with sustainability projects through webinars, workshops, web page authoring, and other professional development opportunities via links to projects such as On the Cutting Edge, CLEAN, and InTeGrate. The Sustainability Portal also provides access to materials generated from previous workshops, featuring interdisciplinary visions for teaching sustainability to undergraduate students. The SERC portal for Teaching Sustainability can be found at the URL below.

  15. Veiled chameleons: Analyzing urban science teachers' epistemological and ontological beliefs on "caring" for urban students' science literacy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Barrett, Channa Nicole

    The present study investigated teachers' epistemological and ontological beliefs and how those beliefs influence "caring" for urban students' science literacy. The grounded theory research involved six teacher participants and 18 student participants and collected the data using the following methods: Teacher and student interviews and six weeks of classroom observations. Using critical race theory (CRT) as a lens, the analysis of the data occurred simultaneously with the data collection. The findings revealed seven categories and 16 themes, which emerged from the analysis on "caring" for students' science literacy. From the CRT model tested in the study, the data illustrated a plethora of evidence relating to the themes colorblindness, interest convergence, and microaggressions. A negative effect of teachers who practiced colorblindness in the classroom revealed an assignment of subordinate positions, meaning the teacher assumed the role of the ultimate-knowledge holder in the classroom and the students assumed an academic co-dependency role in the classroom. Such an environment, allowed the teachers to become epistemically privileged while the students became epistemically oppressed. Implications for teaching suggest that there are different "shades" of caring for students' science literacy and that teachers should acknowledge the vast critical race-gendered epistemologies that students bring into the classroom in an effort to move towards a just epistemic environment.

  16. Potentialities beyond deficit perspectives: globalization, culture and urban science education in the Bronx

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pitts, Wesley

    2011-03-01

    The major focus of this ethnographic study is devoted to exploring the confluence of global and local referents of science education in the context of an urban chemistry laboratory classroom taught by a first-generation Filipino-American male teacher. This study investigates encounters between the teacher and four second-generation immigrant female students of color, as well as encounters among the four students. The pervasive spread of neoliberal ideology of accountability and sanctions both globally and locally, particularly in public high schools in the Bronx, New York City fuel situations for teaching and learning science that are encoded with the referents of top-down control. In the face of theses challenges, classroom participants must become aware of productive ways to build solidarity and interstitial culture across salient social boundaries, such as age, gender, ethnicity and role, to create and sustain successful teaching and learning of chemistry. Empirical evidence for solidarity was guided by physical and verbal displays of synchrony, mutual focus, entrainment, and emotional energy, body gestures, and prosody markers. This study shows that classroom participants used a combination of prosody markers to appropriate resources to decrease breaches in face-to-face encounters and, at the same time, create and sustain participation and solidarity to successfully complete an acid-base experiment.

  17. The achievement impact of the inclusion model on the standardized test scores of general education students

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Garrett-Rainey, Syrena

    The purpose of this study was to compare the achievement of general education students within regular education classes to the achievement of general education students in inclusion/co-teach classes to determine whether there was a significant difference in the achievement between the two groups. The school district's inclusion/co-teach model included ongoing professional development support for teachers and administrators. General education teachers, special education teachers, and teacher assistants collaborated to develop instructional strategies to provide additional remediation to help students to acquire the skills needed to master course content. This quantitative study reviewed the end-of course test (EoCT) scores of Grade 10 physical science and math students within an urban school district. It is not known whether general education students in an inclusive/co-teach science or math course will demonstrate a higher achievement on the EoCT in math or science than students not in an inclusive/co-teach classroom setting. In addition, this study sought to determine if students classified as low socioeconomic status benefited from participating in co-teaching classrooms as evidenced by standardized tests. Inferential statistics were used to determine whether there was a significant difference between the achievements of the treatment group (inclusion/co-teach) and the control group (non-inclusion/co-teach). The findings can be used to provide school districts with optional instructional strategies to implement in the diverse classroom setting in the modern classroom to increase academic performance on state standardized tests.

  18. "Miss, How do you Write Hipotesis?" Learning to Teach Science to English Language Learners While Navigating Affordances and Constraints: A Longitudinal Multiple Case Study

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ortega, Irasema

    Early career science teachers are often assigned to classrooms with high numbers of English language learners (ELL students). As these teachers learn to become effective practitioners, the circumstances surrounding them merit a thorough examination. This study examines the longitudinal changes in Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) and practices of six early career science teachers who taught in urban schools. The teachers participated in the Alternative Support for Induction Science Teachers (ASIST) program during their initial two years of teaching. Our research team followed the participants over a five-year period. This study focuses on data from Years 1, 3, and 5. The data collected included classroom observations and interviews. In addition, classroom artifacts were collected periodically for the purpose of triangulation. The analysis of the data revealed that with the support of the ASIST program, the teachers implemented inquiry lessons and utilized instructional materials that promoted academic language skills and science competencies among their ELL students. Conversely, standardized testing, teaching assignment, and school culture played a role in constraining the implementation of inquiry-based practices. The results of this study call for collaborative efforts among university science educators and school administrators to provide professional development opportunities and support for the implementation of inquiry and language practices among early career science teachers of ELL students.

  19. Parks, Place and Pedagogy - Education Partnerships with the National Park Service

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vye, E. C.; Rose, W. I.; Nash, B.; Klawiter, M.; Huntoon, J. E.; Engelmann, C. A.; Gochis, E. E.; MiTEP

    2011-12-01

    The Michigan Teaching Excellence Program (MITEP) is a multi-year program of teacher leadership development that empowers science teachers in Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and Jackson to lead their schools and districts through the process of improving science teaching and learning. A component of this program is facilitated through partnership between academia, K-12 educators, and the National Park Service (NPS) that aims to develop place-based education strategies that improve diversity and Earth Science literacy. This tangible education method draws upon both the sense of place that National Parks offer and the art of interpretation employed by the park service. Combined, these deepen cognitive process and provide a more diverse reflection of what place means and the processes behind shaping what we see. Our partnerships present participants the opportunity to intern in a Midwest national park for 3-8 weeks during their third year in the program. In summer 2011, eleven teachers from the Grand Rapids school district participated in this innovative way of learning and teaching Earth Science. One goal was to develop geological interpretive materials desired and needed for the parks. Secondly, and important to place-based educational methodologies, these deliverables will be used as a way of bringing the parks to urban classrooms. Participants lived in the parks and worked directly with both national park and Michigan Tech staff to create lesson plans, podcasts, media clips, video, and photographic documentation of their experiences. These lesson plans will be hosted in the Views of the National Park website in an effort to provide innovative teaching resources nationally for teachers or free-choice learners wishing to access information on Midwest national parks. To the benefit of park staff, working with teachers from urban areas offered an opportunity for park staff to access diverse learners in urban settings unable to visit the park. The foundation has been laid for future work in this program aiming to develop a stronger appreciation of environment and geological processes and connections between what K-12 students do and their impact on Earth systems. This paper presents preliminary results of the following evaluation methods: 1) pre-post surveys administered to examine depth and breadth of geological knowledge, awareness of cultural significance, and emotional meanings and attachments toward the park, and 2) semi-structured interviews with participants, park staff, and academic faculty to determine how these programs can be best implemented and improved in both parks and classrooms alike. Learning about Earth system processes can be fostered by employing different ways of knowing, or the art of interpretation. It is hoped that this engagement between teachers, parks, and academia will increase diversity in Earth Science, enrich Earth Science curriculum, and help develop a sense of place for students

  20. Using Blogs to Enhance Student Engagement and Learning in the Health Sciences

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zinger, Lana; Sinclair, Alicia

    2013-01-01

    Teaching in a diverse, urban community college, it has become apparent that students spend most of their free (and classroom) time participating in social media. In response, we decided to incorporate social media, blogs specifically, as a way to increase student engagement, retention and achievement. The learning objective was for our students to…

  1. From Michel Foucault to Mario Puzo: Using an Interdisciplinary Approach to Understand Urban Immigration Then and Now

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pecorella, Robert F.

    2016-01-01

    This article reports on the efforts of a political science professor teaching a multidisciplinary course focused on New York City to develop an interdisciplinary class project designed to lead students to an appreciation of the immigrant experience in the United States "From Ellis Island to JFK" (Foner, 2000). The particular…

  2. Teaching Students about Biodiversity by Studying the Correlation between Plants & Arthropods

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Richardson, Matthew L.; Hari, Janice

    2008-01-01

    On Earth there is a huge diversity of arthropods, many of which are highly adaptive and able to exploit virtually every terrestrial habitat. Because of their prevalence even in urban environments, they make an excellent model system for any life science class. Since plants also exploit virtually every terrestrial habitat, studying the relationship…

  3. An analysis of the relationship between teachers' acquisition of physics content knowledge and their level of science teaching efficacy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Marion, Virginia Frances

    1998-12-01

    The goal of Project Inquiry, a two-year long multiphase study, was to transform the delivery of science instruction from a traditional, textbook driven delivery approach to a hands-on, minds-on, constructivist approach. Teachers from a midwestern urban school district were trained in constructivism while learning physics concepts and content through guided inquiry instruction in collaborative groups. The objectives aimed to increase teachers' content expertise and science teaching efficacy, as well as to have teachers become better facilitators of learning. Phase two of the three phases of Project Inquiry was the focus of this study. Fifty-seven teachers participated in Phase two, which began with an intense two week summer institute in 1995. A longitudinal time-series (OxOO), quasi-experimental research design was used to investigate the relationship between science teaching efficacy scores and gains in physics content knowledge. The data consisted of: (a) six sets of pre and post physics content knowledge test scores (electricity, magnetism, matter and balance); (b) three sets of STEBI-A (inservice), Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument scores, a pre to post, pre to follow-up, and post to follow-up; and (c) demographic variables that were used as covariates, grade taught, years of experience, and postbaccalaureate training. Using the general linear model with an Alpha level of.05, and testing the hypothesized relationships, results indicated that although there were significant positive gains in content knowledge (p =.000) and science teaching efficacy (p =.000), the overall average gains in physics content knowledge were not predictive of gains in either Personal Science Teaching Efficacy or Science Outcome Expectancy. Post hoc analysis used individual content gain scores, in regression models that included the three covariates: grade taught, years of experience, and post baccalaureate training, to test the relationship between knowledge gains and efficacy gains. A series of interactions between significant content areas and the covariates was also run. Science Teaching Outcome Expectancy and Personal Science Teaching Efficacy showed different relationships with the predictor variables. Though gains in specific content areas were related to gains in Science Teaching Outcome Expectancy and Personal Science Teaching Efficacy, gains in Personal Science Teaching Efficacy were further modified by the covariates. These results may reflect not only a more complex relationship between content knowledge gain and Personal Science Teaching Efficacy but also the complex nature of the construct. Evaluation of the physics content knowledge tests revealed that the tests were not valid for evaluating 35 of the 37 identified learning objectives. Although the data did not render valid results, it does give insights into possible relationships that may exist given a more stringent investigation with a valid instrument to measure content knowledge gains. In addition, this study demonstrated the importance of considering the likelihood of interactions among a given set of variables and the covariates. The findings also suggest the possible value of considering the psychological factors associated with the change process when planning professional development programs.

  4. Exploring the contexts of urban science classrooms: Cogenerative dialogues, coteaching, and cosmopolitanism

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Emdin, Christopher

    The body of work presented in this dissertation is a response to the reported association between poor outcomes in science achievement and students of color in urban schools. By presenting counterexamples to the cultural motif that urban students of color perform poorly in science, I argue that poor achievement cannot be traced to a group of people but can be linked to institutions promoting subject delivery methods that instill distaste for science and compel students to display an illusion of disinterest in school. There are two major goals of this study. First, I plan to demonstrate how plans of action generated by coteachers and cogenerative dialogue groups can coalesce under the ethos of making science and schooling accessible to populations that are traditionally marginalized from science achievement. My second aim is to develop mechanisms for transforming science learning contexts into cosmopolitan learning communities that develop student success in science. Through a three-year ethnographic study of physics and chemistry classrooms in a high school in New York City, I present explorations of the culture and context of the urban classroom as a chief means to meet my goals. In my research, I find that obstacles to identity development around science can be tied to corporate understandings of teaching and learning that are amenable to local efforts toward change. This change is facilitated through the use of transformative tools like cogenerative dialogues, coteaching, and cosmopolitanism. Through the application of these research tools, I uncover and investigate how various misalignments that present themselves in physics and chemistry classrooms serve as signifiers of macro issues that permeate science classrooms from larger fields. By utilizing cogenerative dialogues as a tool for investigating both micro enactments within classrooms and the macro structures that generate these enactments, I show how students and teachers can work together as co-researchers and coteachers that engage in a dual process of questioning existent structures that do not support science success and transforming them.

  5. Urban Town and Gown: Increasing Minority Participation in the Geosciences Through a College-High School Partnership in Hartford, CT

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    OConnell, S.; OConnell, S.; OConnell, S.; Osborn, J. L.; Osborn, J. L.

    2001-12-01

    Urban public schools are often poor and have a tremendous need for educational assistance. In many cities the population is dominated by ethnic minorities. Hartford, CT, is one of these cities. Only about 50% of the students entering high school graduate and approximately 50% of those go on to higher education. Of those students taking the SAT's the average verbal and math scores are below 400. Despite these statistics, many students do succeed and therein lies an opportunity for earth scientists. As individuals and as institutions we can partner with schools and students to involve them in and excite them about the earth sciences. In 1995 Trinity College, located in Hartford, CT, undertook a \\$175 m.d. neighborhood revitalization project with funds from the college, neighboring institutions, foundations, and city, state and federal governments. Central to the revitalization is the "Learning Corridor," an educational complex that includes a magnet Montessori School, a Math and Science Middle School, and a Math and Science Magnet High School (GHAMAS). GHAMAS has a three-fold mission: teaching math and science to high school students, professional development for all math and science teachers from participating school districts, and community outreach. The Learning Corridor is adjacent to the Trinity College campus and Trinity faculty work with GHAMAS faculty to fulfill all three missions. Trinity faculty teach several high school classes. During the summer 3 Trinity and 1 GHAMAS faculty participated as a group in a week long-long NSF-sponsored Environmental Science workshop. This fall over ten teacher workshops were co-taught by Trinity and GHAMAS faculty. Recent NSF funding will allow us to develop a collaborative education and research program focused on the Connecticut River.

  6. Teachers' confidence in teaching HIV/AIDS and sexuality in South African and Tanzanian schools.

    PubMed

    Helleve, Arnfinn; Flisher, Alan J; Onya, Hans; Kaaya, Sylvia; Mukoma, Wanjiru; Swai, Caroline; Klepp, Knut-Inge

    2009-06-01

    This study aimed to investigate how confident and comfortable teachers at Tanzanian and South African urban and rural schools are in teaching HIV/AIDS and sexuality. It also aimed at identifying factors associated with teacher confidence and investigated how reported confidence was associated with the implementation of educational programmes on HIV/AIDS and sexuality. A survey was conducted among South African grade 8 and 9 Life Orientation teachers, and among science teachers for grade 5 to 7 in public primary schools in Tanzania. Teachers' confidence levels were measured on a four-item scale (0-3). A total number of 266 teachers participated in a survey in 86 schools in South Africa and Tanzania. Overall, teachers report to be rather confident in teaching HIV/AIDS and sexuality. Tanzanian teachers reported higher levels of confidence then did their South Africa colleagues (2.1 vs. 1.8; p < 0.01). Confidence in teaching was significantly associated with the numbers of years teaching HIV/AIDS and sexuality, formal training in these subjects, experience in discussing the topics with others, school policy and priority given to teaching HIV/AIDS and sexuality at school. Finally, confidence in teaching remained positively associated with self-reported successful implementation of school-based programmes after adjusting for gender, age, religion and numbers of years teaching HIV/AIDS and sexuality. Across urban and rural sites in South Africa and Tanzania teachers reported to be fairly confident in teaching HIV/AIDS and sexuality. Further strengthening of their confidence levels could, however, be an important measure for improving the implementation of such programmes.

  7. Teaching Urban Sociology and Urban Sustainability on Two Feet, Two Wheels, and in Three Cities: Our Experience Teaching Sustainable Cities in North America

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Christiansen, Lars; Fischer, Nancy

    2010-01-01

    The authors describe their experiences teaching Sustainable Cities in North America, a course on both urban sociology and urban sustainability. This course brought students to Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, British Columbia, and then compared those cities with Minneapolis, Minnesota, on various dimensions of urban sustainability. After…

  8. Using Cogenerative Dialogue to Afford the Teaching and Learning of Biology in an Urban High School

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Otulaja, Femi Segun

    2010-01-01

    The body of research work presented in this dissertation integrates critical ethnography with video and conversation analyses in order to provide ways to articulate and understand the complexities associated with social life enactment as it unfolds during cogenerative dialogues and in the science classroom as the teacher and her students engage in…

  9. Impacts of a Discussion-Based Academic Language Program on Classroom Interactions in 4th through 7th Grades

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    LaRusso, Maria; Jones, Stephanie M.; Kim, Ha Yeon; Kim, James; Donovan, Suzanne; Snow, Catherine

    2016-01-01

    This paper presents an exploratory analysis of treatment-control differences in the quality of classroom interactions in 4th through 7th grade urban classrooms. Word Generation (WG) is a research-based academic language program for middle school students designed to teach novel vocabulary and literacy through language arts, math, science, and…

  10. Does an Urban Teacher Residency Increase Student Achievement? Early Evidence from Boston

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Papay, John P.; West, Martin R.; Fullerton, Jon B.; Kane, Thomas J.

    2012-01-01

    Boston Teacher Residency (BTR) is an innovative practice-based preparation program in which candidates work alongside a mentor teacher for a year before becoming a teacher of record in the Boston Public Schools (BPS). The authors found that BTR graduates are more racially diverse than other BPS novices, more likely to teach math and science, and…

  11. Immigration and culture as factors mediating the teaching and learning of urban science

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shady, Ashraf

    In this dissertation I explore how cultural and sociohistorical dimensions of stakeholder groups (teachers, students, administrators, and researchers) mediate the interests of urban students in science. This study was conducted during the school year of 2006--2007 in a low-academically performing middle school in New York City. As an Egyptian immigrant science teacher I experienced resistance from my students in an eighth grade inclusion science class that warranted the use of cogenerative dialogue as a tool to improve teaching and learning. In the cogenerative dialogue sessions, participants (e.g., students, teachers, university researchers, and sometimes administrators) make every effort to convene as equals with goals of improving teaching and learning. By seeking the students' perspectives in cogenerative dialogue participants will be able to identify contradictions that can be addressed in an effort to improve the quality of the learning environments. Examples of such contradictions include shut down techniques that teachers use intentionally and unintentionally in order to have control over students. This authentic ethnography focused on two Black students from low-income homes, and me, a middle-aged male of Egypt's middle class. Throughout this study, the students acted in the capacity of student-researchers, assisting me to construct culturally adaptive curriculum materials, and to analyze data sources. This study utilized a sociocultural framework together with microanalysis of videotaped vignettes to obtain evidence that supports patterns of coherence and associated contradictions that emerged during the research. As the teacher-researcher, I learned along with my students how to communicate successfully in the context of structures that often act against success, including social class, ethnicity, gender, and age. The results of this study indicate that as a result of participating in cogenerative dialogues, I as well as the students learned the importance of group membership, and shared responsibilities for learning and acquiring new identities that support teaching and learning, and value diversity. Students reproduced, and transformed cultural practices from other social fields, such as cogenerative dialogues and home, to support their learning. Participating in cogenerative dialogues has produced a higher quality of teacher-student discourse as evidenced in data sources.

  12. The nanny in the schoolhouse: the role of femme-Caribbean identity in attaining success in urban science classrooms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Grimes, Nicole K.

    2013-06-01

    A growing body of teacher identity-based research has begun to embrace that the development of self-understanding about being a teacher is critical to learning how to teach. Construction of a professional teacher identity requires much more beyond mere content, skills and a foundational pedagogy. It also includes an intersection of the personal and professional self, which gives way to the emergence of multiple identities in the classroom. An educator's gender, nationality, language and interests among other tenets all permeate the classroom field and coexist alongside the professional role identity. This paper aims to use narrative as a way to discuss how science educators can mediate holding several identities in the classroom in order to create an environment characterized by successful teaching and learning. Drawing from an array of sociocultural theoretical perspectives, complementary constructs of identity by Jonathan Turner (Face to face: toward a sociological theory of interpersonal behavior. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA, 2002) and Amartya Sen (Identity and violence: the illusion of destiny. W. W. Norton, New York, 2006), George Lakoff's (Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1980) work on metonymy, and David Bloome's (2005) theorization of the power of caring relationships, I explore the ways in which my Black female Caribbean identity has transformed the science classroom field and created positive resonance for some of my privileged White students who have Caribbean caretakers at home. To begin, I unpack how Afro-Caribbean immigration to urban centers in the United States continues to produce childcare occupational opportunities in places like New York City. Being a first generation Trinidadian immigrant, my many identities have structured my science teaching praxis and consequently transformed the way my students learn science. A significant part of this paper is a reflexive account of experiences (primarily dialogue) with science students situated both within and outside the science classroom. Conversations with students who were raised through the hired help of Caribbean nannies have revealed that there is a strong resemblance to the way they perceive their caretakers as they do me—their instructor. These conversations serve as a backdrop to illuminate the dynamic nature of identity construction and its relationship to the development of ongoing dialogue. The hope is that this autoethnographic work illustrates the salience of student lifeworlds in affording opportunities for success in the science classroom. Additionally, this research seeks to illustrate how understanding the unconscious `backgrounding' and `foregrounding' of certain identities in the classroom can improve one's praxis in the urban science classroom and possibly increase student success in science. It is also hoped that this story reiterates the importance of using stories for purposes of scholarship, for moving towards better understandings of the social situations we are concerned to investigate as researchers and for better communication of those understandings.

  13. The Galileoscope project: community-based technology education in Arizona

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pompea, Stephen M.; Fine, Leonard W.; Sparks, Robert T.; Walker, Constance E.; Dugan, Charles L.; Dokter, Erin F. C.

    2014-07-01

    A program model has been developed and implemented over the last three years to provide a robust optical technologybased science education program to students aged 9-11 years (5th grade), a formative time in the development of a student's interest in science and engineering. We have created well-tested and evaluated teaching kits for the classroom to teach about the basics of image formation and telescopes. In addition we provide professional development to the teachers of these students on principles of optics and on using the teaching kits. The program model is to reach every teacher and every student in a number of mid-sized rural communities across the state of Arizona. The Galileoscope telescope kit is a key part of this program to explore optics and the nature of science. The program grew out of Module 3 of the NSF-Supported Hands-On Optics project (SPIE, OSA, and NOAO) and from the Science Foundation Arizona-supported Hands-On Optics Arizona program. NOAO has conducted this program in Flagstaff, Yuma, Globe, and Safford, Arizona and is being expanded to sites across the entire state of Arizona (295,254 square kilometers). We describe the educational goals, evaluations, and logistical issues connected to the program. In particular, we proposed that this model can be adapted for any rural or urban locations in order to encourage interest in science, astronomy and optics.-

  14. Teaching the Urban Student as a Whole: Utilizing Universal Skills in Science and Social Studies Interdisciplinary Curricula

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Berg, Christianna

    The purpose for this project is to utilize interdisciplinary curricula to emphasize transferable skills across the four main subject areas: reading, mathematics, science, and social studies. This project aims to provide a background for the creation of an interdisciplinary curricula that can be adjusted to current instructional programs being used in any classroom. The proposed curriculum is intended for a science and social studies elementary classroom where students rotate to a different mathematics and language arts classroom, but it could be applied to older grades or to self-contained classes. The proposed curriculum emphasizes problem solving, reading, and writing skills.

  15. Effectively using urban landscapes to teach biodiversity and ecohydrology to introductory environmental science classes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    MacAvoy, S. E.; van Doorn, A.; Pondell, C.

    2016-12-01

    Urban environments offer students interesting opportunities to explore and examine how human modified landscapes influence biodiversity, nutrient cycling, and water quality. Students demanding applied field experiences from their undergraduate environmental science (ENVS) programs can be well served in urban settings. Here, we present strategies for integrating urban areas into the undergraduate field experience. Urban locations provide an opportunity for a different type of local "field-work" than would otherwise be available. In the intro level undergraduate ENVS class, we use our campus, the surrounding neighborhood and city as well as a nearby National Park for field exercises. Activities include: assessing water quality from multiple sites, observing species composition and ecological succession using fallen logs, assessing biodiversity using biocubes and camera traps, investigating conservation strategies through the local zoo, and walking one mile transects through local urban ecosystems to observe and collect data on the animals, buildings, roads, litter and/or light sources in the surrounding area. These labs provide inspiration and hands on skills that students apply to their own self-selected projects at the end of the semester. In the second level majors class, we make use of our urban location to contrast water quality in parks and highly channelized urban streams, monitor populations of urban wildlife, and investigate the application of urban greening methods to reduce environmental impacts. Students spend labs immersed in streams and wetlands heavily impacted by the urban runoff their city generates to better understand the extent of human impact in an urban environment. Here we share lesson plans for field activities that can be completed with incoming undergraduate students, and show how these activities help students gain quantitative and investigative competency.

  16. Learning to Teach in Urban Schools: The Transition from Preparation to Practice

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hollins, Etta R.

    2011-01-01

    This book is about the transition from teacher "preparation" to teaching "practice" in urban school settings. It provides a clear presentation of the challenges, resources, and opportunities for learning to teach in urban schools; examples of the experiences, perceptions, and practices of teachers who are effective in urban schools and those who…

  17. Integrating long-term science projects into K-12 curriculum: Fostering teacher-student engagement in urban environmental research through an NSF UCLA GK-12 program

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hogue, T. S.; Moldwin, M.; Nonacs, P.; Daniel, J.; Shope, R.

    2009-12-01

    A National Science Foundation Graduate Teaching Fellows in K- 12 Education program at UCLA (SEE-LA; http://measure.igpp.ucla.edu/GK12-SEE-LA) has just completed its first year (of a five-year program) and has greatly expanded UCLA’s science and engineering partnerships with LA Unified and Culver City Unified School Districts. The SEE-LA program partners UCLA faculty, graduate students (fellows), middle and high school science teachers and their students into a program of science and engineering exploration that brings the environment of Los Angeles into the classroom. UCLA graduate fellows serve as scientists-in-residence at the four partner schools to integrate inquiry-based science and engineering lessons, facilitate advancements in science content teaching, and ultimately, to improve their own science communication skills. As part of their fellowship, graduate students are required to develop three inquiry-based lessons in their partner classroom, including a lesson focused on their dissertation research, a lesson focused on the environmental/watershed theme of the project, and a lesson that involves longer-term data collection and synthesis with the grade 6-12 teachers and students. The developed long-term projects ideally involve continued observations and analysis through the five-year project and beyond. During the first year of the project, the ten SEE-LA fellows developed a range of long-term research projects, from seasonal invertebrate observations in an urban stream system, to home energy consumption surveys, to a school bioblitz (quantification of campus animals and insects). Examples of lesson development and integration in the classroom setting will be highlighted as well as tools required for sustainability of the projects. University and local pre-college school partnerships provide an excellent opportunity to support the development of graduate student communication skills while also contributing significantly to the integration of sustainable research projects into K-12 curriculum.

  18. TRUST: A Successful Formal-Informal Teacher Education Partnership Designed to Improve and Promote Urban Earth Science Education

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sloan, H.; Drantch, K.; Steenhuis, J.

    2006-12-01

    We present an NSF-funded collaborative formal-informal partnership for urban Earth science teacher preparation and professional development. This model brings together The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and Brooklyn and Lehman College of the City University of New York (CUNY) to address science-impoverished classrooms that lack highly qualified teachers by focusing on Earth science teacher certification. Project design was based on identified needs in the local communities and schools, careful analysis of content knowledge mastery required for Earth science teacher certification, and existing impediments to certification. The problem-based approach required partners to push policy envelopes and to invent new ways of articulating content and pedagogy at both intra- and inter-institutional levels. One key element of the project is involvement of the local board of education, teachers, and administrators in initial design and ongoing assessment. Project components include formal Earth systems science courses, a summer institute primarily led and delivered by AMNH scientists through an informal series of lectures coupled to workshops led by AMNH educators, a mechanism for assigning course credit for informal experiences, development of new teaching approaches that include teacher action plans and an external program of evaluation. The principal research strand of this project focuses on the resulting model for formal-informal teacher education partnership, the project's impact on participating teachers, policy issues surrounding the model and the changes required for its development and implementation, and its potential for Earth science education reform. As the grant funded portion of the project draws to a close we begin to analyze data collected over the past 3 years. Third-year findings of the project's external evaluation indicate that the problem-based approach has been highly successful, particularly its impact on participating teachers. In addition to presenting these results, participating teachers from the 2004 and 2006 cohorts discuss their TRUST experiences and the subsequent impact the program has had on their respective Earth science teaching practices and professional lives.

  19. An alternative path to improving university Earth science teaching and developing the geoscience workforce: Postdoctoral research faculty involvement in clinical teacher preparation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zirakparvar, N. A.; Sessa, J.; Ustunisik, G. K.; Nadeau, P. A.; Flores, K. E.; Ebel, D. S.

    2013-12-01

    It is estimated that by the year 2020 relative to 2009, there will be 28% more Earth Science jobs paying ≥ $75,000/year1 in the U.S.A. These jobs will require advanced degrees, but compared to all arts and science advanced degrees, the number of physical science M.S. and Ph.D. awarded per year decreased from 2.5% in 1980 to 1.5% in 20092. This decline is reflected on a smaller scale and at a younger age: in the New York City school system only 36% of all 8th graders have basic proficiency in science 3. These figures indicate that the lack achievement in science starts at a young age and then extends into higher education. Research has shown that students in grades 7 - 12 4,5 and in university level courses 6 both respond positively to high quality science teaching. However, much attention is focused on improving science teaching in grades 7- 12, whereas at many universities lower level science courses are taught by junior research and contingent faculty who typically lack formal training, and sometimes interest, in effective teaching. The danger here is that students might enter university intending to pursue geoscience degrees, but then encounter ineffective instructors, causing them to lose interest in geoscience and thus pursue other disciplines. The crux of the matter becomes how to improve the quality of university-level geoscience teaching, without losing sight of the major benchmark of success for research faculty - scholarly publications reporting innovative research results. In most cases, it would not be feasible to sidetrack the research goals of early career scientists by placing them into a formal teacher preparation program. But what happens when postdoctoral research scientists take an active role in clinical teacher preparation as part of their research appointments? The American Museum of Natural History's Masters of Arts in Teaching (AMNH-MAT) urban residency pilot program utilizes a unique approach to grade 7 - 12 Earth Science teacher preparation in that postdoctoral research scientists are directly involved in the clinical preparation of the teacher candidates7. In this program, professional educators and senior scientists guide and work closely with the postdoctoral scientists in developing lessons and field experiences for the teacher candidates. This exposes the postdoctoral scientists to pedagogical techniques. Furthermore, postdoctoral scientists make regular visits to partner schools and share their research interests with high school science students8. Regular assessments about the quality of the postdoctoral scientist's teaching, in the form of course evaluations and informal discussions with the teacher candidates and professional educators, further augments the postdoctoral scientists teaching skills. These experiences can ultimately improve university level science teaching, should the postdoctoral scientists find positions within a university setting. Here, five postdoctoral researchers present self-studies of changing instructional practice born of their involvement in clinical teacher preparation in the AMNH-MAT program.

  20. The Nanny in the Schoolhouse: The Role of Femme-Caribbean Identity in Attaining Success in Urban Science Classrooms

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Grimes, Nicole K.

    2013-01-01

    A growing body of teacher identity-based research has begun to embrace that the development of self-understanding about being a teacher is critical to learning how to teach. Construction of a professional teacher identity requires much more beyond mere content, skills and a foundational pedagogy. It also includes an intersection of the personal…

  1. "WordSift": Supporting Instruction and Learning through Technology in San Francisco. The Senior Urban Education Research Fellowship Series. Volume IV

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hakuta, Kenji

    2011-01-01

    In developing a tool to help address academic language development, the author and his team began by identifying the challenges of presenting science text to English Language Learners and students who struggle with reading. The goal was to balance the practical and logistical challenges of identifying, teaching, and learning academic and content…

  2. Impact of Virtual Learning Environment (VLE): A Technological Approach to Genetics Teaching on High School Students' Content Knowledge, Self-Efficacy and Career Goal Aspirations

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kandi, Kamala M.

    2013-01-01

    This study examines the effect of a technology-based instructional tool "Geniverse" on the content knowledge gains, Science Self-Efficacy, Technology Self-Efficacy, and Career Goal Aspirations among 283 high school learners. The study was conducted in four urban high schools, two of which have achieved Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and…

  3. A study of the effects of constructivist-based vs. traditional direct instruction on 8th grade science comprehension

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Berube, Clair Thompson

    2001-07-01

    Studies conducted nationwide over the past several decades point consistently to the evidence that American school children lag behind several other countries in science scores. Problems arise from this dilemma, including the question of the ability of our youngsters to compete nationally and globally in the sciences as adults. Current research in this area of scores currently studies mostly mathematics. The few studies conducted concerning science mainly highlight students in other countries and neglects minorities and females regarding outcomes. By contrast, this study investigated the effects of teacher types (also defined as teaching styles or classroom orientation) on student outcomes on two measures; the standardized Standards of Learning 8th grade science test for the state of Virginia, and the Higher-Order Skills test (Berube, 2001), which was a researcher-constricted comprehension measurement. Minority and gender interactions were analyzed as well. Teacher type was designated by using the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (Taylor & Fraser, 1991). Participants included students from five large urban middle schools and thirteen middle school science teachers. Scores from the two measures were used to determine differences in student outcomes as they pertained to teacher type, gender and ethnicity. Analysis indicated that students who were taught by teachers with more traditional and mixed teaching styles performed better on the Higher-Order Skills comprehension measurement, while teachers with constructivist teaching styles actually had the lowest scoring students. Also, the interaction of ethnicity and teacher type was significant, indicating that Higher-Order Skills scores were influenced by that interaction, with Caucasians scoring the highest when taught by teachers with mixed teaching styles. Such findings could profit school administrators considering the interaction of student achievement and teaching styles on high-stakes testing environments. Suggestions are made for future studies concerning females and minorities in these same environments.

  4. Collaboration between research scientists and educators to prepare new Earth Science teachers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pagnotta, Ashley; Grcevich, J.; Shara, M.; Mac Low, M.; Flores, K.; Nadeau, P. A.; Sessa, J.; Ustunisik, G.; Zirakparvar, N.; Ebel, D.; Harlow, G.; Webster, J. D.; Kinzler, R.; MacDonald, M. B.; Contino, J.; Cooke-Nieves, N.; Howes, E.; Zachowski, M.

    2014-01-01

    The Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Program at the American Museum of Natural History is a first-of-its-kind program designed to prepare participants to be world-class Earth Science teachers. The lack of Earth Science teachers in New York State has resulted in fewer students taking the statewide Earth Science Regents Exam, which negatively affects graduation rates and reduces the number of students who pursue related college degrees. The MAT program was designed to address this problem, and is the result of a collaboration between research scientists and educators at the Museum, with faculty comprised of curators and postdoctoral researchers from the Departments of Astrophysics, Earth and Planetary Sciences, and the Division of Paleontology, as well as doctoral-level Education faculty. The full-time, 15-month program combines courses and field work in astrophysics, geology, earth science, and paleontology at the Museum with pedagogical coursework and a teaching residency in local urban classrooms. The MAT program targets high-needs schools with diverse student populations and therefore has the potential to stimulate interest and achievement in a variety of STEM fields among thousands of students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds. The first cohort of candidates entered the MAT program in June of 2012 and finished in August of 2013. Nineteen new Regents-qualified Earth Science teachers are now in full-time teaching positions at high-needs schools in New York State. We report on the experience of the first cohort as well as the continuation of the program for current and future cohorts of teacher candidates.

  5. Science teacher improvement: A study of the change in preparation and qualifications of public middle school science teachers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wickler, Nicole I. Z.

    According to the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future (1996), a teacher's professional preparation, their work conditions and sense of efficacy are fundamental to improving elementary and secondary education. These factors lie at the core of educational reforms that seek to raise standards, reshape curricula, and restructure the way schools operate. The call to reconceptualize the practice of teaching and the interaction between teachers and students ring hollow without a careful examination of actions that have taken place in the workplace of teachers themselves. A national profile that identifies key characteristics of the current status of public middle school science teachers preparation, teaching qualifications, and work environments can provide a context for better understanding the current conditions that confront science teachers. This study seeks to provide critical information in four major areas: (1) preservice learning and teaching assignment; (2) continued learning; (3) supportive work environment, and (4) teachers' sense of efficacy. This study is based on current efforts by the National Center for Education Statistics (LACES) to collect data of key indicators of teacher preparation and qualifications using a large-scale survey administered to a nationally representative sample of full-time public school teachers whose primary teaching assignment is in science. In this effort, the information reported in this study utilizes the NCES's Schools and Staffing Surveys (SASS) from 1987--88 and 1993--94. Significant change between 1987--77 and 1993--94 was determined using a t-test for independent means. In addition, frequency counts were analyzed using a chi-square statistic to determine if more "qualified middle school science teachers" were located in particular schools by urbanicity location or/and percent minority enrollment. In general, the quality of middle school science teachers across the country is declining. Teachers report they have less control in their classrooms, are less satisfied with their class size and have less influence on the content of inservice professional development. In addition, fewer hold degrees in a science content area, fewer hold any Masters degrees, and fewer are certified in their second assignment field. However, more teachers have taken four to six undergraduate biology, chemistry and physics classes.

  6. Mixed-ability secondary science in one urban school district: A multiple case study

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tworek, Francis A.

    The standards and accountability movements demand that all students be given the opportunity to learn more science than ever before. However, there is much uncertainty about how educators should proceed with this task. Issues of concern include achievement gaps, tracking, and graduation requirements. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the challenges identified by four secondary science teachers in one urban public school district as they taught classes that included students representing a wide range of abilities and prior academic success. These mixed-ability science classes were generally defined as science classes which are required for high school graduation but which have no academic prerequisites. The central research questions in this qualitative study were: (1) How do secondary science teachers describe the challenges they face while teaching a mixed-ability science course required for graduation when the course has no prerequisites; and (2) What strategies do they use to deal with these challenges? Data collection was confined to four cases within one Midwest urban school district during the 2004-2005 school year. Each case involved one class taught by an individual teacher. One case was an 8th grade science class at a middle school. The other three cases represented three district-required courses in three different high schools: 9th grade biology, 10th grade chemistry, and 11th grade physics. Data sources included interviews with the teachers, observations in their classrooms, district achievement and demographic data, and school documents. Three themes emerged from the cross-case analysis: (1) a sense of belonging; (2) the teacher's focus; and (3) successful learning. The final chapter discusses the implications of these themes and makes recommendations for further study.

  7. An experimental study of a museum-based, science PD programme's impact on teachers and their students

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Aaron Price, C.; Chiu, A.

    2018-06-01

    We present results of an experimental study of an urban, museum-based science teacher PD programme. A total of 125 teachers and 1676 of their students in grades 4-8 were tested at the beginning and end of the school year in which the PD programme took place. Teachers and students were assessed on subject content knowledge and attitudes towards science, along with teacher classroom behaviour. Subject content questions were mostly taken from standardised state tests and literature, with an 'Explain:' prompt added to some items. Teachers in the treatment group showed a 7% gain in subject content knowledge over the control group. Students of teachers in the treatment group showed a 4% gain in subject content knowledge over the control group on multiple-choice items and an 11% gain on the constructed response items. There was no overall change in science attitudes of teachers or students over the control groups but we did find differences in teachers' reported self-efficacy and teaching anxiety levels, plus PD teachers reported doing more student-centered science teaching activities than the control group. All teachers came into the PD with high initial excitement, perhaps reflecting its context within an informal learning environment.

  8. Examining the social and scientific roles of invention in science education

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Calabrese-Barton, Angela

    1998-03-01

    I have been drawn to the construct of “invention” and “inventive acts” because in my research involving how homeless children construct science and the self-in-science, an overwhelming theme has been the multiple ways in which self-identity in science has been described by the children through a language of invention. Using post-modern feminism and science and technologies studies, I examine the multiple uses and definitions of “invention” in science in order to develop a theory of invention and inventive acts around the themes: invention as a social act, invention as a recursive and socially linked process, and embodied agency. I use this framework to examine the construct of “invention” in two different case studies involving the science education of urban homeless children. Finally, I link this discussion of invention and inventive acts with current international reform initiatives revolving around constructivist science teaching and learning.

  9. An Ecological Examination of an Urban Sixth Grade Physical Education Class

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    James, Alisa R.; Collier, Douglas

    2011-01-01

    Background: There are several factors that influence teaching urban physical education. Violence, poverty and irrelevant curricula influence the teaching-learning environment in urban physical education. One approach to urban physical education is to look carefully at the ecology that exists within an urban physical education class. This ecology…

  10. Mathematics and Science Education Attrition, Retention, and Migration: A Study of Three Urban School Districts in the State of Texas

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Davis, Margaret Cheri

    2013-01-01

    Teacher attrition has far-reaching implications that contribute to the success of student performance at many different educational levels. Research indicates as many as 50% of public school teachers leave the profession within the first 5 years, and some suggest that as many as 20% to 30% leave teaching after the first year. Attrition is a…

  11. An Examination of Black Science Teacher Educators' Experiences with Multicultural Education, Equity, and Social Justice

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Atwater, Mary M.; Butler, Malcolm B.; Freeman, Tonjua B.; Carlton Parsons, Eileen R.

    2013-12-01

    Diversity, multicultural education, equity, and social justice are dominant themes in cultural studies (Hall in Cultural dialogues in cultural studies. Routledge, New York, pp 261-274, 1996; Wallace 1994). Zeichner (Studying teacher education: The report of the AERA panel on research and teacher education. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, pp 737-759, 2005) called for research studies of teacher educators because little research exists on teacher educators since the late 1980s. Thomson et al. (2001) identified essential elements needed in order for critical multiculturalism to be infused in teacher education programs. However, little is known about the commitment and experiences of science teacher educators infusing multicultural education, equity, and social justice into science teacher education programs. This paper examines twenty (20) Black science teacher educators' teaching experiences as a result of their Blackness and the inclusion of multicultural education, equity, and social justice in their teaching. This qualitative case study of 20 Black science teacher educators found that some of them have attempted and stopped due to student evaluations and the need to gain promotion and tenure. Other participants were able to integrate diversity, multicultural education, equity and social justice in their courses because their colleagues were supportive. Still others continue to struggle with this infusion without the support of their colleagues, and others have stopped The investigators suggest that if science teacher educators are going to prepare science teachers for the twenty first century, then teacher candidates must be challenged to grapple with racial, ethnic, cultural, instructional, and curricular issues and what that must mean to teach science to US students in rural, urban, and suburban school contexts.

  12. Advancing alternate tools: why science education needs CRP and CRT

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dodo Seriki, Vanessa

    2018-03-01

    Ridgeway and Yerrick's paper, Whose banner are we waving?: exploring STEM partnerships for marginalized urban youth, unearthed the tensions that existed between a local community "expert" and a group of students and their facilitator in an afterschool program. Those of us who work with youth who are traditionally marginalized, understand the importance of teaching in culturally relevant ways, but far too often—as Ridgeway and Yerrick shared—community partners have beliefs, motives, and ideologies that are incompatible to the program's mission and goals. Nevertheless, we often enter partnerships assuming that the other party understands the needs of the students or community; understands how in U.S. society White is normative while all others are deficient; and understands how to engage with students in culturally relevant ways. This forum addresses the underlying assumption, described in the Ridgeway and Yerrick article, that educators—despite their background and experiences—are able to teach in culturally relevant ways. Additionally, I assert based on the finding in the article that just as Ladson-Billings and Tate (Teach Coll Rec 97(1):47-68, 1995) asserted, race in the U.S. society, as a scholarly pursuit, was under theorized. The same is true of science education; race in science education is under theorized and the use of culturally relevant pedagogy and critical race theory as a pedagogical model and analytical tool, respectively, in science education is minimal. The increased use of both would impact our understanding of who does science, and how to broaden participation among people of color.

  13. Preparing Secondary Stem Teachers for High-Need Schools: Challenges of an Urban Residency Program

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Garza, Rubén; Duchaine, Ellen L.; Reynosa, Raymond

    2013-01-01

    Teaching residency programs that blend coursework with clinical experiences have emerged nationwide to prepare aspiring teachers for the demanding reality of teaching in high-need urban schools. The Teaching Residency Program for Critical Shortage Areas was created to help urban school districts with the challenge of recruiting and retaining…

  14. A Cross-cultural Exploration of Children's Everyday Ideas: Implications for science teaching and learning

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wee, Bryan

    2012-03-01

    Children's everyday ideas form critical foundations for science learning yet little research has been conducted to understand and legitimize these ideas, particularly from an international perspective. This paper explores children's everyday ideas about the environment across the US, Singapore and China to understand what they reveal about children's relationship to the environment and discuss its implications for science teaching and learning. A social constructivist lens guides research, and a visual methodology is used to frame children's realities. Participants' ages range from elementary to middle school, and a total of 210 children comprized mainly of Asians and Asian Americans were sampled from urban settings. Drawings are used to elicit children's everyday ideas and analyzed inductively using open coding and categorizing of data. Several categories support existing literature about how children view the environment; however, novel categories such as affect also emerged and lend new insight into the role that language, socio-cultural norms and perhaps ethnicity play in shaping children's everyday ideas. The findings imply the need for (a) a change in the role of science teachers from knowledge providers to social developers, (b) a science curriculum that is specific to learners' experiences in different socio-cultural settings, and (c) a shift away from inter-country comparisons using international science test scores.

  15. The effect of guided inquiry-based instruction in secondary science for students with learning disabilities

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Eliot, Michael H.

    Students with learning disabilities (SWLDs) need to attain academic rigor to graduate from high school and college, as well as achieve success in life. Constructivist theories suggest that guided inquiry may provide the impetus for their success, yet little research has been done to support this premise. This study was designed to fill that gap. This quasi-experimental study compared didactic and guided inquiry-based teaching of science concepts to secondary SWLDs in SDC science classes. The study examined 38 students in four classes at two diverse, urban high schools. Participants were taught two science concepts using both teaching methods and posttested after each using paper-and-pencil tests and performance tasks. Data were compared to determine increases in conceptual understanding by teaching method, order of teaching method, and exposure one or both teaching methods. A survey examined participants' perceived self-efficacy under each method. Also, qualitative comparison of the two test formats examined appropriate use with SWLDs. Results showed significantly higher scores after the guided inquiry method on concept of volume, suggesting that guided inquiry does improve conceptual understanding over didactic instruction in some cases. Didactic teaching followed by guided inquiry resulted in higher scores than the reverse order, indicating that SWLDs may require direct instruction in basic facts and procedures related to a topic prior to engaging in guided inquiry. Also application of both teaching methods resulted in significantly higher scores than a single method on the concept of density, suggesting that SWLDs may require more in depth instruction found using both methods. No differences in perceived self-efficacy were shown. Qualitative analysis both assessments and participants' behaviors during testing support the use of performance tasks over paper-and-pencil tests with SWLDs. Implications for education include the use of guided inquiry to increase SWLDs conceptual understanding and process skills, while improving motivation and participation through hands-on learning. In addition, teachers may use performance tasks to better assess students' thought process, problem solving skills, and conceptual understanding. However, constructivist teaching methods require extra training, pedagogical skills, subject matter knowledge, physical resources, and support from all stakeholders.

  16. Teacher Candidates' Changing Perceptions of Urban Schools: Results of a 4-Year Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Conaway, Betty J.; Browning, Larry J.; Purdum-Cassidy, Barbara

    2007-01-01

    This study investigated changes in teacher candidates' perceptions of teaching in urban schools as they completed a 4-year teacher education program. Candidates were asked to respond in writing to two questions: "What are your concerns about teaching in an urban school?" and "What are the advantages of teaching in an urban…

  17. New Teachers for Change: Considering the Perspectives of Pre-Service Urban Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Borrero, Noah

    2016-01-01

    This study presents the perspectives of a group of pre-service teacher candidates with a commitment to teach in urban public schools. Nineteen new teachers participated in this study and 14 of them identified as new teachers of Color. Their reflections on entering the teaching profession, teaching in urban schools, and qualities of good teaching…

  18. The Balancing Act: The Personal and Professional Challenges of Urban Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Durham-Barnes, Joanna

    2011-01-01

    While many urban teachers flee urban schools after a few years of teaching, many spend their careers in teaching in the urban environment. A series of biographical interviews was conducted with four "career" urban teachers; throughout the data collection and analyses and despite their decade or more in the field, the interactions between the…

  19. Financial costs for teaching in rural and urban Australian general practices: is there a difference?

    PubMed

    Laurence, Caroline O; Coombs, Maryanne; Bell, Janice; Black, Linda

    2014-04-01

    To determine if the financial costs of teaching GP registrars differs between rural and urban practices. Cost-benefit analysis of teaching activities in private GP for GP vocational training. Data were obtained from a survey of general practitioners in South Australia and Western Australia. General practitioners and practices teaching in association with the Adelaide to Outback General Practice Training Program or the Western Australian General Practice Training. Net financial effect per week per practice. At all the training levels, rural practices experienced a financial loss for teaching GP registrars, while urban practices made a small financial gain. The differences in net benefit between rural and urban teaching practices was significant at the GPT2/PRRT2 (-$515 per week 95% CI -$1578, -$266) and GPT3/PRRT3 training levels (-$396 per week, 95% CI (-$2568, -$175). The variables contributing greatest to the difference were the higher infrastructure costs for a rural practice and higher income to the practice from the GP registrars in urban practices. There were significant differences in the financial costs and benefits for a teaching rural practice compared with an urban teaching practice. With infrastructure costs which include accommodation, being a key contributor to the difference found, it might be time to review the level of incentives paid to practices in this area. If not addressed, this cost difference might be a disincentive for rural practices to participate in teaching. © 2014 National Rural Health Alliance Inc.

  20. The Challenges of Beginning Teachers in Urban Primary Schools

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gaikhorst, Lisa; Beishuizen, Jos; Roosenboom, Bart; Volman, Monique

    2017-01-01

    This study provides insight in the variety of urban-related challenges that beginning teachers experience in urban schools. Literature on urban teaching focuses on teaching children from low socio-economic status (SES) and/or culturally diverse backgrounds. In many European cities, however, schools are populated by both children from relatively…

  1. The SERC K12 Educators Portal to Teaching Activities and Pedagogic Approaches

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Larsen, K.; Kirk, K. B.; Manduca, C. A.; Ledley, T. S.; Schmitt, L.

    2013-12-01

    The Science Education Resource Center (SERC) has created a portal to information for K12 educators to provide high-quality grade level appropriate materials from a wide variety of projects and topics. These materials were compiled across the SERC site, showcasing materials that were created for, or easily adaptable to, K12 classrooms. This resource will help support implementation of Next Generation Science Standards by assisting educators in finding innovative resources to address areas of instruction that are conceptually different than previous national and state science standards. Specifically, the K12 portal assists educators in learning about approaches that address the cross-cutting nature of science concepts, increasing students quantitative reasoning and numeracy skills, incorporating technology such as GIS in the classroom, and by assisting educators of all levels of K12 instruction in using relevant and meaningful ways to teach science concepts. The K12 portal supports educators by providing access to hundreds of teaching activities covering a wide array of science topics and grade levels many of which have been rigorously reviewed for pedagogic quality and scientific accuracy. The portal also provides access to web pages that enhance teaching practices that help increase student's system thinking skills, make lectures interactive, assist instructors in conducting safe and effective indoor and outdoor labs, providing support for teaching energy and climate literacy principles, assisting educators in addressing controversial content, provide guidance in engaging students affective domain, and provides a collection of tools for making teaching relevant in 21st century classrooms including using GIS, Google Earth, videos, visualizations and simulations to model and describe scientific concepts. The portal also provides access to material for specific content and audiences by (1) Supporting AGIs 'Map your World' week to specifically highlight teaching activities and approaches that use maps as the basis of instruction for a wide range of topics commonly taught in K12 science courses such as natural hazards, urban development, plate tectonics, climate change, ocean science, and water resources; and (2) Providing easy access to a vast collection of materials specifically for teachers of AP and IB classes including collections of teaching activities for all science disciplines as well as pedagogic approaches that are appropriate for the lab-intensive nature of these classes. The contents of the K12 portal are drawn from a number of projects and collaborations, including CLEAN, Earth Exploration Toolbook, Minnesota Science Teachers Education Project, Pedagogy in Action, EarthLabs, NAGT and On the Cutting Edge. Teachers can add their own materials to the site by sharing lessons plans, activities, and labs. K12 educators of all levels will find a wide variety of resources to spark the curiosity and interest of students. Explore the SERC K12 Educators Portal at: http://serc.carleton.edu/k12/index.html

  2. Partner Teaching: A Promising Model

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bronson, Carroll E.; Dentith, Audrey M.

    2014-01-01

    This paper describes an ethnographic case study of a partner or co-teaching classroom in an urban preschool classroom. As part of a larger project that evaluated classroom size and team teaching structures in Kindergarten classrooms in several high poverty urban schools, one successful co-teaching classroom was studied further. Systematic…

  3. Do Teachers Need Structure or Freedom to Effectively Teach Urban Students? A Review of the Educational Debate

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Margolis, Jason; Meese, Alison A.; Doring, Anne

    2016-01-01

    This article presents both sides of the debate as to whether urban teachers need structure or freedom, and then takes a stand on urban teaching in the current high-stakes assessment climate. First, we trace the 30-year development of American educational policy in the area of structuring teaching. Then, we present research from proponents of…

  4. Not Driven by High-Stakes Tests: Exploring Science Assessment and College Readiness of Students from an Urban Portfolio Community High School

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fleshman, Robin Earle

    This case study seeks to explore three research questions: (1) What science teaching and learning processes, perspectives, and cultures exist within the science classroom of an urban portfolio community high school? (2) In what ways does the portfolio-based approach prepare high school students of color for college level science coursework, laboratory work, and assessment? (3) Are portfolio community high school students of color college ready? Is there a relationship between students' science and mathematics performance and college readiness? The overarching objectives of the study are to learn, understand, and describe an urban portfolio community high school as it relates to science assessment and college readiness; to understand how the administration, teachers, and alumni perceive the use of portfolios in science learning and assessment; and to understand how alumni view their preparation and readiness for college and college science coursework, laboratory work, and assessments. The theoretical framework of this study encompasses four theories: critical theory, contextual assessment, self-regulated learning, and ethic of care. Because the urban high school studied partnered with a community-based organization (CBO), it identifies as a community school. Therefore, I provide context regarding the concept, culture, and services of community schools. Case study is the research design I used to explore in-depth this urban portfolio community high school, which involved mixed methods for data collection and analysis. In total, six alumni/current college students, five school members (administrators and teachers), and three CBO members (administrators, including myself) participated in the study. In addition to school artefacts and student portfolios collected, classroom and portfolio panel presentation observations and 13 semi-structured interviews were conducted to understand the portfolio-based approach as it pertains to science learning and assessment and college science readiness. Data from the transcripts of two graduating classes were analyzed and the interview transcripts were coded and analyzed as well. Analysis of qualitative data revealed key findings: (1) the school's Habits of Mind, authentic scientific inquiry, self-regulated learning triggers and strategies, and teacher feedback practices driven by an ethic of care supported students' science learning and portfolio assessment; and (2) the cyclical and extensive portfolio processes of writing, revision, and submission well prepared alumni for college science laboratory work and coursework, to a certain extent, but not for the traditional assessments administered in college science courses. Analysis of quantitative data revealed that, if based solely on the City University of New York's Regents score criteria for college readiness, the majority of students from these two graduating classes studied would not have been considered college ready even though all participants, including interviewed alumni, believed the school prepared them for college. The majority of these students, however, were transitioning to college readiness based on their Regents-level science and mathematics coursework. Findings of this study have implications for science assessment, professional development in science, education policy reform, and high school partnerships with CBOs and postsecondary institutions as they pertain to college and college science readiness for students of color in urban portfolio community high schools.

  5. Professional learning communities (PLCs) for early childhood science education

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Eum, Jungwon

    This study explored the content, processes, and dynamics of Professional Learning Community (PLC) sessions. This study also investigated changes in preschool teachers' attitudes and beliefs toward science teaching after they participated in two different forms of PLCs including workshop and face-to-face PLC as well as workshop and online PLC. Multiple sources of data were collected for this study including participant artifacts and facilitator field notes during the PLC sessions. The participants in this study were eight teachers from NAEYC-accredited child care centers serving 3- to 5-year-old children in an urban Midwest city. All teachers participated in a workshop entitled, "Ramps and Pathways." Following the workshop, the first group engaged in face-to-face PLC sessions and the other group engaged in online PLC sessions. Qualitative data were collected through audio recordings, online archives, and open-ended surveys. The teachers' dialogue during the face-to-face PLC sessions was audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed for emerging themes. Online archives during the online PLC sessions were collected and analyzed for emerging themes. Four main themes and 13 subthemes emanated from the face-to-face sessions, and 3 main themes and 7 subthemes emanated from the online sessions. During the face-to-face sessions, the teachers worked collaboratively by sharing their practices, supporting each other, and planning a lesson together. They also engaged in inquiry and reflection about their science teaching and child learning in a positive climate. During the online sessions, the teachers shared their thoughts and documentation and revisited their science teaching and child learning. Five themes and 15 subthemes emanated from the open-ended survey responses of face-to-face group teachers, and 3 themes and 7 subthemes emanated from the open-ended survey responses of online group teachers. Quantitative data collected in this study showed changes in teachers' attitudes and beliefs toward science teaching. Face-to-face group teachers' comfort with planning and doing different science activities increased significantly after the workshop and after the combination of workshop and face-to-face PLC. This study contributes to the research about various forms of professional development and their process and outcome in early childhood science education and informs early childhood professional communities of creative ways to improve science teaching and learning.

  6. An Empirical Study on Teaching Urban Young Children Music and English by Contrastive Elements of Music and Songs

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lee, Ling-Yu Liza

    2009-01-01

    The purpose of the study is to teach urban young children music concepts and English by composing creative music and songs with contrast elements. The subjects were seven urban young children aged from three to four in a Taiwan kindergarten. The duration was twenty-four weeks, with two sessions per week. The teaching contents included Hello Song,…

  7. Teaching biophysics. Strategies for recruiting and retaining minorities in physics and biophysics.

    PubMed Central

    Tanaka, J C; Gladney, L D

    1993-01-01

    Several strategies directed toward increasing the participation of minority students in physics and biophysics are presented. Since the number of minority students entering college with an interest in science and mathematics must be increased if we expect to see more students graduating in science, several programs aimed at increasing the level of instruction of physics and biology in urban middle schools and high schools are outlined. We also describe approaches designed to increase the retention of science major during the freshman core physics course where many potential science majors are lost. Increasing the number of minority students at the PhD level will rely increasingly on partnerships between research universities and historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and several programs already in effect are given as examples of such linkages. PMID:8369460

  8. Preparing new Earth Science teachers via a collaborative program between Research Scientists and Educators

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Grcevich, Jana; Pagnotta, Ashley; Mac Low, Mordecai-Mark; Shara, Michael; Flores, Kennet; Nadeau, Patricia A.; Sessa, Jocelyn; Ustunisik, Gokce; Zirakparvar, Nasser; Ebel, Denton; Harlow, George; Webster, James D.; Kinzler, Rosamond; MacDonald, Maritza B.; Contino, Julie; Cooke-Nieves, Natasha; Howes, Elaine; Zachowski, Marion

    2015-01-01

    The Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Program at the American Museum of Natural History is a innovative program designed to prepare participants to be world-class Earth Science teachers. New York State is experiencing a lack of qualified Earth Science teachers, leading in the short term to a reduction in students who successfully complete the Earth Science Regents examination, and in the long term potential reductions in the number of students who go on to pursue college degrees in Earth Science related disciplines. The MAT program addresses this problem via a collaboration between practicing research scientists and education faculty. The faculty consists of curators and postdoctoral researchers from the Departments of Astrophysics, Earth and Planetary Sciences, and the Division of Paleontology, as well as doctoral-level education experts. During the 15-month, full-time program, students participate in a residency program at local urban classrooms as well as taking courses and completing field work in astrophysics, geology, earth science, and paleontology. The program targets high-needs schools with diverse populations. We seek to encourage, stimulate interest, and inform the students impacted by our program, most of whom are from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds, about the rich possibilities for careers in Earth Science related disciplines and the intrinsic value of the subject. We report on the experience of the first and second cohorts, all of whom are now employed in full time teaching positions, and the majority in high needs schools in New York State.

  9. School-Based Multidisciplinary Teacher Team-Building Combining On-Line Professional Development (ESSEA) and Field-Based Environmental Monitoring (GLOBE)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Low, R.

    2003-12-01

    The multidisciplinary nature of Earth system science provides a strong foundation for integrated science teaching at the K-12 level. In a Minneapolis-St. Paul based project, urban middle school teaching teams composed of language arts and math specialists as well as physical, Earth, and biological science teachers participate in the NASA Earth system science course (ESSEA) and in the international GLOBE environmental monitoring project. For students, the goal is to integrate science throughout the curriculum as well as involve classes from different subjects in a high-interest school science project. For teachers, the project provides greatly-needed classroom support and teacher team building, as well as professional development. The on-line course provides continuity and communication between the different team members. Face-to-face meetings with the instructors on site are conducted every 4 weeks. The problem-based learning approach to environmental issues developed in the ESSEA course lends itself to application to local environmental issues. New ESSEA modules developed for the project highlight environmental problems associated with flooding, introduced species, and eutrofication of lakes and rivers located near the participating schools. In addition, ESSEA participants are certified as GLOBE teachers, and assist their students in monitoring water quality. The synergistic partnership of ESSEA and GLOBE provides an attractive package upon which long-term school-based environmental monitoring projects can be based.

  10. Teaching or Service?: The Site-Based Realities of Teach for America Teachers in Poor, Urban Schools

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Veltri, Barbara Torre

    2008-01-01

    "Business Week" and "Fortune Magazine" suggest that Teach for America (TFA) is a beneficial postgraduation option for corps members, who teach for a finite commitment in low-socioeconomic status urban school districts. This longitudinal qualitative study examines the complex issues that surround TFA through the voices of TFA corps members,…

  11. "It's a Lot of Hectic in Middle School": Student-Teaching in an Urban Classroom.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Meyer, Jim

    1999-01-01

    Relates the experience of a college professor who spent two months as a student teacher in an eighth-grade language arts classroom in an urban public school. Discusses middle school teaching verses college teaching, coming to know the students, discipline, student testing, accountability, teaching writing, the failure of teacher-training programs,…

  12. What School Movies and "TFA" Teach Us about Who Should Teach Urban Youth: Dominant Narratives as Public Pedagogy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cann, Colette N.

    2015-01-01

    White teacher savior films (WTSFs) depict the teaching profession as one for which conventional credentialing is unnecessary. White teachers with little training and experience perform miracles in urban classrooms where trained, experienced teachers have failed. This same narrative is echoed in alternative credential programs such as Teach For…

  13. Teachers Supporting Teachers in Urban Schools: What Iterative Research Designs Can Teach Us.

    PubMed

    Shernoff, Elisa S; Maríñez-Lora, Ane M; Frazier, Stacy L; Jakobsons, Lara J; Atkins, Marc S; Bonner, Deborah

    2011-12-01

    Despite alarming rates and negative consequences associated with urban teacher attrition, mentoring programs often fail to target the strongest predictors of attrition: effectiveness around classroom management and engaging learners; and connectedness to colleagues. Using a mixed-method iterative development framework, we highlight the process of developing and evaluating the feasibility of a multi-component professional development model for urban early career teachers. The model includes linking novices with peer-nominated key opinion leader teachers and an external coach who work together to (1) provide intensive support in evidence-based practices for classroom management and engaging learners, and (2) connect new teachers with their larger network of colleagues. Fidelity measures and focus group data illustrated varying attendance rates throughout the school year and that although seminars and professional learning communities were delivered as intended, adaptations to enhance the relevance, authenticity, level, and type of instrumental support were needed. Implications for science and practice are discussed.

  14. Ninth Graders' Learning Interests, Life Experiences and Attitudes Towards Science & Technology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chang, Shu-Nu; Yeung, Yau-Yuen; Cheng, May Hung

    2009-10-01

    Students' learning interests and attitudes toward science have both been studied for decades. However, the connection between them with students' life experiences about science and technology has not been addressed much. The purpose of this study is to investigate students' learning interests and life experiences about science and technology, and also their attitudes toward technology. A total of 942 urban ninth graders in Taiwan were invited to participate in this study. A Likert scale questionnaire, which was developed from an international project, ROSE, was adapted to collect students' ideas. The results indicated that boys showed higher learning interests in sustainability issues and scientific topics than girls. However, girls recalled more life experiences about science and technology in life than boys. The data also presented high values of Pearson correlation about learning interests and life experiences related to science and technology, and in the perspective on attitudes towards technology. Ways to promote girls' learning interests about science and technology and the implications of teaching and research are discussed as well.

  15. Cleaning Up the Clinic: Examining Mentor Teachers' Perceptions of Urban Classrooms and Culturally Responsive Teaching

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Thomas-Alexander, Sashelle; Harper, Brian E.

    2017-01-01

    This study investigates the beliefs of mentor teachers with respect to urban classrooms as well as their confidence level with respect to working with a diverse array of urban students. When presented with a simple, unambiguous query concerning urban schools and the Culturally Responsive Teaching Self-Efficacy Scale, mentor teachers in this sample…

  16. Enhancing Teacher Efficacy for Urban STEM Teachers Facing Challenges to Their Teaching

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Seals, Christopher; Mehta, Swati; Berzina-Pitcher, Inese; Graves-Wolf, Leigh

    2017-01-01

    This paper explores challenges of teaching in relation to teachers' efficacy for 49 teachers who were part of a year-long teacher development program (PD) called the UrbanSTEM program. This program took place in an urban school district that serves over 300,000 students. This research asked if there are common challenges that urban teachers face…

  17. Using Art to Teach Students Science Outdoors: How Creative Science Instruction Influences Observation, Question Formation, and Involvement

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cone, Christina Schull

    Elementary education has become increasingly divided into subjects and focused on the demand for high math and reading scores. Consequently, teachers spend less time devoted to science and art instruction. However, teaching art and science is crucial to developing creative and rational thinking, especially for observation and questioning skills. In this study, third grade students attending an urban school in Portland, Oregon received instruction of an art strategy using observational and quantifying drawing techniques. This study examines, "Will an art strategy observing the local environment help students make observations and ask questions?" and "In what ways are student learning and perspectives of science affected by the art strategy?" The independent variable is the art strategy developed for this study. There are three dependent variables: quality of student observations, quality of questions, and themes on student learning and perspectives of science. I predicted students would develop strong observation and questioning skills and that students would find the strategy useful or have an increased interest in science. The art scores were high for relevance and detail, but not for text. There were significant correlations between art scores and questions. Interviews revealed three themes: observations create questions, drawing is helpful and challenging, and students connected to science. By examining science through art, students were engaged and created strong observations and questions. Teachers need to balance unstructured drawing time with scaffolding for optimal results. This study provides an integrated science and art strategy that teachers can use outdoors or adapt for the classroom.

  18. Engaged Learning and Youth Interest in STEM Careers: A Science Museum Exhibit on Air Pollution and Urban Sustainability

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stuart, A. L.

    2012-12-01

    Enrollments in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curricula currently lag workforce needs. Participation of women and minorities in STEM careers also remains low despite efforts to improve their representation in these fields. We discuss the development and evaluation of a science museum exhibit aimed at stimulating interest of middle school children (particularly girls) in STEM careers. The exhibit was designed to teach science, while addressing two factors identified as limiting the interest of girls in STEM fields — perceived lack of social relevance and lack of female role models. Further, it was designed to apply best practices in science education, including inquiry-based learning and interdisciplinary content. The exhibit was developed through collaboration between students and faculty researchers at the University of South Florida and science education and evaluation specialists at the Museum of Science and Industry of Tampa. A few stages of formative and summative assessment, including focus group discussions, visitor observation, and surveys were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the exhibit to educational project goals. The installed exhibit is focused on teaching content related to interactions between air pollution, urban design, and human health. The approximately 25 square foot exhibit space involves four different types of components. A three-dimensional model of a city, with underlying dynamic computer simulations, allows visitors to interactively explore relationships between city design, air pollution and exposures. A computer game, with quiz questions requiring user decisions on personal to community behavior, provides visual feedback regarding impacts on air pollution. Traditional panels with graphics and text, including results of current research, display integrative scientific content with open-ended questions to stimulate discussion. Finally, personal profiles highlight the diverse family, work, and social lives of a few STEM professionals from childhood to mid-career. Current results of the educational evaluation suggest that the quiz game and three-dimensional interactive model were particularly effective at engaging and interesting visitors in the science content. The personal profiles appear to have helped to interest visitors in STEM careers, regardless of gender or age. The methods and results demonstrated through this exhibit should inform improvements to informal science education toward increased engagement of the next generation in science content and STEM careers.

  19. Teachers' perspectives on the challenges of teaching physical education in urban schools: the student emotional filter.

    PubMed

    McCaughtry, Nate; Barnard, Sara; Martin, Jeffrey; Shen, Bo; Kulinna, Pamela Hodges

    2006-12-01

    The purpose of this study was to analyze how the challenges of urban schools influence physical education teachers' emotional understanding and connections with their students and the implications on their teaching. Sixty-one elementary physical educators from an urban school district in the midwestern U.S. were interviewed multiple times (N = 136) over 3 years using interpretive methodology. Teachers reported five unique challenges that significantly shaped their thinking about students and their careers, along with strategies they used to overcome or manage those challenges. The challenges were: (a) insufficient instructional resources, (b) implementing culturally relevant pedagogy, (c) dealing with community violence, (d) integrating more games in curricula, and (e) teaching in a culture of basketball. Implications centered on the guilt-inducing nature of urban teaching, developing an informed and realistic vision of urban physical education, and the role of teacher preparation and professional development.

  20. Texas Science Teacher Characteristics and Conceptual Understanding of Newton's Laws of Motion

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Busby, Karin Burk

    Misconceptions of Newtonian mechanics and other physical science concepts are well documented in primary and pre-service teacher populations (Burgoon, Heddle, & Duran, 2009; Allen & Coole, 2012; Kruger, Summers, & Palacio, 1990; Ginns & Watters, 1995; Trumper, 1999; Asikainen & Hirovonen, 2014). These misconceptions match the misconceptions held by students, leaving teachers ill-equipped to rectify these concepts in the classroom (Kind, 2014; Kruger et al., 1990; Cochran & Jones, 1998). Little research has been devoted to misconceptions held by in-service secondary teachers, the population responsible for teaching Newtonian mechanics. This study focuses on Texas in-service science teachers in middle school and high school science, specifically sixth grade science, seventh grade science, eighth grade science, integrated physics and chemistry, and physics teachers. This study utilizes two instruments to gauge conceptual understanding of Newton's laws of motion: the Force Concept Inventory [FCI] (Hestenes, Wells, & Swackhamer, 1992) and a custom instrument developed for the Texas Regional Collaboratives for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching (Urquhart, M., e-mail, April 4, 2017). Use of each instrument had its strengths and limitations. In the initial work of this study, the FCI was given to middle and high school teacher volunteers in two urban school districts in the Dallas- Fort Worth area to assess current conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics. Along with the FCI, each participant was asked to complete a demographic survey. Demographic data collected included participant's sex, years of service in teaching position, current teaching position, degrees, certification type, and current certifications for science education. Correlations between variables and overall average on the FCI were determined by t-tests and ANOVA tests with a post-hoc Holm-Bonferroni correction test. Test questions pertaining to each of Newton's three laws of motion were extrapolated to determine any correlations. The sample size for this study was small (n=24), requiring a second study investigate potential correlations to teacher characteristics. The second study was conducted using the 2013-2014 school year participants in the Texas Regional Collaboratives for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching [TRC] (Texas Regional Collaborative for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching, 2013), a statewide program led by The University of Texas at Austin Center for STEM Education (Texas Regional Collaborative for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching, 2013). Participants completed a demographic survey and took the TRC Physics Assessment instrument developed for the TRC to determine current conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics as defined by the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills. The TRC also collected demographic data including Texas Educational Agency region, participant's sex, years of service in teaching, current teaching position, level of highest degree earned, whether or not the participant had a STEM degree, and certification type. Correlations were determined between overall average and conceptual force questions only. The sample size was substantial (n=368) but due to time constraints in its development, the TRC Physics Assessment was unable to undergo reliability or validity testing before implementation. Test question pertaining to each of Newton's three laws of motion were extrapolated to determine any correlations. A significance value of p= 0.05 was used for all tests. Both content assessments indicated that, on average, teacher-participants had a considerable misunderstanding of Newtonian mechanics with Newton's third law questions especially difficult for the populations. Teachers' current teaching assignment was statistically significant for most tests, suggesting that high school physics teachers have more conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics than middle school teachers but have not necessarily mastered Newtonian mechanics. STEM majors and participant's sex were significant only for the TRC Physics Assessment. One outcome of this study is a recommendation that the Texas teacher certification process for middle school science change to include a general science test that includes physical science. Also, in-service science teachers responsible for teaching Newton's laws of motion should participate in specific professional development from a physics content educational expert to address misconceptions. Additional recommendations include that physics teachers take a mentoring role to help other teachers in physical science concepts and that middle school curriculum provide assistance to teachers for addressing misconceptions of Newton's third law.

  1. The effect of site-based preservice experiences on elementary science teaching self-efficacy beliefs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wingfield, Mary E.

    Current reform in science education has focused on the need for improvement of preservice teacher training (National Science Education Standards, 1996). As a situation specific construct (Bandura, 1977), self-efficacy studies have been conducted to investigate factors that impact preservice teachers' sense of confidence as it relates to their ability to become successful science teachers. This descriptive study identified factors in the site based experiences that affected preservice elementary teachers' self-efficacy as measured by the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBL-B) (Enochs and Riggs, 1990). The sample consisted of the entire population of undergraduate elementary preservice teachers in the site based teacher education program during the fall semester of 1997 at a large south central urban university. The 131 paired, pretest posttests of the entire STEBL-B and the two constructs were analyzed for significance in mean score gains. Results of the paired t test yielded a t value of 11.52 which was significant at p <.001. An analysis of covariance using the pretest as the covariate yielded an F value of 6.41 which was statistically significant at p <.001. These quantitative results were supported by interviews and by written comments on questionnaires that determined ratings for the extent of impact on self-efficacy from site based experiences. Results of this study indicate that the experiences of the site based program has a significant positive impact on the preservice teachers' self-efficacy. The implication for teacher educators is that this specific affective dimension can be significantly enhanced. The site based program can provide the four factors Bandura identified as sources of information used to determine self-efficacy. These include performance accomplishments through authentic teaching experiences, vicarious experiences through observation of the site based teachers, and verbal persuasion and physiological states from feedback given by the university coordinators. The majority of these preservice teachers started the semester with a negative attitude toward teaching science, but ended the semester with a positive view of themselves as effective science teachers in the future.

  2. Preservice Teachers' Beliefs about Urban Contexts

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hatch, J. Amos

    2007-01-01

    This article reports findings from a qualitative study of preservice teachers' beliefs about the contexts of urban teaching. Participants were in their first semester of a K-6 licensure program designed to prepare them for urban teaching. Interviews and email reflective journal exchanges with the researcher were the data of the study, and…

  3. The Archetypes and Philosophical Motivations of Urban Elementary Physical Educators

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Culp, Brian

    2011-01-01

    Brookfield (1990), Brown (2002) and Weiner (2006) have advocated for the study of teachers' philosophies as integral to understanding motivation for teaching in urban settings. The purpose of this study investigates the teaching philosophies of 13 experienced urban elementary physical educators. Content analysis of the data collected from teachers…

  4. Rural and Urban Teaching Experiences: Narrative Expressions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Preston, Jane P.

    2012-01-01

    This qualitative exploration of rural and urban teaching experiences encapsulates the experiences of 8 Western Canadian teachers. A literature review outlines the benefits and challenges of rural and urban education. Stemming from narrative inquiry data, I present the study's results in the form of two composite stories, which depict the lived…

  5. 19 Urban Questions: Teaching in the City. Second Edition. Counterpoints: Studies in Postmodern Theory of Education, Vol. 215

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Steinberg, Shirley R., Ed

    2010-01-01

    The second edition of "19 Urban Questions: Teaching in the City" adds new questions to those in the original volume. Continuing the developing conversation in urban education, the book is provocative in style and rich in detail. Emphasizing the complexity of urban education, Shirley R. Steinberg and the authors ask direct questions about what…

  6. Producing "science/fictions" about the rural and urban poor: Community-based learning at a medical college in South India

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Arur, Aditi Ashok

    This dissertation is an ethnographic case study of a community-based teaching program (CBTP) in public health at a medical college in South India that explored how the CBTP produced particular ways of seeing and understanding rural and urban poor communities. Drawing from critical, feminist, and postcolonial scholars, I suggest that the knowledge produced in the CBTP can be understood as "science/fictions", that is, as cultural texts shaped by transnational development discourses as well as medical teachers' and students' sociospatial imaginations of the rural and urban poor. I explored how these science/fictions mediated medical students' performative actions and interactions with a rural and an urban poor community in the context of the CBTP. At the same time, I also examined how knowledge produced in students' encounters with these communities disrupted their naturalized understandings about these communities, and how it was taken up to renarrativize science/fictions anew. Data collection and analyses procedures were informed by critical ethnographic and critical discourse analysis approaches. Data sources includes field notes constructed from observations of the CBTP, interviews with medical teachers and students, and curricular texts including the standardized national textbook of public health. The findings of this study illustrate how the CBTP staged the government and technology as central actors in the production of healthy bodies, communities, and environments, and implicitly positioned medical teachers and students as productive citizens of a modern nation while rural and urban poor communities were characterized sometimes as empowered, and at other times as not-yet-modern and in need of reform. However, the community also constituted an alternate pedagogical site of engagement in that students' encounters with community members disrupted students' assumptions about these communities to an extent. Nevertheless, institutionalized practices of assessment, and epistemological and ontological understandings of the nature of science tended to privilege the standardized curriculum and popular cultural stereotypes as scientific knowledge thereby excluding the place-based narratives of local communities, medical students, and teachers. This study, therefore, argues that interactions with local communities in community-based education and development programs cannot democratize knowledge production in medical education without a simultaneous engagement with post-foundational epistemologies in the social sciences and humanities.

  7. Culturally Responsive Teaching: The Harlem Renaissance in an Urban English Class

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stairs, Andrea J.

    2007-01-01

    Andrea J. Stairs advocates culturally responsive teaching, a practice that explicitly highlights "issues of race, ethnicity, and culture as central to teaching, learning, and schooling," and emphasizes the necessity of interrogating the themes of race, power, and privilege in the urban classroom. Stairs observes two student teachers as…

  8. Troubled Waters: where Multiple Streams of Inequality Converge in the Math and Science Experiences of Nonprivileged Girls

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Parrott, Laurel; Spatig, Linda; Kusimo, Patricia S.; Carter, Carolyn C.; Keyes, Marian

    Water is often hardest to navigate at the confluence of individual streams. As they experience math and science, nonprivileged girls maneuver through roiling waters where the streams of gender, ethnicity, poverty, place, and teaching practices converge. Just as waters of separate streams blend, these issues - too often considered separate factors - become blended and difficult to isolate, and the resulting turbulence produces a bumpy ride. We draw on 3 years of qualitative data collected as part of an intervention program to explore the math and science experiences and perceptions of a group of ethnically diverse, low socioeconomic status rural and urban adolescent Appalachian girls. After describing program and community contexts, we explore "opportunity to leant" issues - specifically, expectations, access to content, and support networks - and examine their schooling experiences against visions of science and math reform and pressures for accountability. Data are discussed within a framework of critical educational theory.

  9. Effective science teaching in a high poverty middle school: A case study

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Meyer, Georgette Wright

    This qualitative case study described the characteristics of science teachers in a high poverty urban middle school whose 2010 scores on South Carolina's Palmetto Assessment of State Standards (PASS) ranked second in the state. Data was obtained through classroom observations, open-ended interviews, school documents, and photographs taken inside the school from ten participants, who were seven science teachers, a science coach, and two administrators. Findings revealed a school culture that pursued warm and caring relationships with students while communicating high expectations for achievement, strong central leadership who communicated their vision and continuously checked for its implementation through informal conversations, frequent classroom observations, and test score analysis. A link between participants' current actions and their perception of prior personal and professional experiences was found. Participants related their classroom actions to the lives of the students outside of school, and evidenced affection for their students.

  10. Teaching Ecology in Urban Environments.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fail, Joseph, Jr.

    1995-01-01

    Discusses the teaching of ecology and environmental education in urban environments by using field trips to city parks, airports, nuclear power plants, water treatment plants, sewage treatment plants, incinerators, foundries, and forests. (MKR)

  11. Proceedings: The Conference of the University/Urban Schools National Task Force: What Works in Urban Schools (3rd, San Francisco, CA, July 9-10, 1982).

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bossone, Richard M., Ed.

    Proceedings of the University/Urban Schools Task Force conference on what works in urban schools are summarized in this report. The future direction of the Task Force, articulated by conference participants, is described as a move toward the conceptualization and design of programs to teach thinking skills versus programs that mainly teach subject…

  12. Teaching Music in the Urban Classroom, Volume 1: A Guide to Survival, Success, and Reform

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Frierson-Campbell, Carol, Ed.

    2006-01-01

    The change needed in urban music education not only relates to the idea that music should be at the center of the curriculum; rather, it is that culturally relevant music should be a creative force at the center of reform in urban education. Teaching Music in the Urban Classroom: A Guide to Survival, Success, and Reform is the start of a…

  13. Urban Teacher Education and Teaching: Innovative Practices for Diversity and Social Justice

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Solomon, R. Patrick, Ed.; Sekayi, Dia, Ed.

    2007-01-01

    This volume illuminates the most pressing challenges faced by urban schools, teachers, teacher candidates, and teacher training programs and offers a range of insights and possibilities for urban teacher education and teaching. Covering issues spanning the broadly theoretical to the urgently practical, it goes beyond the traditional discourses in…

  14. Exploring Ivorian perspectives on the effectiveness of the current Ivorian science curriculum in addressing issues related to HIV/AIDS

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ado, Gustave Firmin

    School-based HIV/AIDS science education has the potential to impact students when integrated into the science curriculum. However, this mixed method study shows that school-based HIV/AIDS science education is often not infused into career subjects such as science education but integrated into civics education and taught by teachers who lack the skills, knowledge, and the training in the delivery of effective school HIV/AIDS education. Since science is where biological events take place, it is suggested that HIV/AIDS science merits being taught in the science education classroom. This study took place in nine public middle schools within two school districts in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, one major urban city in the southern region. The study utilized triangulation of multiple data sources---both qualitative and quantitative. To substantiate the claims made in this study, a range of qualitative methods such as field notes and individual interviews with 39 teachers, 63 sixth grade students, 8 school administrators, and 20 community elders were used. For the quantitative portion 140 teachers and 3510 sixth grade students were surveyed. The findings from the study prioritize science education that includes HIV/AIDS science education for all, with emphasis on HIV/AIDS prevention in Ivory Coast. The factors that influence the implementation of HIV/AIDS curricula within the Ivorian sixth grade classrooms are discussed. Interview and survey data from students, teachers, school administrators, and community elders indicate that in the Ivorian school setting, "gerontocratic" cultural influences, religious beliefs, personal cultural beliefs, and time spent toward the discourse on HIV/AIDS have led to HIV/AIDS education that is often insufficient to change either misconceptions about HIV/AIDS or risky practices. It was also found that approaches to teaching HIV/AIDS does not connect with youth cultures. By reframing and integrating current HIV/AIDS curricula into the science classroom, providing teachers with adequate HIV/AIDS teaching resources that are more responsive to and inclusive of youth cultural beliefs, and by aligning teaching practices to Ivorian youth cultural and academics interests, there is a chance that HIV/AIDS education could lead to safer sexual behaviors amongst Ivorian youth.

  15. Pre-Service Teacher Vision and Urban Schools

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Roselle, Rene; Liner, Kevin

    2012-01-01

    As preservice teachers enter their first teaching experience, they often have perceptions about what teaching will be like based on a vision that is typically linked to their own background and experiences. This study explores the changes in visions of 15 preservice teachers throughout student teaching in an urban environment. The research will…

  16. Urban Teachers' Professed Classroom Management Strategies: Reflections of Culturally Responsive Teaching

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brown, Dave F.

    2004-01-01

    Thirteen urban educators teaching from 1st through 12th grade selected from 7 cities across the United States were interviewed in this qualitative research study to determine if the classroom management strategies they use reflect the research on culturally responsive teaching. Participants revealed using several management strategies that reflect…

  17. Urban Teaching: The Essentials. Third Edition

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Weiner, Lois; Jerome, Daniel

    2016-01-01

    This significantly revised edition will help prospective and new city teachers navigate the realities of city teaching. Now the classic introduction to urban teaching, this book explains how global, national, state, and local reforms have impacted what teachers need to know to not only survive, but to do their jobs well. The Third Edition melds…

  18. Teachers’ Attitudes towards and Comfort about Teaching School-Based Sexuality Education in Urban and Rural Tanzania

    PubMed Central

    Mkumbo, Kitila Alexander

    2012-01-01

    Teachers’ attitudes towards sexuality education are among the important predictors of their willingness to teach sexuality education programmes in schools. While there is a plethora of studies on teachers’ attitudes towards sexuality in developed countries, there is a paucity of such studies in sub-Saharan Africa in general and Tanzania in particular. This study examined teachers’ attitudes towards and comfort in teaching sexuality education in rural and urban Tanzania. The results show that an overwhelming majority of teachers in both rural and urban districts supported the teaching of sexuality education in schools, and the inclusion of a wide range of sexuality education topics in the curriculum. Nevertheless, though teachers expressed commitment to teaching sexuality education in schools, they expressed difficult and discomfort in teaching most of the key sexuality education topics. This implies that declaration of positive attitudes towards teaching sexuality education alone is not enough; there is a need for facilitating teachers with knowledge, skills and confidence to teach various sexuality education topics. PMID:22980351

  19. The effects of a summer science camp teaching experience on preservice elementary teachers' science teaching efficacy, science content knowledge, and understanding of the nature of science

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Logerwell, Mollianne G.

    The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of a summer science camp teaching experience on preservice elementary teachers' science teaching efficacy, science content knowledge, and understanding of the nature of science. Master's degree students enrolled in the elementary Fairfax Partnership Schools (FPS, n = 21) cohort served as the treatment group, while those enrolled in the Loudoun Partnership Schools (LPS, n = 15) and Professional Development Schools (PDS, n = 24) cohorts at George Mason University served as the control groups. The treatment group planned for and taught a two-week inquiry- and problem-based summer science camp as part of their science methods course, while the control groups did not. The Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI), a science content assessment, a personal data questionnaire, and a modified version of the Views of Nature of Science Questionnaire (VNOS-C) were administered to the participants at the beginning and end of their science methods course. Analyses revealed significant increases for the FPS group in general science teaching efficacy, personal science teaching efficacy, science teaching outcome expectancy, general science knowledge, biology content knowledge, chemistry content knowledge, and understanding of NOS; the LPS group in general science teaching efficacy, personal science teaching efficacy, chemistry content knowledge, and understanding of NOS; and, the PDS group in general science teaching efficacy, personal science teaching efficacy, and chemistry content knowledge. Additionally, the FPS group had significantly higher general science teaching efficacy than both control groups, personal science teaching efficacy than the PDS group, and understanding of NOS than the LPS group. Overall, the findings indicate that course length is not as important for developing preservice teachers' teaching efficacy and understanding of content as having connected, authentic field-based teaching experiences that are based on best-practices research and coupled with methodological instruction.

  20. Science Teaching Efficacy of Preservice Elementary Teachers: Examination of the Multiple Factors Reported as Influential

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Taştan Kırık, Özgecan

    2013-12-01

    This study explores the science teaching efficacy beliefs of pr-service elementary teachers and the relationship between efficacy beliefs and multiple factors such as antecedent factors (participation in extracurricular activities and number of science and science teaching methods courses taken), conceptual understanding, classroom management beliefs and science teaching attitudes. Science education majors ( n = 71) and elementary education majors ( n = 262) were compared with respect to these variables. Finally, the predictors of two constructs of science teaching efficacy beliefs, personal science teaching efficacy (PSTE) and science teaching outcome expectancy (STOE), were examined by multiple linear regression analysis. According to the results, participation in extracurricular activities has a significant but low correlation with science concept knowledge, science teaching attitudes, PSTE and STOE. In addition, there is a small but significant correlation between science concept knowledge and outcome expectancy, which leads the idea that preservice elementary teachers' conceptual understanding in science contributes to their science teaching self-efficacy. This study reveals a moderate correlation between science teaching attitudes and STOE and a high correlation between science teaching attitudes and PSTE. Additionally, although the correlation coefficient is low, the number of methodology courses was found to be one of the correlates of science teaching attitudes. Furthermore, students of both majors generally had positive self-efficacy beliefs on both the STOE and PSTE. Specifically, science education majors had higher science teaching self-efficacy than elementary education majors. Regression results showed that science teaching attitude is the major factor in predicting both PSTE and STOE for both groups.

  1. The City as a Teaching Device

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Siegert, Richard

    1976-01-01

    Hong Kong International School has made extensive use of city resources in teaching concepts of government, world affairs, urban geography, economic geography, and macro-economics, in ways that may be replicated in other urban centers. (MB)

  2. Struggles of agency and structure as cultural worlds collide as urban African American youth learn physics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Elmesky, Rowhea

    This critical ethnography focused on five urban African American students, coming from economically disadvantaged homes in Philadelphia, who were considered at risk with regard to their position within society as well as within the small learning community of their low-academically performing school. As participants in the study, they were employed from June 11, 2001 from 9:00 AM until 1:00 PM and continuing until September 7, 2001 at $7.50 per hour under research grants from the Spencer Foundation and the National Science Foundation. Through this study, these five youth were provided with traditional and nontraditional opportunities to build understandings of some of the most essential concepts of physics as learners. Moreover, they also had the chance to work as research assistants, teacher educators and curriculum developers. The findings of the research conclusively reveal that African American, urban youth from some of the most challenging situations are capable of learning physics concepts. Moreover, the most success resulted when students' strategies of action were directed towards the objective of learning although, in the process of meaning-making, their personal goals unrelated to science were also met. In addition, the research results show that urban African American students come to school with strategies of action replete with cultural practices, symbols and their underlying meanings from fields outside of school including both the home and the neighborhood. These cultural resources, when triggered, then become apparent within learning environments and can powerfully assist learning when the desired outcomes of the student(s) are in tune with the objective of learning physics. Through the physics teaching and learning that occurred within this study, as well as their work as researchers, teacher educators and curriculum developers, April, Ebony, Markist, Pierre and Ya-Meer had opportunities to utilize their cultural capital to build new knowledge schemas and to develop access to new resources. Consequently, evidence of agency on multiple levels was found to arise as they have shown demonstrated that poverty stricken African American urban youth can be changed by science and science too can be changed by them.

  3. Going against the Grain in an Urban Arizona High School: Secondary Preservice Teachers Emerging as Culturally Responsive Educators

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ramirez, Pablo; Jimenez-Silva, Margarita; Boozer, April; Clark, Ben

    2016-01-01

    This one year study examines the journey of two preservice urban high-school teachers in Arizona as they enact Culturally Responsive Teaching in a year-long student teaching residency. Factors that influenced their Culturally Responsive Teaching practices are discussed along themes that emerged from interviews and classroom observations.…

  4. Teachers' Perception of Team Teaching Middle School Mathematics in Urban Schools

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Serrano, Vanessa

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine teachers' perceptions of team teaching middle school mathematics in urban schools. The research questions focused on student academic performance and the impact that team teaching may have from the perspective of teachers. The theories of Piaget, Vygotsky, and Bruner formed the theoretical foundation…

  5. Developing Socially Just Teachers: The Interaction of Experiences before, during, and after Teacher Preparation in Beginning Urban Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Whipp, Joan L.

    2013-01-01

    This interpretive study investigated how 12 graduates from a justice-oriented teacher preparation program described their teaching goals, practices, and influences on those practices after their 1st year of teaching in an urban school. Relationships among these teachers' orientations toward socially just teaching, self-reported socially just…

  6. Universities Reaching Outwards: Science Education Partnerships with Urban School Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sandifer, Cody

    2013-03-01

    The goals of this talk are to: (1) describe how universities, physics departments, and individual faculty can partner with urban school systems to benefit K-16 students, teacher education programs, and university instructors, (2) summarize research on effective university-school system education partnerships, and (3) offer advice and share lessons learned so that university partners can avoid common pitfalls and maximize the potential for collaborative success. Possible areas of university-school collaboration include resident teachers, curricular review, early teaching experiences, demo sharing sessions, ongoing professional development, on- and off-campus science outreach, RET programs, science education resource centers, and others. University-school educational partnerships offer numerous benefits but can be challenging to implement and maintain. Research shows that most successful partnerships possess the following characteristics: mutual self-interest, participant commitment, mutual trust and respect, shared decision-making, information sharing, and ongoing evaluation. K-16 course and curriculum redesign is a specific issue that has its own unique set of contextual factors that impact the project's chance at success, including available materials, administrative support, formative assessments, pilot-testing and instructor feedback, and ongoing professional development. I have learned a number of lessons in own science education collaborations with the Baltimore City Public School System, which is an urban school system with 200 schools, 84,000 students, and 10,700 teachers and administrators. These lessons pertain to: communication, administrative power, and the structure of the school system; relevant contextual factors in the university and K-12 schools; and good old-fashioned common sense.Specific advice on K-16 science education partnerships will be provided to help universities increase student and instructor satisfaction with their physics and teacher education programs, maintain a positive and mutually beneficial relationship with local schools, and improve science education at all levels of instruction. Common sense is encouraged, but not required, to attend the invited talk.

  7. The influence of secondary science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge, educational beliefs and perceptions of the curriculum on implementation and science reform

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bonner, Portia Selene

    2001-07-01

    Science education reform is one of the focal points of restructuring the educational system in the United States. However, research indicates a slow change in progression towards science literacy among secondary students. One of the factors contributing to slow change is how teachers implement the curriculum in the classroom. Three constructs are believed to be influential in curriculum implementation: educational beliefs, pedagogical knowledge and perception of the curriculum. Earlier research suggests that there is a strong correlation between teachers' educational beliefs and instructional practices. These beliefs can be predictors of preferred strategies employed in the classroom. Secondly, teachers' pedagogical knowledge, that is the ability to apply theory and appropriate strategies associated with implementing and evaluating a curriculum, contributes to implementation. Thirdly, perception or how the curriculum itself is perceived also effects implementation. Each of these constructs has been examined independently, but never the interplay of the three. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the interplay of teachers' educational beliefs, pedagogical content knowledge and perceptions of a science curriculum with respect to how these influence curriculum implementation. This was accomplished by investigating the emerging themes that evolved from classroom observations, transcripts from interview and supplementary data. Five high school biology teachers in an urban school system were observed for ten months for correspondence of teaching strategies to the curriculum. Teachers were interviewed formally and informally about their perceptions of science teaching, learning and the curriculum. Supplementary material such as lesson plans, course syllabus and notes from classroom observations were collected and analyzed. Data were transcribed and analyzed for recurring themes using a thematic matrix. A theoretical model was developed from the emerging themes and sub-themes that attempts to explain how teachers begin with an intended curriculum but digress to the actual curriculum. The results of this study were consistent with previous research on teachers' beliefs and pedagogy but also revealed a new model to explain the interaction of the three constructs. Each instructor held individual beliefs about science, science teaching and pedagogy. However, there was some commonality with teachers' beliefs, pedagogy and perceptions that impacted the implementation of the curriculum. It is the interplay of teachers' educational beliefs, pedagogical content knowledge and perceptions of the curriculum that determines what is taught and instructional strategies used to teach a concept.

  8. The effects of integrated mathematics/science curriculum and instruction on mathematics achievement and student attitudes in grade six

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hill, Mary Denise

    The purpose of this study was to determine whether integrating mathematics and science curriculum and teaching practices significantly improves achievement in mathematics and attitudes towards mathematics among sixth grade students in South Texas. The study was conducted during the 2001--2002 school year. A causal-comparative ex post facto research design was used to explore the effects of integrated mathematics and science classrooms compared to classrooms of traditional, isolated mathematics and science teaching practices on student achievement and student attitudes. Achievement was based on the Spring 2002 Mathematics portion of the standardized Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) Texas Learning Index (TLI) scores and individual student's mathematics Grade Point Average (GPA). Measurement of student attitudes was based on the results of the Integrated Mathematics Attitudinal Survey (IMAS), created by the researcher for this study. The sample population included 349 Grade 6 mathematics students attending one middle school involved in a pilot program utilizing integrated mathematics/science curriculum and teaching practices in a South Texas urban school district. The research involved 337 of the 349 sixth grade students to study the effects of mathematics/science curriculum and teaching practices on achievement and 207 of the 349 sixth grade students to study the effects of mathematics/science curriculum on attitudes concerning mathematics. The data were analyzed using chi square analyses, independent samples t-tests, and the analysis of variance (ANOVA). Statistical significance was determined at the .05 level of significance. Significant relationships were found when analyzing the proficiency of mathematics skills and individual growth of mathematics achievement. Chi square analyses indicated that the students in the integrated mathematics/science classrooms were more likely to exhibit individual growth and proficiency of mathematics skills based on the results of TAAS. Independent samples t-tests indicated that students in the integrated mathematics/science program scored significantly higher than the students in the traditional program in mean achievement scores and in mean growth of scores based on the results of TAAS. No significant differences were found when comparing mathematics anxiety scores between students in the integrated mathematics/science program and the traditional program. However, additional significant differences were identified when students in the integrated mathematics/science program scored higher than the students in the traditional program when analyzing the overall mean student attitude scores concerning mathematics and the mean scores of attitudinal values of mathematics in society.

  9. The Edelman Galileoscope Education Program: A Collaboration Among Professional Societies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pompea, Stephen M.; Marvel, K. B.; Fienberg, R. T.; Arion, D. N.; Herrold, A.; Kruse, B.; Sparks, R. T.; Dugan, C.

    2011-01-01

    The Edelman Galileoscope Education Program is an ongoing national effort to provide K-12 teachers with Galileoscope refractor kits and the proper training to use them effectively for teaching scientific concepts and observational skills. As such it represents a strategic effort to excite children about astronomy and provides them with a powerful tool to increase science literacy. The program was made possible by a generous gift from Jean and Ric Edelman to the American Astronomical Society (AAS). The AAS teamed with the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO); Galileoscope, LLC; the National Earth Science Teachers Association (NESTA); and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) to distribute telescopes, mainly during teacher workshops. Through the professional development efforts of NESTA, ASP, and NOAO's Teaching With Telescopes program some 1,400 teachers received Galileoscopes and hands-on training on how to teach optics and astronomy with them. All participating teachers received Galileoscopes free of charge. Another 1,500 or so teachers not connected with these organizations also received telescopes free of charge through an Internet ordering system, paying only for shipping. Under this combination of programs more than 15,000 Galileoscopes have been given to active teachers, reaching an estimated 300,000 students. The professional development program uses a combination of face-to-face workshops, a train-the-trainer model, and Internet-based self-paced instruction. We describe the Edelman Galileoscope Education Program design, training materials, and distribution networks, as well as the geographic distribution of the teachers who received Galileoscopes. This program represents an efficient and effective model for quickly distributing valuable science teaching materials to urban, suburban, and rural teachers _ including homeschoolers _ across the United States.

  10. Teachers' Perspectives on the Challenges of Teaching Physical Education in Urban Schools: The Student Emotional Filter

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McCaughtry, Nate; Barnard, Sara; Martin, Jeffrey; Shen, Bo; Kulinna, Pamela Hodges

    2006-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to analyze how the challenges of urban schools influence physical education teachers' emotional understanding and connections with their students and the implications on their teaching. Sixty-one elementary physical educators from an urban school district in the midwestern U.S. were interviewed multiple times (N =…

  11. Novice and expert teachers' conceptions of learners' prior knowledge

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Meyer, Helen

    2004-11-01

    This study presents comparative case studies of preservice and first-year teachers' and expert teachers' conceptions of the concept of prior knowledge. Kelly's (The Psychology of Personal Construct, New York: W.W. Norton, 1955) theory of personal constructs as discussed by Akerson, Flick, and Lederman (Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 2000, 37, 363-385) in relationship to prior knowledge underpins the study. Six teachers were selected to participate in the case studies based upon their level experience teaching science and their willingness to take part. The comparative case studies of the novice and expert teachers provide insights into (a) how novice and expert teachers understand the concept of prior knowledge and (b) how they use this knowledge to make instructional decisions. Data collection consisted of interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis. Findings suggest that novice teachers hold insufficient conceptions of prior knowledge and its role in instruction to effectively implement constructivist teaching practices. While expert teachers hold a complex conception of prior knowledge and make use of their students' prior knowledge in significant ways during instruction. A second finding was an apparent mismatch between the novice teachers' beliefs about their urban students' life experiences and prior knowledge and the wealth of knowledge the expert teachers found to draw upon.

  12. The effect of electronic networking on preservice elementary teachers' science teaching self-efficacy and attitude towards science teaching

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mathew, Nishi Mary

    Preservice elementary teachers' science teaching efficacy and attitude towards science teaching are important determinants of whether and how they will teach science in their classrooms. Preservice teachers' understanding of science and science teaching experiences have an impact on their beliefs about their ability to teach science. This study had a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design (N = 60). Preservice elementary teachers in this study were networked through the Internet (using e-mail, newsgroups, listserv, world wide web access and electronic mentoring) during their science methods class and student practicum. Electronic networking provides a social context in which to learn collaboratively, share and reflect upon science teaching experiences and practices, conduct tele-research effectively, and to meet the demands of student teaching through peer support. It was hoped that the activities over the electronic networks would provide them with positive and helpful science learning and teaching experiences. Self-efficacy was measured using a 23-item Likert scale instrument, the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument, Form-B (STEBI-B). Attitude towards science teaching was measured using the Revised Science Attitude Scale (RSAS). Analysis of covariance was used to analyze the data, with pretest scores as the covariate. Findings of this study revealed that prospective elementary teachers in the electronically networked group had better science teaching efficacy and personal science teaching efficacy as compared to the non-networked group of preservice elementary teachers. The science teaching outcome expectancy of prospective elementary teachers in the networked group was not greater than that of the prospective teachers in the non-networked group (at p < 0.05). Attitude towards science teaching was not significantly affected by networking. However, this is surmised to be related to the duration of the study. Information about the experiences of the participants in this study was also collected through interview, and inventories. Findings from the interview data revealed that prospective teachers benefited from the interactions with peers, science mentors, and science methods instructors during student teaching. Students who did not have access to computers noted that time was a constraint in the use of the electronic networks.

  13. Hearing the voices of alternatively certified teachers in Texas: Narratives of teaching English language learners in urban secondary mainstream classrooms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zannou, Yetunde Mobola

    In Texas, nearly half of all new teachers are alternatively certified (AC) whilst English language learners (ELL) are over one-third of the public school population in some districts. As this trend continues, the likelihood that AC teachers will teach ELLs increases and alters what Texas teachers must know upon entering the classroom. This research explores teacher knowledge and beliefs about teaching ELLs through constructivist and narrative lenses. Four AC science teachers in two diverse school districts participated in in-depth interviews and reflective interviews following classroom observations to answer the research questions: (1) how do AC teachers describe and interpret their acts of teaching ELLs in mainstream classrooms; and (2) how do AC teachers describe and interpret their learning to teach ELLs in mainstream classrooms. Data were transcribed and analyzed using thematic narrative methods. This study found that participants saw ELL instruction as: (1) "just good teaching" strategies, (2) consisting primarily of cultural awareness and consideration for student comfort, and (3) less necessary in science where all students must learn the language. The most experienced teacher was the only participant to reference specific linguistic knowledge in describing ELL instruction. Many of the teachers described their work with ELL students as giving them an opportunity to improve their lives, which was consistent with their overall teaching philosophy and reason for entering the profession. Participant narratives about learning to teach ELLs described personal experience and person-to-person discussions as primary resources of knowledge. District support was generally described as unhelpful or incomplete. Participants portrayed their AC program as helpful in preparing them to work with ELL students, but everyone desired more relevant information from the program and more grade-appropriate strategies from the district. Participant narratives reveal AC teachers needed a pragmatic and less theoretical understanding of diversity during pre-service training. Participant tendency to draw upon "common sense", affective, and practical strategies in teaching ELL students in lieu of the state-mandated English language proficiency standards (ELPS) suggests AC programs should have teachers articulate and discuss their beliefs about ELL instruction in order to provide training targeted towards misconceptions about language development, particularly in science.

  14. Two Teacher Educators Go to the Source: Teaching an Interdisciplinary Class in an Urban Charter High School

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    DiCamillo, Lorrei; Bailey, Nancy M.

    2016-01-01

    The authors of this article are two teacher educators who worked collaboratively to co-teach an interdisciplinary English and US history class to eleventh-grade students in an urban high school. They wanted to ensure the methods they were teaching preservice teachers were current and effective. The article discusses the foundational beliefs that…

  15. Teachers Supporting Teachers in Urban Schools: What Iterative Research Designs Can Teach Us

    PubMed Central

    Shernoff, Elisa S.; Maríñez-Lora, Ane M.; Frazier, Stacy L.; Jakobsons, Lara J.; Atkins, Marc S.; Bonner, Deborah

    2012-01-01

    Despite alarming rates and negative consequences associated with urban teacher attrition, mentoring programs often fail to target the strongest predictors of attrition: effectiveness around classroom management and engaging learners; and connectedness to colleagues. Using a mixed-method iterative development framework, we highlight the process of developing and evaluating the feasibility of a multi-component professional development model for urban early career teachers. The model includes linking novices with peer-nominated key opinion leader teachers and an external coach who work together to (1) provide intensive support in evidence-based practices for classroom management and engaging learners, and (2) connect new teachers with their larger network of colleagues. Fidelity measures and focus group data illustrated varying attendance rates throughout the school year and that although seminars and professional learning communities were delivered as intended, adaptations to enhance the relevance, authenticity, level, and type of instrumental support were needed. Implications for science and practice are discussed. PMID:23275682

  16. "Hold up..do pigs eat bacon?!" An investigation of science instruction for urban Black youth and the need for a culturally considerate response

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ridgeway, Monica Lynn

    As a critical race ethnography, this dissertation attempts to foreground the richness of Black urban youth culture during and around science classroom instruction. Ironically, during an era of much diversity rhetoric in the United States, the culture of urban Black youth is rarely reflected in mainstream public school culture. I attempt to explicate such a worldview compassionately and authentically for both insiders and outsiders of the lived experiences of Black America. Education in the United States can be damning for Black youth who do not fit the mainstream mold, and several authors have provided detailed critique of mechanisms that shape, direct, and marginalize outliers to the successful academic cultural model. The U.S. through this lens is experiencing an opportunity gap, not an achievement gap--one which equitable educational experience can best be viewed through the richness of critical ethnographic methods. This methodical approach allowed me as a researcher to listen to marginalized voices and to incorporate lived interactions with youth, their parents, and community stakeholders all committed to provide support for the today's youth. As a Black female science educator, I explore the evidence for reform impact as I examine in school experiences and science teaching of culturally relevant pedagogies for urban, working-class and poor families of color in grades six-eight who participated in a Western New York academic enrichment program. Findings suggest that skepticism of reform efforts and new pedagogical approaches existed for all stakeholders aforementioned, but that students were the most amenable and responsive to alternative educational approaches. Specific recommendations for engaging students in inquiry processes are given for teachers, institutions, parents and students on the basis of videotaped lessons, interviews, and instructional artifacts. Implications include the recommendations that educators working with youth of color need to be prepared to discuss the ethnic and racial identities of students and jointly construct a sense of activism and empowerment in the face of existing systemic oppression that can and should be eliminated if we are to reach the national goal (AAAS, 1986) of "Science for All Americans," professed as many as three decades ago.

  17. Navigating emotions and identity: Learning to teach science in a high needs school

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rose, Karen J.

    As student populations in the United States become more diverse, teacher education programs are challenged to find innovative and effective ways to prepare teachers for the twenty-first century. However, the goal of "science for all" continues to elude many students in urban and high needs settings where science achievement gaps persist, teacher turnover is high, and novice teachers are often hired to fill those vacancies. Researchers have examined teachers' beliefs, attitudes, practices, as well as content and pedagogical knowledge and made progressive strides in illuminating the complexities of urban classrooms and how we can better prepare teachers for these settings. However, only recently have we begun to venture into the affective areas of teaching to investigate how these areas of human nature interact to influence instruction. This research follows three preservice teachers placed in a high needs school during their student teaching semester. In this case, a high need is described as a school with more than 30% of the students who meet the poverty criteria under section 1113(a)(f) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. This case study explored the connections between preservice teachers' emotions, identity and the implementation of student-centered science instruction during the participants' student teaching experience. Data collection included observations, interviews, and physical artifacts. The interviews included the Teachers' Pedagogical Philosophy Interview (Richardson & Simmons, 1994) and the Meta-Emotions Interview (Gottman, Katz & Hooven, 1997) as well as general interview questions that illuminated the participants' views on teaching, their emotions, life history and identity. Multiple naturalistic observations were used to describe the interactions between the preservice teachers and the students during the implementation of student-centered lessons. Physical artifacts included weekly journals and lesson plans. These artifacts will provide additional information regarding the implementation of the lessons. The study found that all of the novice teachers experienced frustration, but used different strategies to minimize those frustrations in the classroom. The most interesting commonality in their response to frustration was the participants' use of emotion regulation strategies while implementing student-centered instruction (Gross, 1998; Sutton, 2004), particularly self-talk, avoidance and reappraisal. However, in terms of the success of student-centered instruction, the more promising regulatory strategy seemed to be the reappraisal of student behaviors. Additionally, the study found that student teachers who were more comfortable with ambiguity and their own instructional progress as improvement rather than "perfection" were able to maintain a more positive outlook on teaching as a future career. Although this study sought to look at the influence of race and class on the implementation of student-centered instruction, these factors did not appear to be the essential aspect of the struggles the novices had in enacting instruction, rather it was their ability to move beyond the differences between themselves and their student that emerged. The findings indicate that the difficulties novice teachers experience when enacting student-centered instruction can be productive if they can be taught to respond to these difficulties and the emotions that may accompany the difficulties, by employing emotion regulation strategies. These insights may inform the design of teacher preparation programs to include instructional events that support social and emotional competence for building teacher resilience in novices. This approach shows promise in more effectively preparing science teachers to be successful in enacting ambitious instruction in high needs settings.

  18. Cycle for Science: An informal outreach program connecting K-12 students with renewable energy and physics through miniature 3D-printed, solar-powered bicycles

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Woods-Robinson, R.; Case, E.

    2017-12-01

    Engaging communities with renewable energy is key to fighting climate change. Cycle for Science, an innovative STEM outreach organization, has reached more than 3,000 K-12 students across the United States by bringing early-career female scientists into classrooms to teach basic physics and solar energy engineering through hands-on, DIY science activities. We designed a fleet of miniature, 3D-printed, solar-powered bicycles called "Sol Cycles" to use as teaching tools. Traveling by bicycle, Cycle for Science has brought them to rural and urban communities across the U.S. in two major efforts so far: one traversing the country (2015), and one through central California (2017). The program involves (1) introducing the scientists and why they value science, (2) running a skit to demonstrate how electrons and photons interact inside the solar panel, (3) assembling the Sol Cycles, (4) taking students outdoors to test the effects of variables (e.g. light intensity) on the Sol Cycles' movement, (5) and debriefing about the importance of renewable energy. In addition to physics and solar energy, the lessons teach the scientific process, provide tactile engagement with science, and introduce a platform to engage students with climate change impacts. By cycling to classrooms, we provide positive examples of low-impact transportation and a unique avenue for discussing climate action. It was important that this program extend beyond the trips, so the lesson and Sol Cycle design are open source to encourage teachers and students to play, change and improve the design, as well as incorporate new exercises (e.g. could you power the bicycle by wind?). Additionally, it has been permanently added to the XRaise Lending Library at Cornell University, so teachers across the world can implement the lesson. By sharing our project at AGU, we aim to connect with other scientists, educators, and concerned citizens about how to continue to bring renewable energy lessons into classrooms.

  19. The Aula Espazio Gela Observatory: A tool for Solar System Education and Outreach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rojas, J. F.; Perez-Hoyos, S.; Hueso, R.; Mendikoa, I.; Sanchez-Lavega, A.

    2011-10-01

    We present a summary of the activities undertaken over the first year of operations of the "Aula Espazio Gela Observatory", with teaching and astronomy outreach purposes. The observatory belongs to the Universidad del País Vasco and is a fundamental part of the "Master en Ciencia y Tecnología Espacial" (Space Science and Technology master). It is an urban observatory with the dome located on the roof of the School of Engineering at the Universidad del Pais Vasco in Bilbao (Spain).

  20. Student questions in urban middle school science communities of practice

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Groome, Meghan

    This dissertation examines student questions within three Communities of Practice (CoP), all urban middle school science environments. The study analyzed student questions from a sociocultural perspective and used ethnographic research techniques to detail how the CoP's shaped questions in the classroom. In the first study, two case study girls attempted to navigate questioning events that required them to negotiation participation. Their access to participation was blocked by participation frameworks that elevated some students as "gatekeepers" while suppressing the participation of others. The next two studies detail the introduction of written questioning opportunities, one into a public middle school classroom and the other into an informal classroom. In both studies, students responded to the interventions differently, most notable the adoption of the opportunity by female students who do not participate orally. Dissertation-wide findings indicate all students were able to ask questions, but varied in level of cognitive complexity, and the diagnostic interventions were able to identify students who were not known to be "target students", students who asked a high number of questions and were considered "interested in science". Some students' roles were as "gatekeepers" to participation of their peers. Two out of three teachers in the studies reported major shifts in their teaching practice due to the focus on questions and the methods used here have been found to be effective in producing educational research as well as supporting high-need classrooms in prior research. In conclusion, these studies indicate that social factors, including participation frameworks, gender dynamics, and the availability of alternative participation methods, play an important role in how students ask science-related questions. It is recommended that researchers continue to examine social factors that reduce student questions and modify their teaching strategies to facilitate questioning. This data should be shared with teachers and teacher educators to inform them how to increase and use student questions as well as alternate participation methods that strive for "science for all". Future research should focus on how students act as "gatekeepers" for the participation and potential ways to shift underrepresented students into the STEM pipeline.

  1. Being, becoming, and belonging: Improving science fluency during laboratory activities in urban education

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pitts, Wesley

    The research presented in this dissertation uses authentic ethnography, augmented by video and conversational analysis, to investigate the teaching and learning of chemistry across boundaries of difference in an urban high school. A coordinated set of theoretical lenses from cultural sociology and sociology of emotion is used to deploy and analyze these methods. All four students highlighted in this study are Black and/or Latino females from working class income families. They identify as second-generation Americans either of African American of Caribbean heritage or Latina of Latin American or Caribbean heritage. The students achieved mild to moderate success in a tenth-grade level chemistry class. Their chemistry teacher is a first-generation immigrant middle-aged male who would ethnically be considered Filipino-American. The focal fields of this research occur in Regents chemistry laboratory classes in a small secondary inner city high school in the Bronx, New York City, and associated cogenerative dialogues. One of the major premises of this study is that learning is a form of cultural enactment (i.e., production, reproduction, and transformation). Culture (schema and practices) enacted by students and teachers in one field can be enacted successfully in another field because fields are surrounded by porous boundaries. Accordingly, participants use resources to meet their goals (e.g., learn chemistry), in so doing, create interstitial culture that becomes part of the structure of the field and resources for learning. A priority was to examine how learning and teaching of science is enacted when students and their teachers are able to coparticipate in culturally adaptive ways and use their capital successfully. A key implication is the need for teachers and students to be aware of cultural encounters that afford positive emotional energy and solidarity. The important point here is to minimize encounters that create negative emotional energy. What we learned from observing successful student-student and student-teacher encounters is that creating structures and agency that support positive emotional energy and solidarity is a necessary ingredient towards the emergence of fluency in science. Creating and appropriating interstitial cultural resources that support success in science is a path to engaging in more canonical ways of doing science.

  2. The relationship between school environment, preservice science teachers' science teaching self-efficacy, and their use of instructional strategies at teachers' colleges in Saudi Arabia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Alshalaan, Nasser A.

    Studies indicate that many teachers have negative beliefs about science, which translates into low teacher efficacy, resulting in avoidance of science teaching or in ineffective science teaching behaviors. Highly efficacious teachers have been found to be more likely to use inquiry and student-centered teaching strategies, while teachers with a low sense of science-teaching efficacy are more likely to use teacher-directed strategies, such as didactic lectures and reading from the textbook (Czemiak, 1990). The purpose of this study was to investigate preservice science teachers' science-teaching self-efficacy changes and their correlation to teaching environment factors during the student teaching semester. Moreover, it explains how teaching environment factors and preservice teachers' science-teaching self-efficacy beliefs may relate to their use of teaching strategies in the science classroom during their student teacher training at teachers' colleges in Saudi Arabia. The population of this study is consisted of 184 middle and elementary preservice science teachers who were doing their student teaching at nine teachers' colleges (i.e., teachers' colleges of Riyadh, Dammam, Alrras, Almadinah, Alihsa, Jeddah, Makah, Altaief, and Abha) in Saudi Arabia during the spring semester of 2005. Three instruments were used to collect data for this study: (1) to measure science teaching self-efficacy, the researcher adapted the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument form B designed specifically for preservice teachers (STEBI-B); (2) to measure the school environment, the researcher adapted the Organizational Health Inventory (OHI), developed by Hoy, Tarter & Kottkamp (1991); and (3) to measure the type and frequency of instructional strategies that preservice science teachers use in the classroom, the researcher adapted the teaching practice subscale from The Local Systemic Change through Teacher Enhancement Science K-8 Teacher Questionnaire (Horizon Research, Inc., 2000). Descriptive statistics, simple correlation, t-test, multiple regression, and content analysis procedures were used to analyze research questions. Findings of this study revealed that both dimensions of teaching efficacy, PSTE and STOE, were increased significantly during the student teaching semester. Certain school factors were related to preservice science teachers' teaching efficacy and their use of instructional strategies. Only personal science teaching efficacy was found to affect preservice science teachers' use of instructional strategies. Implications for the findings of this study, as well as recommendations for future research, are discussed.

  3. Useful and Usable Climate Science: Frameworks for Bridging the Social and Physical domains.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Buja, L.

    2016-12-01

    Society is transforming the Earth's system in unprecedented ways, often with significant variations across space and time. In turn, the impacts of climate change on the human system vary dramatically due to differences in cultural, socioeconomic, institutional, and physical processes at the local level. The Climate Science and Applications Program (CSAP) at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder Colorado addresses societal vulnerability, impacts and adaptation to climate change through the development of frameworks and methods for analyzing current and future vulnerability, and integrated analyses of climate impacts and adaptation at local, regional and global scales. CSAP relies heavily on GIS-based scientific data and knowledge systems to bridge social and physical science approaches in its five focus areas: Governance of inter-linked natural and managed resource systems. The role of urban areas in driving emissions of climate change Weather, climate and global human health, GIS-based science data & knowledge systems. Regional Climate Science and Services for Adaptation Advanced methodologies and frameworks for assessing current and future risks to environmental hazards through the integration of physical and social science models, research results, and remote sensing data are presented in the context of recent national and international projects on climate change and food/water security, urban carbon emissions, metropolitan extreme heat and global health. In addition, innovative CSAP international capacity building programs teaching interdisciplinary approaches for using geospatial technologies to integrate multi-scale spatial information of weather, climate change into important sectors such as disaster reduction, agriculture, tourism and society for decision-making are discussed.

  4. Using Inquiry-Based Instruction to Teach Research Methods to 4th-Grade Students in an Urban Setting

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hamm, Ellen M.; Cullen, Rebecca; Ciaravino, Melissa

    2013-01-01

    When a college professor who teaches research methods to graduate education students was approached by a local public urban elementary school to help them teach research skills to 4th-graders, it was thought that the process would be simple--take what we did at the college level and differentiate it for the childhood classroom. This article will…

  5. Science Teaching: What Does It Mean?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tseitlin, Michael; Galili, Igal

    2006-01-01

    This study considers the relationship between science, science teaching and the philosophy of science perceiving these three cultural phenomena as a semantic triad. This approach presents science teaching as being a form of a scientific reflection. The relationship of science teaching to the philosophy of science is advocated to be essential,…

  6. Integration of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Into the Science Learning Progression Framework

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bernardo, Cyntra

    This study integrated elements of culturally relevant pedagogy into a science learning progression framework, with the goal of enhancing teachers' cultural knowledge and thereby creating better teaching practices in an urban public high school science classroom. The study was conducted using teachers, an administrator, a science coach, and students involved in science courses in public high school. Through a qualitative intrinsic case study, data were collected and analyzed using traditional methods. Data from primary participants (educators) were analyzed through identification of big ideas, open coding, and themes. Through this process, patterns and emergent ideas were reported. Outcomes of this study demonstrated that educators lack knowledge about research-based academic frameworks and multicultural education strategies, but benefit through institutionally-based professional development. Students from diverse cultures responded positively to culturally-based instruction. Their progress was further manifested in better communication and discourse with their teacher and peers, and increased academic outcomes. This study has postulated and provided an exemplar for science teachers to expand and improve multicultural knowledge, ultimately transferring these skills to their pedagogical practice.

  7. The ethics of smart cities and urban science.

    PubMed

    Kitchin, Rob

    2016-12-28

    Software-enabled technologies and urban big data have become essential to the functioning of cities. Consequently, urban operational governance and city services are becoming highly responsive to a form of data-driven urbanism that is the key mode of production for smart cities. At the heart of data-driven urbanism is a computational understanding of city systems that reduces urban life to logic and calculative rules and procedures, which is underpinned by an instrumental rationality and realist epistemology. This rationality and epistemology are informed by and sustains urban science and urban informatics, which seek to make cities more knowable and controllable. This paper examines the forms, practices and ethics of smart cities and urban science, paying particular attention to: instrumental rationality and realist epistemology; privacy, datafication, dataveillance and geosurveillance; and data uses, such as social sorting and anticipatory governance. It argues that smart city initiatives and urban science need to be re-cast in three ways: a re-orientation in how cities are conceived; a reconfiguring of the underlying epistemology to openly recognize the contingent and relational nature of urban systems, processes and science; and the adoption of ethical principles designed to realize benefits of smart cities and urban science while reducing pernicious effects.This article is part of the themed issue 'The ethical impact of data science'. © 2016 The Author(s).

  8. Science initial teacher education and superdiversity: educating science teachers for a multi-religious and globalised science classroom

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    De Carvalho, Roussel

    2016-06-01

    Steven Vertovec (2006, 2007) has recently offered a re-interpretation of population diversity in large urban centres due to a considerable increase in immigration patterns in the UK. This complex scenario called superdiversity has been conceptualised to help illuminate significant interactions of variables such as religion, language, gender, age, nationality, labour market and population distribution on a larger scale. The interrelationships of these themes have fundamental implications in a variety of community environments, but especially within our schools. Today, London schools have over 300 languages being spoken by students, all of whom have diverse backgrounds, bringing with them a wealth of experience and, most critically, their own set of religious beliefs. At the same time, Science is a compulsory subject in England's national curriculum, where it requires teachers to deal with important scientific frameworks about the world; teaching about the origins of the universe, life on Earth, human evolution and other topics, which are often in conflict with students' religious views. In order to cope with this dynamic and thought-provoking environment, science initial teacher education (SITE)—especially those catering large urban centres—must evolve to equip science teachers with a meaningful understanding of how to handle a superdiverse science classroom, taking the discourse of inclusion beyond its formal boundaries. Thus, this original position paper addresses how the role of SITE may be re-conceptualised and re-framed in light of the immense challenges of superdiversity as well as how science teachers, as enactors of the science curriculum, must adapt to cater to these changes. This is also the first in a series of papers emerging from an empirical research project trying to capture science teacher educators' own views on religio-scientific issues and their positions on the place of these issues within science teacher education and the science classroom.

  9. Unique collaboration between research scientists and educators to prepare new Earth Science teachers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pagnotta, Ashley; Grcevich, J.; Shara, M.; Mac Low, M.; Lepine, S.; Nadeau, P.; Flores, K.; Sessa, J.; Zirakparvar, N.; Ustunisik, G.; Kinzler, R.; Macdonald, M.; Contino, J.; Cooke-Nieves, N.; Zachowski, M.

    2013-01-01

    Abstract: The Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Program at the American Museum of Natural History is a first-of-its-kind program designed to prepare participants to be world-class Earth Science teachers. The dearth of Earth Science teachers in New York State has resulted in fewer students taking the statewide Earth Science Regents Exam, which negatively affects graduation rates and reduces the number of students who pursue related college degrees. The MAT program was designed to address this problem, and is the result of a collaboration between research scientists and educators at the Museum, with faculty comprised of curators and postdoctoral researchers from the Departments of Astrophysics, Earth and Planetary Sciences, and the Division of Paleontology, as well as doctoral-level Education faculty. The full-time, 15-month program combines courses and field work in astrophysics, geology, earth science, and paleontology at the Museum with pedagogical coursework and real-world teaching experience in local urban classrooms. The program is part of New York State’s Race to the Top initiative and particularly targets high-needs schools with diverse student populations. Because of this, the MAT program has the potential to stimulate interest and achievement in a variety of STEM fields among thousands of students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds. The first cohort of teacher candidates entered the MAT program in June of 2012. They represent diverse scientific expertise levels, geographic backgrounds, and career stages. We report on the first six months of this pilot program as well as the future plans and opportunities for prospective teacher candidates.

  10. Early childhood teachers' self-efficacy toward teaching science: Outcomes of professional development

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Clark, Sarah

    The teaching of science in the early childhood classrooms has slowly been decreasing. As the years have passed, the subject of science has been put on the backburner while mathematics and language arts have taken center stage in the educational system. Early childhood teachers need to find ways to integrate science with other subjects in order to ensure children are receiving a well-rounded and full education. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of professional development on teachers' efficacy in teaching science. Volunteer teachers completed the Weisgram and Bigler scale (TWBS) pre and post training, in order to determine their self-efficacy toward teaching science, they also completed pre- and post- concept maps about their knowledge of teaching science, and a demographic questionnaire. Findings indicate the training provided was effective in increasing teachers' knowledge of teaching science. Teachers who had an increase in science teaching knowledge were also found to feel more efficacious about teaching science after completing the training and an academic year of implementing science lessons in their classrooms. There was not a relationship between teacher demographics and their science-teaching efficacy. This means that the demographics of participants in this study were not influential on teachers' efficacy, but professional development workshops enabled teachers to gain more knowledge about teaching as well as increase their efficacy about teaching science.

  11. Quality Teaching in Science: an Emergent Conceptual Framework

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jordens, J. Zoe; Zepke, Nick

    2017-09-01

    Achieving quality in higher education is a complex task involving the interrelationship of many factors. The influence of the teacher is well established and has led to some general principles of good teaching. However, less is known about the extent that specific disciplines influence quality teaching. The purposes of the paper are to investigate how quality teaching is perceived in the sciences and from these perceptions to develop for discussion a framework for teaching practice in the sciences. A New Zealand study explored the views of national teaching excellence award winners in science on quality teaching in undergraduate science. To capture all possible views from this expert panel, a dissensus-recognising Delphi method was used together with sensitising concepts based on complexity and wickedity. The emergent conceptual framework for quality teaching in undergraduate science highlighted areas of consensus and areas where there were a variety of views. About the purposes of science and its knowledge base, there was relative consensus, but there was more variable support for values underpinning science teaching. This highlighted the complex nature of quality teaching in science. The findings suggest that, in addition to general and discipline-specific influences, individual teacher values contribute to an understanding of quality in undergraduate science teaching.

  12. Experiential Education for Urban African Americans.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Smith, Jennifer G.; McGinnis, J. Randy

    1995-01-01

    Stresses the importance of experiential educators being prepared to teach environmental education to students in specific contexts. A model for urban African American students includes the introduction and selection of a relevant local environmental issue; teaching strategies to investigate the issue; and techniques for initiating environmental…

  13. Changes in Preservice Elementary Teachers' Personal Science Teaching Efficacy and Science Teaching Outcome Expectancies: The Influence of Context

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hechter, Richard P.

    2011-01-01

    This study investigated contextual changes in perceptions of science teaching self-efficacy through pre-, post- and retrospective administrations of the Science Teaching Expectancy Belief Instrument (STEBI-B) among preservice elementary teachers when exposed to a science teaching methods course. Findings revealed that the number of postsecondary…

  14. Confronting Barriers to Teaching Elementary Science: After-School Science Teaching Experiences for Preservice Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cartwright, Tina; Smith, Suzanne; Hallar, Brittan

    2014-01-01

    This qualitative study examines the transition of eight elementary preservice teachers into student teaching after participating in a science methods course that included a significant amount of teaching after-school science to elementary grade students. These eight participants had a chance to practice teaching inquiry-based science and to reform…

  15. Primary and Secondary School Science.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Educational Documentation and Information, 1984

    1984-01-01

    This 344-item annotated bibliography presents overview of science teaching in following categories: science education; primary school science; integrated science teaching; teaching of biology, chemistry, physics, earth/space science; laboratory work; computer technology; out-of-school science; science and society; science education at…

  16. Pre-service elementary science teaching self-efficacy and teaching practices: A mixed-methods, dual-phase, embedded case study

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sangueza, Cheryl Ramirez

    This mixed-method, dual-phase, embedded-case study employed the Social Cognitive Theory and the construct of self-efficacy to examine the contributors to science teaching self-efficacy and science teaching practices across different levels of efficacy in six pre-service elementary teachers during their science methods course and student teaching experiences. Data sources included the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI-B) for pre-service teachers, questionnaires, journals, reflections, student teaching lesson observations, and lesson debriefing notes. Results from the STEBI-B show that all participants measured an increase in efficacy throughout the study. The ANOVA analysis of the STEBI-B revealed a statistically significant increase in level of efficacy during methods course, student teaching, and from the beginning of the study to the end. Of interest in this study was the examination of the participants' science teaching practices across different levels of efficacy. Results of this analysis revealed how the pre-service elementary teachers in this study contextualized their experiences in learning to teach science and its influences on their science teaching practices. Key implications involves the value in exploring how pre-service teachers interpret their learning to teach experiences and how their interpretations influence the development of their science teaching practices.

  17. Teachers' perceptions on primary science teaching

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kijkuakul, Sirinapa

    2018-01-01

    This qualitative research aimed to review what primary teachers think about how to teach science in rural school contexts. Three primary schools in Thailand were purposively chosen for this study. Eleven primary science teachers of these schools were the research participants. Questionnaires, interviews, and observations were implemented to reveal the primary school teachers' educational backgrounds, science teaching context, and need for self-driven professional development. Content and discourse analysis indicated that the non-science educational background and the science teaching context implied a need for self-driven professional development. The non-science educational background teachers were generally unfamiliar with the current national science curriculum, and that they would not be comfortable when the researcher observed their science teaching practice. They also believed that experimentation was the only one strategy for teaching science, and that the priority for their teaching support was teaching media rather than their understanding of scientific concepts or teaching strategies. As implication of this research, subsequent developments on science teacher profession in rural context, therefore, need to promote teachers' understandings of nature of science and technological and pedagogical content knowledge. In addition, they should be challenged to practice on critically participatory action research for academic growth and professional learning community.

  18. Conceptualizing Astronomical Distances for Urban Populations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Popinchalk, Mark; Olson, Kristen; Ingber, Jenny; O'Brien, Mariel

    2017-01-01

    Students living in urban environments may have a washed-out night sky, but their enthusiasm for astronomy can still shine bright. As an educator, it can sometimes be a challenge to see the opportunities afforded by city living to the teaching of astronomy; however, several benefits can be identified. For example, the intrinsic understanding children have of the distances and scales involved in their everyday life is enhanced when they live in a regimented urban structure. This existing understanding of scale is critical to building a foundation for later conceptualizing of the universe.Leveraging the assets of New York City and the resources found in the American Museum of Natural History, The Science and Nature Program offers students (PreK through 8th grade) robust science learning experiences. To address concepts important for studying astronomy, we present a novel twist on the classic lesson “Earth as a Peppercorn,” by scaling the solar system to the size of New York City. Using local landmarks and their distance in relation to the Museum to represent the planets, students can use their prior knowledge of their surroundings to appreciate the impressive scale of our neighborhood in space in the context of their own neighborhoods. We correlate the activity with NGSS standards, present preliminary feedback on it’s success, and discuss the opportunities to apply a similar model lesson to other astronomical systems.

  19. The effect of alternative clinical teaching experience on preservice science teachers' self-efficacy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Klett, Mitchell Dean

    The purpose of this study was to compare different methods of alternative clinical experience; family science nights and Saturday science (authentic teaching) against micro-teaching (peer teaching) in terms of self-efficacy in science teaching and teaching self-efficacy. The independent variable, or cause, is teaching experiences (clinical vs. peer teaching); the dependent variable, or effect, is two levels of self-efficacy. This study was conducted at the University of Idaho's main campus in Moscow and extension campus in Coeur d'Alene. Four sections of science methods were exposed to the same science methods curriculum and will have opportunities to teach. However, each of the four sections were exposed to different levels or types of clinical experience. One section of preservice teachers worked with students in a Saturday science program. Another section worked with students during family science nights. The third worked with children at both the Saturday science program and family science nights. The last section did not have a clinical experience with children, instead they taught in their peer groups and acted as a control group. A pre-test was given at the beginning of the semester to measure their content knowledge, teaching self-efficacy and self-efficacy in science teaching. A post-test was given at the end of the semester to see if there was any change in self-efficacy or science teaching self-efficacy. Throughout the semester participants kept journals about their experiences and were interviewed after their alternative clinical teaching experiences. These responses were categorized into three groups; gains in efficacy, no change in efficacy, and drop in efficacy. There was a rise in teaching efficacy for all groups. The mean scores for personal teaching efficacy dropped for the Monday-Wednesday and Tuesday-Thursday group while the both Coeur D'Alene groups remained nearly unchanged. There was no significant change in the overall means for science teaching efficacy for any of the groups. Finally, the mean scores for all groups dropped for personal science teaching efficacy.

  20. Pre-Service Science Teachers' Epistemological Beliefs and Teaching Reforms in Tanzania

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tarmo, Albert

    2016-01-01

    In an effort to understand why recent initiatives to promote learner-centred pedagogy in science teaching made a little change in the actual teaching practices of science teachers, this study explored pre-service science teachers' beliefs about science knowledge and their teaching practices. Six pre-service science teachers were interviewed to…

  1. The Effect of an Integrated Science and Mathematics Content-Based Course on Science and Mathematics Teaching Efficacy of Preservice Elementary Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Moseley, Christine; Utley, Juliana

    2006-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of an earth systems science course (integrated mathematics and science content) on preservice elementary teachers' mathematics and science teaching efficacy. Paired t-tests revealed that the personal mathematics and science teaching efficacy and science teaching outcome expectancy significantly…

  2. The Teaching Processes of Prospective Science Teachers with Different Levels of Science-Teaching Self-Efficacy Belief

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Saka, Mehpare; Bayram, Hale; Kabapinar, Filiz

    2016-01-01

    The concept of self-efficacy, which is an important variable in the teaching process, and how it reflects on teaching have recently been the focus of attention. Therefore, this study deals with the relationship between the science-teaching self-efficacy beliefs of prospective science teachers and their teaching practices. It was conducted with…

  3. Exploring Climate Science with WV Educators: A Regional Model for Teacher Professional Development

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ruberg, L. F.; Calinger, M.

    2014-12-01

    The National Research Council Framework for K-12 Science Literacy reports that children reared in rural agricultural communities, who experience regular interactions with plants and animals, develop more sophisticated understanding of ecology and biological systems than do urban and suburban children of the same age. West Virginia (WV) is a rural state. The majority of its residents live in communities of fewer than 2,500 people. Based on the features of the population being served and their unique strengths, this presentation focuses on a regional model for teacher professional development that addresses agricultural and energy vulnerabilities and adaptations to climate change in WV. The professional development model outlined shows how to guide teachers to use a problem-based learning approach to introduce climate data and analysis techniques within a scenario context that is locally meaningful. This strategy engages student interest by focusing on regional and community concerns. Climate science standards are emphasized in the Next Generation Science Standards, but WV has not provided its teachers with appropriate instructional resources to meet those standards. The authors addressed this need by offering a series of climate science education workshops followed by online webinars offered to WV science educators free of charge with funding by the West Virginia Space Grant Consortium. The authors report on findings from this series of professional development workshops conducted in partnership with the West Virginia Science Teachers Association. The goal was to enhance grades 5-12 teaching and learning about climate change through problem-based learning. Prior to offering the climate workshops, all WV science educators were asked to complete a short questionnaire. As Figure 1 shows, over 40% of the teacher respondents reported being confident in teaching climate science content. For comparison post workshops surveys measure teacher confidence in climate science instruction after the professional development sessions. In summary, this report describes how this professional approach can serve as a regional model to address the need for climate science literacy throughout Appalachia.

  4. Faculty Perceptions of Multicultural Teaching in a Large Urban University

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bigatti, Sylvia M.; Gibau, Gina Sanchez; Boys, Stephanie; Grove, Kathy; Ashburn-Nardo, Leslie; Khaja, Khadiji; Springer, Jennifer Thorington

    2012-01-01

    As college graduates face an increasingly globalized world, it is imperative to consider issues of multicultural instruction in higher education. This study presents qualitative and quantitative findings from a survey of faculty at a large, urban, midwestern university regarding perceptions of multicultural teaching. Faculty were asked how they…

  5. Main Street: Teaching Elementary School Students Standards-Based Urban Geography.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hurt, Douglas A.

    1997-01-01

    Describes a lesson plan that uses Main Street images of three towns to encourage students to recognize and compare human and physical characteristics of places. The lesson teaches the geographic concepts of site (absolute location) and situation (relative location) as well as introducing students to urban geography. (MJP)

  6. Teaching Africa's Cities through Meja Mwangi's Novels

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Smiley, Sarah L.

    2009-01-01

    This article presents a lesson plan used to teach about African urbanization using Kenyan novels. Specifically, three urban novels written by Meja Mwangi are used. Based on a qualitative survey of student preference and learning, this lesson plan uses these novels alongside more traditional academic texts to achieve effective student learning.…

  7. From Students to Teachers: Investigating the Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs and Experiences of Graduate Primary Teachers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Deehan, James; Danaia, Lena; McKinnon, David H.

    2018-03-01

    The science achievement of primary students, both in Australia and abroad, has been the subject of intensive research in recent decades. Consequently, much research has been conducted to investigate primary science education. Within this literature, there is a striking juxtaposition between tertiary science teaching preparation programs and the experiences and outcomes of both teachers and students alike. Whilst many tertiary science teaching programs covary with positive outcomes for preservice teachers, reports of science at the primary school level continue to be problematic. This paper begins to explore this apparent contradiction by investigating the science teaching efficacy beliefs and experiences of a cohort of graduate primary teachers who had recently transitioned from preservice to inservice status. An opportunity sample of 82 primary teachers responded to the science teaching efficacy belief instrument A (STEBI-A), and 10 graduate teachers provided semi-structured interview data. The results showed that participants' prior science teaching efficacy belief growth, which occurred during their tertiary science education, had remained durable after they had completed their teaching degrees and began their careers. Qualitative data showed that their undergraduate science education had had a positive influence on their science teaching experiences. The participants' school science culture, however, had mixed influences on their science teaching. The findings presented within this paper have implications for the direction of research in primary science education, the design and assessment of preservice primary science curriculum subjects and the role of school contexts in the development of primary science teachers.

  8. How Often Do Early Childhood Teachers Teach Science Concepts? Determinants of the Frequency of Science Teaching in Kindergarten

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Saçkes, Mesut

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of the present study was to explore how often teachers of young children teach science concepts in kindergarten and examine the factors that influence the frequency of science teaching in early years. A theoretical model of the determinants of the frequency of science teaching in kindergarten was developed and tested using a…

  9. Teaching Children Science. Second Edition.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Abruscato, Joseph

    This book focuses on science teaching at the elementary school level. It includes chapters dealing with various science content areas and teaching processes including: (1) what is science; (2) why teach science; (3) process skills as a foundation for unit and lesson planning; (4) how to plan learning units, daily lessons, and assessment…

  10. The ethics of smart cities and urban science

    PubMed Central

    2016-01-01

    Software-enabled technologies and urban big data have become essential to the functioning of cities. Consequently, urban operational governance and city services are becoming highly responsive to a form of data-driven urbanism that is the key mode of production for smart cities. At the heart of data-driven urbanism is a computational understanding of city systems that reduces urban life to logic and calculative rules and procedures, which is underpinned by an instrumental rationality and realist epistemology. This rationality and epistemology are informed by and sustains urban science and urban informatics, which seek to make cities more knowable and controllable. This paper examines the forms, practices and ethics of smart cities and urban science, paying particular attention to: instrumental rationality and realist epistemology; privacy, datafication, dataveillance and geosurveillance; and data uses, such as social sorting and anticipatory governance. It argues that smart city initiatives and urban science need to be re-cast in three ways: a re-orientation in how cities are conceived; a reconfiguring of the underlying epistemology to openly recognize the contingent and relational nature of urban systems, processes and science; and the adoption of ethical principles designed to realize benefits of smart cities and urban science while reducing pernicious effects. This article is part of the themed issue ‘The ethical impact of data science’. PMID:28336794

  11. Bridging Communities: Culturing a Professional Learning Community that Supports Novice Teachers and Transfers Authentic Science and Mathematics to the Classroom

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Herbert, B. E.; Miller, H. R.; Loving, C. L.; Pedersen, S.

    2006-12-01

    Professional Learning Community Model for Alternative Pathways (PLC-MAP) is a partnership of North Harris Montgomery Community Colleges, Texas A&M University, and 11 urban, suburban, and rural school districts in the Greater Houston area focused on developing a professional learning community that increases the retention and quality of middle and high school mathematics and science teachers who are being certified through the NHMCCD Alternative Certification Program. Improved quality in teaching refers to increased use of effective inquiry teaching strategies, including information technology where appropriate, that engage students to ask worthy scientific questions and to reason, judge, explain, defend, argue, reflect, revise, and/or disseminate findings. Novice teachers learning to adapt or designing authentic inquiry in their classrooms face two enormous problems. First, there are important issues surrounding the required knowledgebase, habit of mind, and pedagogical content knowledge of the teachers that impact the quality of their lesson plans and instructional sequences. Second, many ACP intern teachers teach under challenging conditions with limited resources, which impacts their ability to implement authentic inquiry in the classroom. Members of our professional learning community, including scientists, mathematicians and master teachers, supports novice teachers as they design lesson plans that engage their students in authentic inquiry. The purpose of this research was to determine factors that contribute to success or barriers that prevent ACP secondary science intern and induction year teachers from gaining knowledge and engaging in classroom inquiry as a result of an innovative professional development experience. A multi-case study design was used for this research. We adopted a two-tail design where cases from both extremes (good and poor gains) were deliberately chosen. Six science teachers were selected from a total of 40+ mathematics and science teachers. These six, on average, demonstrated either the highest gain in knowledge and/or engagement in inquiry-based teaching or the lowest gain among all the novice science teachers through the year of participation in the PLC-MAP program. Certain patterns emerged across all six cases, even when the other variables are acknowledged. The principal external factors were school climate—its culture, its mandates, its degree of teacher autonomy. The internal factors were teacher beliefs about learning through inquiry, about their own need for additional knowledge, and about managing inquiry--all tied to degrees of self-efficacy.

  12. Urban science education: examining current issues through a historical lens

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McLaughlin, Cheryl A.

    2014-12-01

    This paper reviews and synthesizes urban science education studies published between 2000 and 2013 with a view to identifying current challenges faced by both teachers and students in urban classrooms. Additionally, this paper considers the historical events that have shaped the conditions, bureaucracies, and interactions of urban institutions. When the findings from these urban science education studies were consolidated with the historical overview provided, it was revealed that the basic design and regulatory policies of urban schools have not substantively changed since their establishment in the nineteenth century. Teachers in urban science classrooms continue to face issues of inequality, poverty, and social injustice as they struggle to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population. Furthermore, persistent concerns of conflicting Discourses, cultural dissonance, and oppression create formidable barriers to science learning. Despite the many modifications in structure and organization, urban students are still subjugated and marginalized in systems that emphasize control and order over high-quality science education.

  13. The influence of field experiences on stages of concern and attitudes of preservice teachers toward science and science teaching

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Strawitz, Barbara M.; Malone, Mark R.

    The purpose of the study was to determine whether the field experience component of an undergraduate science methods course influenced teachers' concerns and attitudes toward science and science teaching. Age, grade-point average, openmindedness, and school assignment were examined as factors which might explain some of the variance in the dependent measures. A one-group pretest-posttest design was used. Students were administered the Teacher Concerns Questionnaire, the Science Teaching Attitude Scales, and the Rokeach Dogmatism Scale approximately eight weeks after the pretest. Results indicated that field experiences did not significantly change student concerns about teaching science but significantly improved student attitudes toward science and science teaching. Students differing in age, grade-point average, and openmindedness did not difer significantly in changes in concerns and changes in attitude toward science and science teaching. Students assigned to different schools differed significantly in changes in attitude toward science.

  14. Practical Application of Research in Science Education (PARSE) -- A New Collaboration for K-12 Science Teacher Professional Development

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zwicker, Andrew; Lopez, Jose; Clayton, James

    2008-11-01

    A new collaboration between PPPL, St. Peter's College, the Liberty Science Center, and the Jersey City Public School District was formed in order to create a unique K-12 teacher professional development program. St. Peter's College, located in Jersey City, NJ, is a liberal arts college in an urban setting. The Liberty Science Center (LSC) is the largest education resource in the New Jersey-New York City region. The Jersey City School District has 28,000 students of which approximately 90% are from populations traditionally under-represented in science. The new program is centered upon topics surrounding energy and the environment. In the first year, beginning in 2009, 15-20 teachers will participate in a pilot course that includes hands-on research at PPPL and St. Peter's, the creation of new curricular materials, and pedagogical techniques. Scientists, master teachers, and education professors will teach the course. In subsequent years, the number of participants will be significantly expanded and the curricular material disseminated to other school districts. In addition, an outside evaluator will measure the educational outcome throughout the project.

  15. Learning about Teaching: A Graduate Student's Perspective.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ambers, Rebecca K. R.

    2002-01-01

    Describes a seminar course on college science teaching that focuses on the importance of quality teaching, learning styles, teaching reading and writing skills, careers in science teaching, and female- and minority-friendly science. (Contains 14 references.) (YDS)

  16. Ideas Exchange: What Are Some Suggestions for Overcoming Any Unique Challenges Found in an Urban Physical Education Class? How Might We Better Prepare Physical Educators for Teaching in an Urban Setting?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chase, Melissa, Comp.; Vollum, Matt; Toebbe, Jennifer; Clark, Gary E.; Magnotta, John; Culp, Brian; Schmidlein, Robert; Ladda, Shawn

    2011-01-01

    This article presents suggestions from various physical education teachers regarding how they can better prepare physical educators for teaching in an urban setting. An educator suggests that understanding that each student is an individual and taking the time and effort to talk with (instead of at) each student will allow a teacher the…

  17. Influencing Intended Teaching Practice: Exploring pre-service teachers' perceptions of science teaching resources

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cooper, Grant; Kenny, John; Fraser, Sharon

    2012-08-01

    Many researchers have identified and expressed concern over the state of science education internationally, but primary teachers face particular obstacles when teaching science due to their poor science background and low confidence with science. Research has suggested that exemplary resources, or units that work, may be an effective way to support primary teachers. This study explores the effect of one such resource on the intentions of pre-service primary teachers to teach science. The resource in question is Primary Connections, a series of learning resources produced by the Australian Academy of Science specifically designed for primary science. Evaluative studies of Primary Connections have indicated its efficacy with practising primary teachers but there is little evidence of its impact upon pre-service teachers. The purpose of this study was to investigate how effective these quality teaching resources were in influencing the intentions of primary pre-service teachers to teach science after they graduated. The theory of planned behaviour highlighted the linkage between the intentions of the pre-service teachers to teach science, and their awareness of and experiences with using Primary Connections during their education studies. This enabled key factors to be identified which influenced the intentions of the pre-service teachers to use Primary Connections to teach science after they graduate. The study also provided evidence of how quality science teaching resources can be effectively embedded in a teacher education programme as a means of encouraging and supporting pre-service teachers to teach science.

  18. Teaching the process of science: faculty perceptions and an effective methodology.

    PubMed

    Coil, David; Wenderoth, Mary Pat; Cunningham, Matthew; Dirks, Clarissa

    2010-01-01

    Most scientific endeavors require science process skills such as data interpretation, problem solving, experimental design, scientific writing, oral communication, collaborative work, and critical analysis of primary literature. These are the fundamental skills upon which the conceptual framework of scientific expertise is built. Unfortunately, most college science departments lack a formalized curriculum for teaching undergraduates science process skills. However, evidence strongly suggests that explicitly teaching undergraduates skills early in their education may enhance their understanding of science content. Our research reveals that faculty overwhelming support teaching undergraduates science process skills but typically do not spend enough time teaching skills due to the perceived need to cover content. To encourage faculty to address this issue, we provide our pedagogical philosophies, methods, and materials for teaching science process skills to freshman pursuing life science majors. We build upon previous work, showing student learning gains in both reading primary literature and scientific writing, and share student perspectives about a course where teaching the process of science, not content, was the focus. We recommend a wider implementation of courses that teach undergraduates science process skills early in their studies with the goals of improving student success and retention in the sciences and enhancing general science literacy.

  19. Teaching the Process of Science: Faculty Perceptions and an Effective Methodology

    PubMed Central

    Coil, David; Wenderoth, Mary Pat; Cunningham, Matthew

    2010-01-01

    Most scientific endeavors require science process skills such as data interpretation, problem solving, experimental design, scientific writing, oral communication, collaborative work, and critical analysis of primary literature. These are the fundamental skills upon which the conceptual framework of scientific expertise is built. Unfortunately, most college science departments lack a formalized curriculum for teaching undergraduates science process skills. However, evidence strongly suggests that explicitly teaching undergraduates skills early in their education may enhance their understanding of science content. Our research reveals that faculty overwhelming support teaching undergraduates science process skills but typically do not spend enough time teaching skills due to the perceived need to cover content. To encourage faculty to address this issue, we provide our pedagogical philosophies, methods, and materials for teaching science process skills to freshman pursuing life science majors. We build upon previous work, showing student learning gains in both reading primary literature and scientific writing, and share student perspectives about a course where teaching the process of science, not content, was the focus. We recommend a wider implementation of courses that teach undergraduates science process skills early in their studies with the goals of improving student success and retention in the sciences and enhancing general science literacy. PMID:21123699

  20. Teaching Science as Science Is Practiced: Opportunities and Limits for Enhancing Preservice Elementary Teachers' Self-Efficacy for Science and Science Teaching

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Avery, Leanne M.; Meyer, Daniel Z.

    2012-01-01

    Science teaching in elementary schools, or the lack thereof, continues to be an area of concern and criticism. Preservice elementary teachers' lack of confidence in teaching science is a major part of this problem. In this mixed-methods study, we report the impacts of an inquiry-based science course on preservice elementary teachers' self-efficacy…

  1. Investigating Omani Science Teachers' Attitudes towards Teaching Science: The Role of Gender and Teaching Experiences

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ambusaidi, Abdullah; Al-Farei, Khalid

    2017-01-01

    A 30-item questionnaire was designed to determine Omani science teachers' attitudes toward teaching science and whether or not these attitudes differ according to gender and teaching experiences of teachers. The questionnaire items were divided into 3 domains: classroom preparation, managing hands-on science, and development appropriateness. The…

  2. Minority Preservice Teachers' Conceptions of Teaching Science: Sources of Science Teaching Strategies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Subramaniam, Karthigeyan

    2013-01-01

    This study explores five minority preservice teachers' conceptions of teaching science and identifies the sources of their strategies for helping students learn science. Perspectives from the literature on conceptions of teaching science and on the role constructs used to describe and distinguish minority preservice teachers from their mainstream…

  3. Conceptions of Teaching Science Held by Novice Teachers in an Alternative Certification Program

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Koballa, Thomas R.; Glynn, Shawn M.; Upson, Leslie

    2005-01-01

    Case studies to investigate the conceptions of teaching science held by three novice teachers participating in an alternative secondary science teacher certification program were conducted, along with the relationships between their conceptions of science teaching and their science teaching practice. Data used to build the cases included the…

  4. Teaching Sustainability as a Large Format Environmental Science Elective

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Davies, C.; Frisch, M.; Wagner, J.

    2012-12-01

    A challenge in teaching sustainability is engaging students in the global scale and immediacy of environmental impacts, and degree of societal change required to address environmental challenges. Succeeding in a large format Environmental Science elective course with a many as 100 students is an even greater challenge. ENVSC 322 Environmental Sustainability is an innovative new course integrating multiple disciplines, a wide range of external expert speakers and a hands-on community engagement project. The course, in its third year, has been highly successful and impacting for the students, community and faculty involved. The determination of success is based on student and community impacts. Students covered science topics on Earth systems, ecosystem complexity and services through readings and specialist speakers. The interconnection of society and climate was approached through global and local examples with a strong environmental justice component. Experts in a wide range of professional fields were engaged to speak with students on the role and impacts of sustainability in their particular field. Some examples are: Region VII Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Justice Director engaged students in both urban and rural aspects of environmental justice; a Principle Architect and national leader in Green architecture and redevelopment spoke with students regarding the necessity and potential for green urbanism; and industry innovators presented closed-cycle and alternative energy projects. The capstone project and highlight of the course was an individual or team community engagement project on sustainability, designed and implemented by the students. Community engagement projects completed throughout the Kansas City metro area have increased each year in number, quality and impact from 35 the first year to 70 projects this past spring. Students directly engage their communities and through this experience integrate knowledge of environmental systems with how their own society uses and impacts these systems. The direct nature of "doing" a project, not its success, can and has been transformative for many students.

  5. My Science Is Better than Your Science: Conceptual Change as a Goal in Teaching Science Majors Interested in Teaching Careers about Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Utter, Brian C.; Paulson, Scott A.; Almarode, John T.; Daniel, David B.

    2018-01-01

    We argue, based on a multi-year collaboration to develop a pedagogy course for physics majors by experts in physics, education, and the science of learning, that the process of teaching science majors about education and the science of learning, and evidence-based teaching methods in particular, requires conceptual change analogous to that…

  6. Teaching Nature in Cities and Towns. Urban Outdoor Biology and Ecology.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Vogl, Sonia Wolff; Vogl, Robert L.

    Developed to assist teachers in the teaching of outdoor biology and ecology, this guide contains lessons that can be conducted in an urban environment for elementary level students. Each lesson begins with thought-provoking introductory questions which lead into the actual activity, and concludes with discussion questions and suggestions for…

  7. Haberman Star Teacher Interview as a Predictor of Success in Urban Teacher Preparation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Waddell, Jennifer H.; Marszalek, Jacob M.

    2018-01-01

    In urban schools, along with skills for effective teaching, successful teachers must also possess values and belief systems conducive to teaching effectively in diverse settings (Becker, Kennedy, & Hundersmarck, 2003; Haberman, 2008; Metzgar & Wu, 2008). As demonstrated in CAEP standard 3, there is a critical need for EPPs to admit…

  8. Teaching As Moral Activity: How Public Policy Influences Urban Educational Practice.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ridenour, Carolyn S.; Lasley, Thomas J., II

    2002-01-01

    Asserts that market strategies and competition as pathways to higher urban student achievement threaten the moral purposes of education, and if policymakers continue this emphasis, schooling as fundamental to the common good and democracy may suffer. The paper discusses teaching as a moral imperative and a professional activity; public policy…

  9. Create Success! Unlocking the Potential of Urban Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rajagopal, Kadhir

    2011-01-01

    Inspired by his ability to teach algebra to low-income and mostly African American and Latino urban students--and have them outscore the state averages for high-income and Caucasian students on standardized tests--Kadhir "Raja" Rajagopal, the 2011 California Teacher of the Year, provides you with a model for teaching that unleashes the…

  10. The Influence of a Reform-Based Mathematics Methods Course on Preservice Teachers' Beliefs

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Evans, Brian R.; Leonard, Jacqueline; Krier, Kathleen; Ryan, Steve

    2013-01-01

    Beliefs about teaching mathematics and urban students' ability to learn mathematics are often overlooked in the discourse on highly qualified teachers. Altering teacher experiences has the potential to change their beliefs. It was found in this qualitative case study that preservice teachers' beliefs about teaching mathematics to urban students…

  11. Context as Mediator: Teaching Residents' Opportunity and Learning in High-Need Urban Schools

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kolman, Joni S.; Roegman, Rachel; Goodwin, A. Lin

    2016-01-01

    This article presents findings from an exploratory empirical study of teaching residents' opportunities and learning within the overlapping contexts of English as a Second Language (ESL)/special education classrooms and high-need urban schools. Utilizing documentation from the first year of a teacher residency program, our findings illustrate the…

  12. Emotional Issues in Teaching Science: A Case Study of a Teacher's Views

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zembylas, Michalinos

    2004-08-01

    Science teaching environments are social environments, and teachers emotions interact with their science teaching in powerful ways. To value the teacher is to value the whole person, not just the intellect. In this paper, a theorization of teacher emotion in science teaching is developed which illustrates the role of emotion in establishing and maintaining self-esteem in science teaching situations. From the standpoint of social-constructionist theory of emotion, it is argued that emotion is a social construction within social relationships. Arising from this view, are the emotions of intellectual excitement, frustration and shame that play a key role in the development of self-esteem. The dynamics of these emotions, in the context of experiences of success and failure, may dispose teachers to act positively or negatively towards science teaching. The theorisation developed is illustrated in the emotional experiences of an elementary school teacher in an early childhood science classroom. These experiences indicate that emotion is constitutive of teaching, and merits greater consideration in science teaching.

  13. Caught in the Balance: An Organizational Analysis of Science Teaching in Schools with Elementary Science Specialists

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Marco-Bujosa, Lisa M.; Levy, Abigail Jurist

    2016-01-01

    Elementary schools are under increasing pressure to teach science and teach it well; yet, research documents that classroom teachers must overcome numerous personal and school-based challenges to teach science effectively at this level, such as access to materials and inadequate instructional time. The elementary science specialist model…

  14. Values of Catholic science educators: Their impact on attitudes of science teaching and learning

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    DeMizio, Joanne Greenwald

    This quantitative study examined the associations between the values held by middle school science teachers in Catholic schools and their attitudes towards science teaching. A total of six value types were studied---theoretical, economic, aesthetic, social, political, and religious. Teachers can have negative, positive, or neutral attitudes towards their teaching that are linked to their teaching practices and student learning. These teachers' attitudes may affect their competence and have a subsequent impact on their students' attitudes and dispositions towards science. Of particular interest was the relationship between science teaching attitudes and religious values. A non-experimental research design was used to obtain responses from 54 teachers with two survey instruments, the Science Teaching Attitude Scale II and the Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Study of Values. Stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that political values were negatively associated with attitudes towards science teaching. Data collected were inconsistent with the existence of any measurable association between religious values and attitudes towards science teaching. This study implies that science teacher preparation programs should adopt a more contextual perspective on science that seeks to develop the valuation of science within a cultural context, as well as programs that enable teachers to identify the influence of their beliefs on instructional actions to optimize the impact of learning new teaching practices that may enhance student learning.

  15. Examination of factors which may contribute to the underrepresentation of African American teachers certified in science

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Davis, Rita C. F.

    Throughout this country the student population is becoming increasingly diverse, yet the teacher population does not reflect this diversity. This lack of diversity in the teacher population deprives students of color from having role models of the same race/ethnicity who look like them and who might have experiences which are similar to theirs (Epstein, 2005; Nettles & Perna, 1997). Having role models from their own race in the classroom could have a positive impact on students' attitudes about science (Perine, 2003), and facilitate their learning of the subject matter, and give students an incentive to do well in school (Vegas, Murnane, & Willett, 2001). In 2000, a national survey study of math and science teachers was conducted (Horizon Research, 2001). The majority of biology (90%), chemistry (93%), and physics (94%) teachers who participated in the study were White. Findings of the study revealed that only 55% to 60% of these teachers considered themselves well prepared to effectively teach a culturally diverse student population (Banilower, 2002; Smith, 2002; Wood, 2002). The majority of the teacher pool, which is White, prefer not to teach in urban communities as they have a preference for teaching jobs in the nonurban communities that are similar to those in which they were raised (Boyd, Lankford, Loeb, & Wyckoff, 2005; Epstein, 2005). The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine factors that may contribute to the underrepresentation of African American teachers certified in science. More specifically, it was decided to examine the high school experiences of in-service teachers. Study participants were teachers and other certificated faculty in two school districts located in the southern portion of the United States. Findings of the study revealed a statistically significant relationship between a teacher's decision to become certified in science and the following high school experiences: teachers and guidance counselors encouraging students to consider a career in science; having confidence in one's academic ability in science class; good student-teacher relationships; teachers and guidance counselors encouraging students to take higher level science courses; teachers having high expectations, overall, for all of their students. Upon examination of these experiences, it was revealed that: not being encouraged as much as other students to take higher level science courses; being discouraged from taking higher level science courses more than other students; the lack of availability of advance level science courses; and not taking at least three science courses create barriers to African American teachers becoming certified in science.

  16. The Effectiveness of Substituting Locally Available Materials in Teaching Chemistry in Nigeria: A Case for Science Education in Developing Countries

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    DomNwachukwu, Nkechi S.; DomNwachukwu, Chinaka S.

    2006-01-01

    This article investigates the effectiveness of improvising locally available materials for teaching chemistry in Nigeria, as a case for a culture of improvisation for teaching the sciences in developing countries. The scarcity and cost of imported materials for teaching science has remained a major challenge to teaching sciences in developing…

  17. University and Elementary School Perspectives of Ideal Elementary Science Teacher Knowledge, Skills, and Dispositions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sewart, Bethany Bianca

    Teacher education knowledge, skills, and dispositions have recently become a well-discussed topic among education scholars around the nation, mainly due to its attention by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) over the past few years. Accrediting agencies, such as NCATE and the Interstate New Teacher and Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC), have sought to improve the quality of teacher education programs by examining knowledge, skills, and dispositions as factors in preparing highly-qualified teachers. There is a paucity of research examining these factors for elementary science teachers. Because these factors influence instruction, and students are behind in scientific and mathematical knowledge, elementary science teachers should be studied. Teacher knowledge, skills, and dispositions should be further researched in order to ultimately increase the quality of teachers and teacher education programs. In this particular case, by determining what schools of education and public schools deem important knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to teach science, higher education institutions and schools can collaborate to further educate these students and foster the necessary qualities needed to teach effectively. The study of knowledge, skills, and dispositions is crucial to nurturing effective teaching within the classroom. Results from this study demonstrated that there were prominent knowledge, skills, and dispositions identified by teachers, administrators, and science teacher educators as important for effective teaching of elementary science. These characteristics included: a willingness to learn, or open-mindedness; content knowledge; planning, organization, and preparation; significance of teaching science; and science-related assessment strategies. Interestingly, administrators in the study responded differently than their counterparts in the following areas: their self-evaluation of teacher effectiveness; how the teaching of science is valued; the best approach to science teaching; and planning for science instruction. When asked of their teaching effectiveness while teaching science, principals referred to enjoying science teaching and improving their practice, while teachers and science teacher educators discussed content knowledge. Administrators valued conducting experiments and hands-on science while teaching science, while their educational counterparts valued creating student connections and providing real-life applications to science for students. In their professional opinions, administrators preferred a hands-on approach to science teaching. Teachers and science teacher educators stated that they view scientific inquiry, exploration, and discovery as effective approaches to teaching within their classrooms. Administrators predicted that teachers would state that lack of resources affects their lesson planning in science. However, teachers and science teacher educators asserted that taking time to plan for science instruction was most important.

  18. Toward making the invisible visible: Studying science teaching self-efficacy beliefs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Perkins, Catherine J.

    This dissertation consists of two articles to be submitted for publication. The first, a literature review, makes visible common influences on science teaching self-efficacy beliefs and also points to potentially invisible validation concerns regarding the instrument used. The second investigates the participants' invisible science teaching self-efficacy beliefs and, through the use of a more focused interview, makes those beliefs visible. Science teaching self-efficacy beliefs are science teachers' perceptions of their abilities to teach science effectively. The construct "teaching self-efficacy" originated in social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1977). The first article reviews the mixed results from teaching self-efficacy research in science contexts. The review focuses upon factors that facilitate or inhibit the development of self-efficacy beliefs among science teachers across stages of their careers. Although many studies of science teaching self-efficacy beliefs have utilized the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument - STEBI (Enochs & Riggs, 1990; Riggs & Enochs, 1990), this review also includes non-STEBI studies in order to represent diverse lines of research methodology. The review's findings indicate that antecedent factors such as science activities in and out of school, teacher preparation, science teaching experiences and supportive job contexts are significant influences on the development of science teaching self-efficacy beliefs. The review also indicates that the majority of these studies are short term and rely on a single STEBI administration with the collection of antecedent/demographic and/or interview data. The second article documents a study that responded to the above literature review findings. This study utilized multiple STEBI administrations during the preservice and beginning year of teaching for two science teachers. Rather than general questions, these participants were asked item specific, yet open-ended, questions to determine what events or experiences the participants felt influenced their survey answers. This methodological approach was chosen to add clarity to the STEBI scores and to add another layer in the ongoing process of instrument validation. Unlike some studies in science teaching self-efficacy, both participants' STEBI scores continued to increase as they transitioned from preservice to beginning teachers. The participant responses to the focused interview probes also validated their STEBI scores 77% of the time.

  19. A longitudinal investigation of the preservice science teachers' beliefs about science teaching during a science teacher training programme

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Buldur, Serkan

    2017-01-01

    The aim of this longitudinal study was to investigate the changes in preservice science teachers' beliefs about science teaching during a science teacher training programme. The study was designed as a panel study, and the data were collected from the same participants at the end of each academic year during a four-year period. The participants were composed of 76 preservice teachers, and the DASTT-C was used as the data collection tool. As a result of the study, it was determined that the students had conventional teaching beliefs after the first years of the teacher training programme. Moreover, the mental teaching styles of preservice teachers about the science teaching were found to undergo changes throughout their undergraduate education. Participants' beliefs about conventional teaching started to change, especially after they first took a science method course in their third year and their beliefs shifted towards student-centred teaching. Implications for science teacher training programmes were also addressed.

  20. Exploring Science Teaching Efficacy of CASE Curriculum Teachers: A Post-Then-Pre Assessment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ulmer, Jonathan D.; Velez, Jonathan J.; Lambert, Misty D.; Thompson, Greg W.; Burris, Scott; Witt, Phillip A.

    2013-01-01

    This descriptive-correlational study sought to investigate teachers' levels of Personal Science Teaching Efficacy (PSTE) and Science Teaching Outcome Expectancy (STOE) using the Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Instrument (STEBI). The population included all teachers completing a CASE Institute training session during summer 2010. Assessments…

  1. Development of interest in science and interest in teaching elementary science: Influence of informal, school, and inquiry methods course experiences

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bulunuz, Mizrap

    Inquiry-based science instruction is a major goal of science education reform. However, there is little research examining how preservice elementary teachers might be motivated to teach through inquiry. This quantitative study was designed to examine the role of background experiences and an inquiry science methods course on interest in science and interest in teaching science. The course included many activities and assignments at varying levels of inquiry, designed to teach content and inquiry methods and to model effective teaching. The study involved analyses of surveys completed by students in the course on their experiences with science before, during, and at the end of the course. The following questions guided the design of this study and analysis of the data: (1) What science background experiences (school, home, and informal education) do participants have and how do those experiences affect initial interest in science? (2) Among the hands-on activities in the methods course, is there a relationship between level of inquiry of the activity and the motivational quality (interesting, fun, and learning) of the activity? (3) Does the course affect participants' interest and attitude toward science? (4) What aspects of the course contribute to participants' interest in teaching science and choice to teach science? Descriptive and inferential analysis of a background survey revealed that participants with high and low initial interest in science differed significantly on remembering about elementary school science and involvement in science related activities in childhood/youth. Analysis of daily ratings of each hands-on activity on motivational qualities (fun, interest, and learning) indicated that there were significant differences in motivational quality of the activities by level of inquiry with higher levels of inquiry rated more positively. Pre/post surveys indicated that participants increased in interest in science and a number of variables reflecting more positive feelings about science and science teaching. Regression analysis found that the best predictors for interest in teaching science were experiencing fun activities in the science methods course followed by the interest participants brought to the course. This study highlights the motivational aspects of the methods course in developing interest in science and interest in teaching science.

  2. Environmental challenges threatening the growth of urban agriculture in the United States.

    PubMed

    Wortman, Sam E; Lovell, Sarah Taylor

    2013-09-01

    Urban agriculture, though often difficult to define, is an emerging sector of local food economies in the United States. Although urban and agricultural landscapes are often integrated in countries around the world, the establishment of mid- to large-scale food production in the U.S. urban ecosystem is a relatively new development. Many of the urban agricultural projects in the United States have emerged from social movements and nonprofit organizations focused on urban renewal, education, job training, community development, and sustainability initiatives. Although these social initiatives have traction, critical knowledge gaps exist regarding the science of food production in urban ecosystems. Developing a science-based approach to urban agriculture is essential to the economic and environmental sustainability of the movement. This paper reviews abiotic environmental factors influencing urban cropping systems, including soil contamination and remediation; atmospheric pollutants and altered climatic conditions; and water management, sources, and safety. This review paper seeks to characterize the limited state of the science on urban agricultural systems and identify future research questions most relevant to urban farmers, land-use planners, and environmental consultants. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

  3. Newly qualified teachers' visions of science learning and teaching

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Roberts, Deborah L.

    2011-12-01

    This study investigated newly qualified teachers' visions of science learning and teaching. The study also documented their preparation in an elementary science methods course. The research questions were: What educational and professional experiences influenced the instructor's visions of science learning and teaching? What visions of science learning and teaching were promoted in the participants' science methods course? What visions of science learning and teaching did these newly qualified teachers bring with them as they graduated from their teacher preparation program? How did these visions compare with those advocated by reform documents? Data sources included participants' assignments, weekly reflections, and multi-media portfolio finals. Semi-structured interviews provided the emic voice of participants, after graduation but before they had begun to teach. These data were interpreted via a combination of qualitative methodologies. Vignettes described class activities. Assertions supported by excerpts from participants' writings emerged from repeated review of their assignments. A case study of a typical participant characterized weekly reflections and final multi-media portfolio. Four strands of science proficiency articulated in a national reform document provided a framework for interpreting activities, assignments, and interview responses. Prior experiences that influenced design of the methods course included an inquiry-based undergraduate physics course, participation in a reform-based teacher preparation program, undergraduate and graduate inquiry-based science teaching methods courses, participation in a teacher research group, continued connection to the university as a beginning teacher, teaching in diverse Title 1 schools, service as the county and state elementary science specialist, participation in the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, service on a National Research Council committee, and experience teaching a science methods course. The methods course studied here emphasized reform-based practices, science as inquiry, culturally responsive teaching, scientific discourse, and integration of science with technology and other disciplines. Participants' writings and interview responses articulated visions of science learning and teaching that included aspects of reform-based practices. Some participants intentionally incorporated and implemented reform-based strategies in field placements during the methods course and student teaching. The strands of scientific proficiency were evident in activities, assignments and participants' interviews in varying degrees.

  4. Struggles with learning about scientific models in a middle school science classroom

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Loper, Suzanna Jane

    Two important goals in science education are teaching students about the nature of science and teaching students to do scientific inquiry. Learning about scientific models is central to both of these endeavors, but studies have shown that students have very flawed and limited understandings of the nature and purposes of scientific models (Carey & Smith, 1993; Grosslight, Unger, & Jay, 1991; Lederman, 1992). In this dissertation I investigate the processes of teaching and learning about scientific models in an 8th grade classroom in an urban middle school. In order to do so, I examine recordings of student and teacher talk about models across a period of two months in which students completed two independent inquiry projects, using the Inquiry Island software and curriculum (Eslinger, 2004; Shimoda, White, & Frederiksen, 2002; White, Shimoda, & Frederiksen, 2000). My analysis draws on video records of small-group work and whole-class interactions, as well as on students' written work. I find that in this classroom, students struggled to understand the nature and purpose of scientific models. I analyze episodes in the classroom talk in which models appeared to be a source of trouble or confusion, and describe the ways in which the teacher attempted to respond to these troubles. I find that in many cases students appeared to be able to produce scientific models of the proper form, yet still struggled with displaying an understanding of what a model was, or of the functions of models in scientific research. I propose directions for further research and curriculum development in order to build on these findings. In particular, I argue, we need to design ways to help students engage in scientific modeling as a social and communicative practice, and to find ways to build from their everyday reasoning and argumentation practices. My research also reinforces the importance of looking at classroom talk, not just pre- and post-assessments, in order to understand teaching and learning as dynamic processes.

  5. "Urban, but Not Too Urban": Unpacking Teachers' Desires to Teach Urban Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Watson, Dyan

    2011-01-01

    This study explores 16 novice, urban-trained teachers' evaluations of their current schools. Findings suggest that teachers used the perceived behaviors, values, and beliefs of students to measure how urban a student was and, therefore, to guide their expectations and satisfaction of their placements. The less urban the students were perceived to…

  6. "You Have to Give Them Some Science Facts": Primary Student Teachers' Early Negotiations of Teacher Identities in the Intersections of Discourses about Science Teaching and about Primary Teaching

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Danielsson, Anna T.; Warwick, Paul

    2014-01-01

    In the broadest sense, the goal for primary science teacher education could be described as preparing these teachers to teach for scientific literacy. Our starting point is that making such science teaching accessible and desirable for future primary science teachers is dependent not only on their science knowledge and self-confidence, but also on…

  7. Teaching Music in the Urban Classroom, Volume 2: A Guide to Leadership, Teacher Education, and Reform

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Frierson-Campbell, Carol, Ed.

    2006-01-01

    This second volume, the follow-on to "Teaching Music in the Urban Classroom, Volume 1: A Guide to Survival, Success, and Reform," extends the conversation to include educational leadership, teacher education, partnerships, and school reform. As with Volume 1, classroom music teachers, inner city arts administrators, well-known academics,…

  8. Korean American Social Studies Teachers' Perceptions and Experiences of Teaching Profession in Multicultural Urban High Schools

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Choi, Yoonjung

    2018-01-01

    This study explores two Korean American social studies teachers' perceptions and experiences of the teaching profession in multicultural, urban public high schools. Drawing upon critical race theory (CRT) and its interconnection to the model minority myth, the most dominant form of racism against Asians as theoretical underpinnings, this study…

  9. Preservice Educators' Perceptions of Teaching in an Urban Middle School Setting: A Lesson from the Amistad

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hill, Pixita del Prado; Phelps, Stephen; Friedland, Ellen S.

    2007-01-01

    Preparing European-American preservice teachers for diverse urban school settings pose multiple challenges. Of primary concern are the differences in race, culture, and community between teachers and students. Because new teachers prefer to work where they grew up, most preservice teachers want to teach students who are like themselves in familiar…

  10. An Urban Schools-University Partnership that Prepares and Retains Quality Teachers for "High Need" Schools

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Helfeldt, John P.; Capraro, Robert M.; Capraro, Mary Margaret; Foster, Elizabeth; Carter, Norvella

    2009-01-01

    This article describes a full-time teaching internship program, where, in lieu of student teaching, interns serve as classroom teachers in urban area schools. Through a partnership between a university and participating school districts, all interns received intensive mentoring and induction during their first year. Among the program results, were…

  11. T.E.M.P.: Teacher Education Model of Partnership--A Year-Long Competency-Based Urban Elementary Teaching Internship.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Concordia Coll., St. Paul, Minn.

    The Teacher Education Model of Partnership (TEMP) features joint ownership, joint support, and a partner relationship between a college and a school district in planning and implementing a professional program, designed specifically for teaching in the urban classroom. A planning committee was formed, composed of representatives from the public…

  12. A Guide for Teaching in and from an Urban School Environment, 1973.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    State Univ. of New York, Plattsburgh. Coll. at Plattsburgh.

    The resource materials represent the cooperative efforts of graduate students enrolled in a 2-week field learning class. The specific objective of the reports was to consider the ways urban resources can be used in outdoor education teaching in and from a "city" environment. The individual reports are: Athletic Field; Community Signs; Curbs and…

  13. Do the Values of First Year Education Students and Successful Urban Teachers Differ?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lemlech, Johanna Kasin; Sikula, John P.

    A survey of 18 values held by selected groups of preservice teaching candidates and by successful, urban, secondary-school teachers showed a divergence that can be expected to affect personal characteristics and teacher behaviors, as well as instructional success or failure in a variety of teaching environments. The two groups differed…

  14. "But How Long Will They Stay?" Alternative Certification and New Teacher Retention in an Urban District

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mac Iver, Martha Abele; Vaughn, E. Sidney, III

    2007-01-01

    This study compares the retention rates of urban teachers in the Baltimore City Public School System who were recruited through a federal program called Teach for America (TFA) and selected alternative certification programs, with those of certified teachers and teachers who do not possess regular teaching credentials. The authors researched…

  15. African American Males in Urban Schools: No Excuses-Teach and Empower

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Milner, H. Richard, IV

    2007-01-01

    The author outlines five promising principles, emerging from his research, on teaching that can empower teachers and Black male students in urban school contexts. In particular, teachers and students (a) envision life beyond their present situations, (b) come to know themselves in relation to others, (c) speak possibility and not destruction, (d)…

  16. Exploring Teacher Concerns of Pre-Collegiate Urban Teaching Academy Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fletcher, Edward C., Jr.; Dicicco, Michael

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to explore whether the concerns of a group of pre-collegiate students enrolled in an urban teaching academy (UTA) program were unique or similar to those found in earlier studies using Fuller's model as a framework for analysis. Using an instrumental case study approach, findings indicated that the UTA students…

  17. Directors' Evaluation of Urban Instructional Training and Development Institute, Essex County College.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Essex County Coll., Newark, NJ.

    This is a second-year report on a program to train college graduates for community college teaching functions with low-income and urban minority students. Four purposes of the program are listed: a) to help train future community college teachers in innovative teaching styles, b) to raise the level of sensitivity among this potentially…

  18. Teach for St. Louis: Cross-Cultural Challenges and Successes of New Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tao, Sarah A.

    2009-01-01

    Teach For America (TFA) teachers are placed in urban, impoverished, and highly diverse schools. The purpose of this study was to examine the challenges faced by TFA teachers (or corps members) in culturally and linguistically diverse schools in urban St. Louis. In examining how TFA teachers perceive and navigate these challenges, educators will…

  19. Tracing Spectres of Whiteness: Discourse and the Construction of Teaching Subjects in Urban Aboriginal Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Madden, Brooke

    2017-01-01

    The author traces how discourse functions in the context of a school-based, urban Aboriginal education initiative, with a focus on the construction and organization of teaching subjects. Critical discourse analysis that traces spectres reveals some of the ways that whiteness and Eurocentrism create the possibilities for, and the conditions in…

  20. Urban District Central Office Transformation for Teaching and Learning Improvement: Beyond a Zero-Sum Game

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Honig, Meredith I.; Lorton, Juli Swinnerton; Copland, Michael A.

    2009-01-01

    Over the past 15 years, a growing number of mid-sized to large school district central offices have engaged in radical reforms to strengthen teaching and learning for all students districtwide. Such efforts mark a significant change in urban educational governance. The authors call these efforts "district central office transformation for teaching…

  1. Why People Choose to Teach in Urban Schools: The Case for a Push-Pull Factor Analysis

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Knell, Paul F.; Castro, Antonio J.

    2014-01-01

    This qualitative research study traces the motivations for teaching of 13 teacher candidates enrolled in an urban-based alternative certification program. After using a push-pull factor analysis, the data suggest that most participants left their previous careers due to financial shortcomings or work instability. As a result, these participants…

  2. Peer Assessment of Elementary Science Teaching Skills

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kilic, Gulsen Bagci; Cakan, Mehtap

    2007-01-01

    In this study, peer assessment was applied in assessing elementary science teaching skills. Preservice teachers taught a science topic as a team to their peers in an elementary science methods course. The peers participating in the science lesson assessed teacher-groups' elementary science teaching skills on an assessment form provided by the…

  3. Teaching Dissent and Persuasion

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Carson, Kathleen M.; Hodgen, Brian; Glaser, Rainer E.

    2006-01-01

    Teaching philosophy should be based on the desired outcome of the teaching. In the case of science education, the guiding principle for a teaching philosophy should start with the desire to help students understand and use science, regardless of their major or profession. To effectively teach students how to understand science, one must include…

  4. Influencing Science Teaching Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Primary School Teachers: A Longitudinal Case Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McKinnon, Merryn; Lamberts, Rod

    2014-01-01

    The science teaching self-efficacy beliefs of primary school teachers influence teaching practice. The purpose of this research was to determine if informal education institutions, such as science centres, could provide professional development that influences the science teaching self-efficacy beliefs of pre-service and in-service primary school…

  5. Affecting Primary Science: A Case from the Early Years.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Watts, Mike; Walsh, Amanda

    1997-01-01

    Claims that there is a "down-drift" in the teaching of science, with even preschools now obligated to teach science content. Investigates (through one teacher's diary) how primary teachers interact with scientific teachings and how they can best be inducted into the teaching and learning of science. Concludes that incorporating personal…

  6. Ecological science and transformation to the sustainable city

    Treesearch

    S.T.A. Pickett; Christopher G. Boone; Brian P. McGrath; M.L. Cadenasso; Daniel L. Childers; Laura A. Ogden; Melissa McHale; J. Morgan Grove

    2013-01-01

    There is growing urgency to enhance the sustainability of existing and emerging cities. The science of ecology, especially as it interacts with disciplines in the social sciences and urban design, has contributions to make to the sustainable transformation of urban systems. Not all possible urban transformations may lead toward sustainability. Ecological science helps...

  7. Impact of SCALE-UP on science teaching self-efficacy of students in general education science courses

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cassani, Mary Kay Kuhr

    The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of two pedagogical models used in general education science on non-majors' science teaching self-efficacy. Science teaching self-efficacy can be influenced by inquiry and cooperative learning, through cognitive mechanisms described by Bandura (1997). The Student Centered Activities for Large Enrollment Undergraduate Programs (SCALE-UP) model of inquiry and cooperative learning incorporates cooperative learning and inquiry-guided learning in large enrollment combined lecture-laboratory classes (Oliver-Hoyo & Beichner, 2004). SCALE-UP was adopted by a small but rapidly growing public university in the southeastern United States in three undergraduate, general education science courses for non-science majors in the Fall 2006 and Spring 2007 semesters. Students in these courses were compared with students in three other general education science courses for non-science majors taught with the standard teaching model at the host university. The standard model combines lecture and laboratory in the same course, with smaller enrollments and utilizes cooperative learning. Science teaching self-efficacy was measured using the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument - B (STEBI-B; Bleicher, 2004). A science teaching self-efficacy score was computed from the Personal Science Teaching Efficacy (PTSE) factor of the instrument. Using non-parametric statistics, no significant difference was found between teaching models, between genders, within models, among instructors, or among courses. The number of previous science courses was significantly correlated with PTSE score. Student responses to open-ended questions indicated that students felt the larger enrollment in the SCALE-UP room reduced individual teacher attention but that the large round SCALE-UP tables promoted group interaction. Students responded positively to cooperative and hands-on activities, and would encourage inclusion of more such activities in all of the courses. The large enrollment SCALE-UP model as implemented at the host university did not increase science teaching self-efficacy of non-science majors, as hypothesized. This was likely due to limited modification of standard cooperative activities according to the inquiry-guided SCALE-UP model. It was also found that larger SCALE-UP enrollments did not decrease science teaching self-efficacy when standard cooperative activities were used in the larger class.

  8. Turkish Preservice Elementary Science Teachers' Conceptions of Learning Science and Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs: Is There a Relationship?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bahcivan, Eralp; Kapucu, Serkan

    2014-01-01

    This study has been conducted to investigate conceptions of learning science (COLS) and personal science teaching efficacy belief (PSTE) of Turkish preservice elementary science teachers (PSTs) and to explore the relationship between these variables. Two instruments COLS questionnaire and PSTE subscale of Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs…

  9. Investigating How Nontraditional Elementary Pre-service Teachers Negotiate the Teaching of Science

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shelton, Mythianne

    This qualitative study was designed to investigate the influences on nontraditional preservice teachers as they negotiated the teaching of science in elementary school. Based upon a sociocultural theoretical framework with an identity-in-practice lens, these influences included beliefs about science teaching, life experiences, and the impact of the teacher preparation program. The study sample consisted of two nontraditional preservice teachers who were student teaching in an elementary classroom. Data, collected over a five-month period, included in-depth individual interviews, classroom observations, audio recordings, and reviews of documentations. Interviews focused on the participants' beliefs relating to the teaching of science, prior experiences, and their teacher preparation program experiences relating to the teaching of science. Classroom observations provided additional insights into the classroom setting, participants' teaching strategies, and participants' interactions with the students and cooperating teacher. A whole-text analysis of the interview transcripts, observational field notes, audio recordings and documents generated eight major categories: beliefs about science teaching, role of family, teaching science in the classroom, teacher identity, non-teacher identity, relationships with others, discourses of classroom teaching, and discourses of teachers. The following significant findings emerged from the data: (a) the identity of nontraditional student teachers as science teachers related to early life experiences in science classes; (b) the identity of nontraditional student teachers as science teachers was influenced by their role as parents; (c) nontraditional student teachers learned strategies that supported their beliefs about inquiry learning; and (d) nontraditional student teachers valued the teacher preparation program support system. The results from this qualitative study suggest that sociocultural theory with an identity-in-practice lens provides a theoretical framework for understanding the influences that affect why nontraditional preservice teachers select strategies to teach science in the elementary classroom.

  10. Preservice elementary teachers' personal science teaching efficacy and science teaching outcome expectancies: The influence of student teaching

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Plourde, Lee Alton

    This study was unique in garnering an early view at how the deterioration of science teacher education begins. This investigation examined the impact of the student teaching semester on preservice elementary teachers' personal efficacy beliefs and outcome expectancy beliefs in science teaching. Participants in the study included the student teachers of three separate cohort groups commencing and completing their student teaching semester at the same time. Qualitative data were gathered from interviews and observations from selected individuals of these cohort groups. Quantitative and qualitative research methods were employed in the study. Utilizing a pretest and posttest one group research design, quantitative data were obtained from the administration of a psychometric test, Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument for preservice teachers (STEBI-B). The pretest was administered at the beginning of the student teaching semester, before the student teachers began their "soloing" teaching, and the posttest was administered at the completion of the student teaching semester and "soloing" period. Qualitative data were derived from interviews and observations which were audio recorded and transcribed. The results of this study revealed that the student teaching semester did not have a statistically significant impact on the subjects' sense of personal self-efficacy, but the influence was statistically significant in regards to the student teachers' beliefs about children's ability to learn science. Data gathered through interviews and observations suggested that beliefs appear to originate from one or more of the following: a lack of practical work, personal involvement, and hands-on manipulation in science related activities in elementary, secondary, and tertiary education; a dependence of science courses on textbooks and lectures; the dispassionate association with science teachers/instructors; a focus on formalized tests with no performance assessments; the lethargical attitude towards the teaching of science by inservice/mentor teachers; and the need for relevancy to personal lives. Additional results shed light onto the barriers and roadblocks encountered by student teachers when attempting to teach science to elementary students. Thew highlighted factors, along with the identification of elements which contribute to the effective teaching of elementary science, are thoroughly discussed.

  11. Teaching Ethics in Science.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Reiss, Michael

    1999-01-01

    Summarizes arguments for and against teaching ethics within science education, and clarifies what might be the several aims of teaching ethics in science. Discusses how ethics instruction might be incorporated into the science curriculum. (Contains 120 references.) (WRM)

  12. Learning to teach science in a professional development school program

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hildreth, David P.

    1997-09-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of learning to teach science in a Professional Development School (PDS) program on university elementary education preservice teachers' (1) attitudes toward science, (2) science process skills achievement, and (3) sense of science teaching efficacy. Data were collected and analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative data were collected using the Science Attitude Inventory (North Carolina Math and Science Education Network (1994), the Test of Integrated Process Skills, TIPS, (Dillashaw & Okey, 1980), and the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument, STEBI, form B (Enochs & Riggs, 1990). A pretest posttest research design was used for the attitude and process skills constructs. These results were analyzed using paired t test procedures. A pre-experimental group comparison group research design was used for the efficacy construct. Results from this comparison were analyzed using unpaired t test procedures. Qualitative data were collected through students' responses to open-ended questionnaires, narrative interviews, journal entries, small messages, and unsolicited conversations. These data were analyzed via pattern analysis. Posttest scores were significantly higher than pretests scores on both the Science Attitude Inventory and the TIPS. This indicated that students had improved attitudes toward science and science teaching and higher process skills achievement after three semesters in the science-focused PDS program. Scores on the STEBI were significantly higher for students in the pre-experimental group when compared to students in the comparison group. This indicates that students in the science-focused PDS program possessed more efficacious beliefs about science teaching than did the comparison group. Quantitative data were supported by analysis of qualitative data. Implications from this study point to the effectiveness of learning to teach science in a science-focused PDS program with respect to attitudes toward science, science process skills achievement, and sense of science teaching efficacy. In addition, qualitative data indicated that the most effective components of the science-focused PDS program rests largely on the fact that students learned to teach in a collaborative cohort team and that students spent extended periods of time in clinical internships and student teaching.

  13. Citizen Science and the Urban Ecology of Birds and Butterflies — A Systematic Review

    PubMed Central

    Wang Wei, James; Lee, Benjamin P. Y-H.; Bing Wen, Low

    2016-01-01

    Citizen science has gained widespread currency as a tool for ecological research over the past decade. However, in the discipline of urban ecology, the existing contributions and future potential of citizen science engagement, specifically in terms of knowledge gain, have not yet been comprehensively explored. Here, we present a systematic review of published work on the urban ecology of birds and butterflies in relation to their use of citizen science data between 2005 and 2014. We compared the number of studies that used citizen science data to the number of studies that could potentially have employed data derived from citizen science. The take-up rates of citizen science data were 21% and 26% for birds and butterflies respectively. Most studies that employed citizen science used volunteer-derived data as primary data, and adopted Collegial, Collaborative and Contributional engagement modes to the exclusion of Contractual and Co-created arrangements. There was no evidence that citizen science studies investigated a different organismal scale (community vs. species) compared to the urban ecology literature. For both taxa, citizen science contributions were lower than expected compared to their representation in the urban ecology literature for studies on species-environment relationships at landscape and micro-environment scales, as well as behavioural ecology in general. Other research topics that could benefit from further citizen science involvement include breeding studies and guild analyses for birds, and multi-taxa studies for butterflies. Promising models of citizen science engagement for urban ecology are highlighted in relation to their thematic foci and methodological detail, and a number of research questions that could be productively addressed using citizen science are identified. The dynamics of contemporary engagement between citizen science and urban ecology described by this review could inform the design and refinement of urban ecology–citizen science programmes in order to optimise their scientific contributions. PMID:27285581

  14. Citizen Science and the Urban Ecology of Birds and Butterflies - A Systematic Review.

    PubMed

    Wang Wei, James; Lee, Benjamin P Y-H; Bing Wen, Low

    2016-01-01

    Citizen science has gained widespread currency as a tool for ecological research over the past decade. However, in the discipline of urban ecology, the existing contributions and future potential of citizen science engagement, specifically in terms of knowledge gain, have not yet been comprehensively explored. Here, we present a systematic review of published work on the urban ecology of birds and butterflies in relation to their use of citizen science data between 2005 and 2014. We compared the number of studies that used citizen science data to the number of studies that could potentially have employed data derived from citizen science. The take-up rates of citizen science data were 21% and 26% for birds and butterflies respectively. Most studies that employed citizen science used volunteer-derived data as primary data, and adopted Collegial, Collaborative and Contributional engagement modes to the exclusion of Contractual and Co-created arrangements. There was no evidence that citizen science studies investigated a different organismal scale (community vs. species) compared to the urban ecology literature. For both taxa, citizen science contributions were lower than expected compared to their representation in the urban ecology literature for studies on species-environment relationships at landscape and micro-environment scales, as well as behavioural ecology in general. Other research topics that could benefit from further citizen science involvement include breeding studies and guild analyses for birds, and multi-taxa studies for butterflies. Promising models of citizen science engagement for urban ecology are highlighted in relation to their thematic foci and methodological detail, and a number of research questions that could be productively addressed using citizen science are identified. The dynamics of contemporary engagement between citizen science and urban ecology described by this review could inform the design and refinement of urban ecology-citizen science programmes in order to optimise their scientific contributions.

  15. The effect of teacher education level, teaching experience, and teaching behaviors on student science achievement

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Danhui

    Previous literature leaves us unanswered questions about whether teaching behaviors mediate the relationship between teacher education level and experience with student science achievement. This study examined this question with 655 students from sixth to eighth grade and their 12 science teachers. Student science achievements were measured at the beginning and end of 2006-2007 school year. Given the cluster sampling of students nested in classrooms, which are nested in teachers, a two-level multilevel model was employed to disentangle the effects from teacher-level and student-level factors. Several findings were discovered in this study. Science teachers possessing of advanced degrees in science or education significantly and positively influenced student science achievement. However, years of teaching experience in science did not directly influence student science achievement. A significant interaction was detected between teachers possessing an advanced degree in science or education and years of teaching science, which was inversely associated to student science achievement. Better teaching behaviors were also positively related to student achievement in science directly, as well as mediated the relationship between student science achievement and both teacher education and experience. Additionally, when examined separately, each teaching behavior variable (teacher engagement, classroom management, and teaching strategies) served as a significant intermediary between both teacher education and experience and student science achievement. The findings of this study are intended to provide insights into the importance of hiring and developing qualified teachers who are better able to help students achieve in science, as well as to direct the emphases of ongoing teacher inservice training.

  16. Contributions of Science Principles to Teaching: How Science Principles Can Be Used

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Henson, Kenneth T.

    1974-01-01

    Describes the steps involved in using the "principles" approach in teaching science, illustrates the process of using science principles with an example relating to rock formation, and discusses the relevance of this approach to contemporary trends in science teaching. (JR)

  17. Exploring the Place of Exemplary Science Teaching. This Year in School Science 1993.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Haley-Oliphant, Ann E., Ed.

    Exemplary science teaching is an experience that fosters wonder, excitement, and risk-taking. This book presents essays which attempt to describe the culture of classrooms of exemplary science teachers. Chapter titles are: "Exploring the Place of Exemplary Science Teaching" (Ann E. Haley-Oliphant); "The Voices of Exemplary Science Teachers" (Ann…

  18. Three-Dimensional Instruction: Using a New Type of Teaching in the Science Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Krajcik, Joe

    2015-01-01

    Science teaching and learning in the United States are at a pivotal point. "A Framework for K-12 Science Education" (NRC 2012b) and the "Next Generation Science Standards" ("NGSS"; NGSS Lead States 2013) shift science educators' focus from simply teaching science ideas to helping students figure out phenomena and…

  19. Florida and Puerto Rico Secondary Science Teachers' Knowledge and Teaching of Climate Change Science

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Herman, Benjamin C.; Feldman, Allan; Vernaza-Hernandez, Vanessa

    2017-01-01

    Misconceptions about climate change science are pervasive among the US public. This study investigated the possibility that these misconceptions may be reflective of science teachers' knowledge and teaching of climate change science. Florida and Puerto Rico secondary science teachers who claim to teach extensively about climate change were…

  20. Sources of Science Teaching Self-Efficacy for Preservice Elementary Teachers in Science Content Courses

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Menon, Deepika; Sadler, Troy D.

    2018-01-01

    Self-efficacy beliefs play a major role in determining teachers' science teaching practices and have been a topic of great interest in the area of preservice science teacher education. This qualitative study investigated factors that influenced preservice elementary teachers' science teaching self-efficacy beliefs in a physical science content…

  1. Taking an active stance: How urban elementary students connect sociocultural experiences in learning science

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Upadhyay, Bhaskar; Maruyama, Geoffrey; Albrecht, Nancy

    2017-12-01

    In this interpretive case study, we draw from sociocultural theory of learning and culturally relevant pedagogy to understand how urban students from nondominant groups leverage their sociocultural experiences. These experiences allow them to gain an empowering voice in influencing science content and activities and to work towards self-determining the sciences that are personally meaningful. Furthermore, tying sociocultural experiences with science learning helps generate sociopolitical awareness among students. We collected interview and observation data in an urban elementary classroom over one academic year to understand the value of urban students' sociocultural experiences in learning science and choosing science activities.

  2. Science-for-Teaching Discourse in Science Teachers' Professional Learning Communities

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lohwasser, Karin

    Professional learning communities (PLCs) provide an increasingly common structure for teachers' professional development. The effectiveness of PLCs depends on the content and quality of the participants' discourse. This dissertation was conducted to add to an understanding of the science content needed to prepare to teach science, and the discourse characteristics that create learning opportunities in teachers' PLCs. To this end, this study examined how middle school science teachers in three PLCs addressed science-for-teaching, and to what effect. Insight into discourse about content knowledge for teaching in PLCs has implications for the analysis, interpretation, and support of teachers' professional discourse, their collaborative learning, and consequently their improvement of practice. This dissertation looked closely at the hybrid space between teachers' knowledge of students, of teaching, and of science, and how this space was explored in the discourse among teachers, and between teachers and science experts. At the center of the study were observations of three 2-day PLC cycles in which participants worked together to improve the way they taught their curriculum. Two of the PLC cycles were supported, in part, by a science expert who helped the teachers explore the science they needed for teaching. The third PLC worked without such support. The following overarching questions were explored in the three articles of this dissertation: (1) What kind of science knowledge did teachers discuss in preparation for teaching? (2) How did the teachers talk about content knowledge for science teaching, and to what effect for their teaching practice? (3) How did collaborating teachers' discursive accountabilities provide opportunities for furthering the teachers' content knowledge for science teaching? The teachers' discourse during the 2-day collaboration cycles was analyzed and interpreted based on a sociocultural framework that included concepts from the practice-based theory of content knowledge for teaching developed by D. L. Ball, Thames, and Phelps (2008) and the Accountable Talk framework by Michaels, O'Connor, & Resnick (2008). The study's findings could provide justification for and ideas on how to provide targeted support for PLCs to make teachers' work on science knowledge more applicable to lesson planning, teaching, and student learning.

  3. Beginning science teachers' performances: Assessment in times of reform

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Budzinsky, Fie K.

    2000-10-01

    The current reform in science education and the research on effective teaching and student learning have reinforced the importance of teacher competency. To better measure performances in the teaching of science, performance assessment has been added to Connecticut's licensure process for beginning science teachers. Teaching portfolios are used to document teaching and learning over time. Portfolios, however, are not without problems. One of the major concerns with the portfolio assessment process is its subjectivity. Assessors may not have opportunities to ask clarifying or follow-up questions to enhance the interpretation of a teacher's performance. In addition, portfolios often contain components based on self-documentation, which are subjective. Furthermore, the use of portfolios raises test equity issues. These concerns present challenges for persons in charge of establishing the validity of a portfolio-based licensure process. In high-stakes decision processes, such as teaching licensure, the validity of the assessment instruments must be studied. The primary purpose of this study was to explore the criterion-related validity of the Connecticut State Department of Education's Beginning Science Teaching Portfolio by comparing the interpretations of performances from science teaching portfolios to those derived from another assessment method, the Expert Science Teaching Educational and Evaluation Model, (ESTEEM). The analysis of correlations between the Beginning Science Teaching Portfolio and ESTEEM instrument scores was the primary method for establishing support for validity. The results indicated moderate correlations between all Beginning Science Teaching Portfolio and ESTEEM category and total variables. Multiple regression was used to examine whether differences existed in beginning science teachers' performances based on gender, poverty group, school level, and science discipline taught. None of these variables significantly contributed to the explanation of variance in the ESTEEM (p > .05), but poverty group and gender were significant predictors of portfolio performances, accounting for 21% of the total variance. Finally, data from interviews, written surveys, and beginning teacher attendance records at state-supported seminars were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. This information provided insight about the quality and quantity of support beginning science teachers received in their efforts to document, via the science teaching portfolio, their abilities to implement the Connecticut Professional Science Teaching Standards.

  4. The implementation of integrated science teaching materials based socio-scientific issues to improve students scientific literacy for environmental pollution theme

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yenni, Rita; Hernani, Widodo, Ari

    2017-05-01

    The study aims to determine the increasing of students' science literacy skills on content aspects and competency of science by using Integrated Science teaching materials based Socio-scientific Issues (SSI) for environmental pollution theme. The method used in the study is quasi-experiment with nonequivalent pretest and posttest control group design. The students of experimental class used teaching materials based SSI, whereas the students of control class were still using the usual textbooks. The result of this study showed a significant difference between the value of N-gain of experimental class and control class, whichalso occurred in every indicator of content aspects and competency of science. This result indicates that using of Integrated Science teaching materials based SSI can improve content aspect and competency of science and can be used as teaching materials alternative in teaching of Integrated Science.

  5. Children's Questions and Science Teaching: An Alternative Approach. [and] Floating and Sinking: Some Teaching Suggestions. Learning in Science Project (Primary). Working Paper No. 117 [February 1984 and November 1983 Versions].

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Biddulph, Fred; Osborne, Roger

    Two booklets were developed by the Learning in Science Project (Primary)--LISP(P)--to help teachers adopt an approach to primary science teaching which would enhance children's understanding of floating and sinking. Both booklets were designed to enable teachers to reconceptualize their teaching task from activity-driven, didactic teaching to…

  6. In-Service Turkish Elementary and Science Teachers' Attitudes toward Science and Science Teaching: A Sample from Usak Province

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Turkmen, Lutfullah

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to reveal Turkish elementary teachers' and science teachers' attitudes toward science and science teaching. The sample of the study, 138 in-service elementary level science teachers from a province of Turkey, was selected by a clustered sampling method. The Science Teaching Attitude Scale-II was employed to measure the…

  7. Use Root Cause Analysis Teaching Strategy to Train Primary Pre-Service Science Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lu, Chow-chin; Tsai, Chun-wei; Hong, Jon-chao

    2008-01-01

    This study examined the Root Cause Analysis (RCA) teaching strategy on pre-service primary science teachers and instinct pre-service teachers to apply RCA teaching strategy to science curriculums. RCA Teaching Strategy is to coordinates 5 Why Method and Fishbone Diagram. The participants included 18 pre-service primary science teachers and the…

  8. More than a Read-Aloud: Preparing and Inspiring Early Childhood Teachers to Develop Our Future Scientists

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Atiles, Julia T.; Jones, Jennifer L.; Anderson, James A.

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of professional development on teachers' knowledge of teaching science and sense of efficacy regarding the teaching of science. In addition, the study explores the association between knowledge of teaching science and efficacy regarding the teaching of science. Participants included 28 early…

  9. Science learning, group membership, and identity in an urban middle school

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Olitsky, Stacy I.

    2005-12-01

    The issue of inequalities in science education outcomes among students from different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds in the U.S. is related not only to access to resources, but also to schools' inability to facilitate students developing identities associated with science. While some of the obstacles to identity development in science relate to issues over which teachers and students have limited control, others are more amenable to local efforts toward change. This dissertation describes an interpretive case study of a racially, ethnically, and socio-economically diverse eighth grade science classroom in an urban magnet school in order to explore the relationship between school and classroom structures, student and teacher agency in enacting positive changes within classrooms, and identity formation in science. The results of this study indicate that structural issues such as the high status ascribed to science, the school's selection process, discourses surrounding the purposes of learning, resource inequalities, and negative stereotype threat can contribute to classroom interactions in which some students' claims to membership in a community centered on science are rejected, thereby interfering with group membership. While some teacher practices accentuated the impacts of these structures, others, such as de-emphasizing standardized tasks and providing students with opportunities to make unique, science-related contributions reduced them. In addition, the teacher's strategies when she was teaching out of field, which included positioning herself as a learner and making visible her "backstage" performance of exploring ideas and accessing resources were associated with a greater diversity of students participating. Further, students were able to develop interest and a sense of solidarity surrounding even new, abstract content when such content became associated with successful interaction rituals during which science language and procedures served as a mutual focus and there were sufficient opportunities for physical and emotional entrainment. Overall, the results of this study suggest that by focusing on efforts to promote classroom interactions that students will experience as successful regardless of content, teachers can facilitate a supportive environment in which students feel comfortable experimenting with using science language, asking questions, and supporting each others' learning, thereby developing a sense of solidarity and identity surrounding science.

  10. A critical hermeneutic study: Third grade elementary African American students' views of the nature of science

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Walls, Leon

    Nature of Science is one of the most fundamental aspects of understanding science. How different cultures, races and ethnicities see and interpret science differently is critical. However, the NOS views specific to African American teachers and learners have gone largely unresearched. The views of a purposeful sample of African American third grade children reported in this study contribute to efforts to make science equitable for all students. Conducted in two Midwest urban settings, within the students' regular classrooms, three instruments were employed: Views of Nature of Science Elementary (an interview protocol), Elementary Draw a Scientist Test (a drawing activity supplemented by an explicating narrative), and Identify a Scientist (a simple select-a-photo technique supported by Likert-measured sureness). The responses provided by twenty-three students were coded using qualitative content analysis. The findings are represented in three main categories: Science - is governed by experimentation, invention and discovery teach us about the natural world, school is not the only setting for learning science; Scientists - intelligent, happy, studious men and women playing multiple roles, with distinct physical traits working in laboratories; Students - capable users and producers of science and who view science as fun. This study advocates for: use of such instruments for constant monitoring of student views, using the knowledge of these views to construct inquiry based science lessons, and increased research about students of color.

  11. Rainfall-runoff simulation in urban hydology - An indoor physical model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Isidoro, Jorge; Silveira, Alexandre; da Silva, António; Gonçalves, Flávio; de Deus, Fábio; dos Reis, Simone

    2015-04-01

    According to the UN the current levels of urbanization are unprecedented and so is the number and size of the world's largest cities. Moreover, in the next four decades, all of the world's population growth is most likely to take place in urban areas. This growth will include a draw in some of the rural population through rural to urban migration. The increase in size of individual concentrations of people (e.g., cities) is a consequence of the urbanization process that has an important role on the rainfall-runoff process. This reality implies more attention to the study of urban flooding, among other natural hazards. This work aims to present a laboratory (indoor) physical model at a 1:100 scale of an urban area under simulated rainfall (pressurized nozzles). The model, a V-shaped rectangular area (2.00m × 4.00m) with the ability to adjust its longitudinal and transversal slopes, allows placing blocks simulating several geometries of buildings. This model was conceived and developed at the Institute of Science and Technology of the Federal University of Alfenas (MG) in Brazil, where it is used for research and teaching activities. Several experiments were completed in order to simulate the rainfall-runoff process over an impervious area with and without buildings, with distinct longitudinal and transversal slopes. Significant differences were found in the shape of the resulting hydrographs. This work will allow assessing the possibility of scaling the results obtained with this indoor model to a larger-scale (1:25 to 1:10) outdoor model which is currently being designed.

  12. Science Teaching in Science Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Callahan, Brendan E.; Dopico, Eduardo

    2016-01-01

    Reading the interesting article "Discerning selective traditions in science education" by Per Sund, which is published in this issue of "CSSE," allows us to open the discussion on procedures for teaching science today. Clearly there is overlap between the teaching of science and other areas of knowledge. However, we must…

  13. Power Teaching

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fluellen, Jerry E., Jr.

    2007-01-01

    Power Teaching weaves four factors into a seamless whole: standards, teaching thinking, research based strategies, and critical inquiry. As a prototype in its first year of development with an urban fifth grade class, the power teaching model connects selected district standards, thinking routines from Harvard University Project Zero Research…

  14. Science As A Second Language: Acquiring Fluency through Science Enterprises

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shope, R.; EcoVoices Expedition Team

    2013-05-01

    Science Enterprises are problems that students genuinely want to solve, questions that students genuinely want to answer, that naturally entail reading, writing, investigation, and discussion. Engaging students in personally-relevant science enterprises provides both a diagnostic opportunity and a context for providing students the comprehensible input they need. We can differentiate instruction by creating science enterprise zones that are set up for the incremental increase in challenge for the students. Comprehensible input makes reachable, those just-out-of-reach concepts in the mix of the familiar and the new. EcoVoices takes students on field research expeditions within an urban natural area, the San Gabriel River Discovery Center. This project engages students in science enterprises focused on understanding ecosystems, ecosystem services, and the dynamics of climate change. A sister program, EcoVoces, has been launched in Mexico, in collaboration with the Universidad Loyola del Pacífico. 1) The ED3U Science Inquiry Model, a learning cycle model that accounts for conceptual change: Explore { Diagnose, Design, Discuss } Use. 2) The ¿NQUIRY Wheel, a compass of scientific inquiry strategies; 3) Inquiry Science Expeditions, a way of laying out a science learning environment, emulating a field and lab research collaboratory; 4) The Science Educative Experience Scale, a diagnostic measure of the quality of the science learning experience; and 5) Mimedia de la Ciencia, participatory enactment of science concepts using techniques of mime and improvisational theater. BACKGROUND: Science has become a vehicle for teaching reading, writing, and other communication skills, across the curriculum. This new emphasis creates renewed motivation for Scientists and Science Educators to work collaboratively to explore the common ground between acquiring science understanding and language acquisition theory. Language Acquisition is an informal process that occurs in the midst of exploring, solving problems, seeking answers to questions, playing, reading for pleasure, conversing, discussing, where the focus is not specifically on language development, but on the activity, which is of interest to the participant. Language Learning is a formal education process, the language arts aspect of the school day: the direct teaching of reading, writing, grammar, spelling, and speaking. Fluency results primarily from language acquisition and secondarily from language learning. We can view the problem of science education and communication as similar to language acquisition. Science Learning is a formal education process, the school science aspect of the school day: the direct teaching of standards-aligned science content. Science Acquisition is an informal process that occurs in the midst of exploring, solving problems, seeking answers to questions, playing, experimenting for pleasure, conversing, discussing, where the focus is not specifically on science content development, but on the inquiry activity, driven by the curiosity of the participant. Treating Science as a Second Language shifts the evaluation of science learning to include gauging the extent to which students choose to deepen their pursuit of science learning.

  15. Spatial and Climate Literacy: Connecting Urban and Rural Students

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Boger, R. A.; Low, R.; Mandryk, C.; Gorokhovich, Y.

    2013-12-01

    Through a collaboration between the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), Brooklyn College, and Lehman College, four independent but linked modules were developed and piloted in courses offered at Brooklyn College and UNL simultaneously. Module content includes climate change science and literacy principles, using geospatial technologies (GIS, GPS and remote sensing) as a vehicle to explore issues associated with global, regional, and local climate change in a concrete, quantitative and visual way using Internet resources available through NASA, NOAA, USGS, and a variety of universities and organizations. The materials take an Earth system approach and incorporate sustainability, resilience, water and watersheds, weather and climate, and food security topics throughout the semester. The research component of the project focuses on understanding the role of spatial literacy and authentic inquiry based experiences in climate change understanding and improving confidence in teaching science. In particular, engaging learners in both climate change science and GIS simultaneously provides opportunities to examine questions about the role that data manipulation, mental representation, and spatial literacy plays in students' abilities to understand the consequences and impacts of climate change. Pre and post surveys were designed to discern relationships between spatial cognitive processes and effective acquisition of climate change science concepts in virtual learning environments as well as alignment of teacher's mental models of nature of science and climate system dynamics to scientific models. The courses will again be offered simultaneously in Spring 2014 at Brooklyn College and UNL. Evaluation research will continue to examine the connections between spatial and climate literacy and teacher's mental models (via qualitative textual analysis using MAXQDA text analysis, and UCINET social network analysis programs) as well as how urban-rural learning interactions may influence climate literacy.

  16. Fostering Science Club: Creating a Welcoming Extra-Curricular Science Inquiry Space for ALL Learners that Seeks to Close the Science Experience Gap in a Predominantly Minority Urban Community

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mayfield, K. K.

    2017-12-01

    BackgroundTo minority adolescents in urban centers science inquiry seems like an engagement completed by others with specialized skills (Alkon & Agyeman, 2012). When scientists teach science classes those spaces and pedagogy are underwritten by the science teachers' beliefs about how science happens (Southerland, Gess-Newsome & Johnston, 2002). Further, scientific inquiry is often presented as the realm of upperclass whiteness (Alkon & Agyeman, 2012; Mayfield, 2014). When science educators talk about the achievement gaps between raced and classed learners, accompanying that gap is also a gap in science experience. My high school students in a postindustrial school district: attend a school under state takeover (the lowest 5/5 rating (MA Executive Office of Education, 2017)); have a student body that is 70% Latinx; and 96% of whom receive Free and Reduced Lunch (a Federal marker of a family below the poverty line). Annual Yearly Progress is a goal set by state and federal governments for school populations by race, ability, and language. In 2016, the site has failed to make its goals for special education, black, hispanic, white, and English as a Second Language populations. As a high poverty district there is a paucity of extracurricular science experiences. This lack of science extensions make closing standardized test gaps difficult. Geoscience Skills & FindingsThis after school program does not replicate deficit narratives that keep certain bodies of students away from science inquiry (Mayfield, 2015; Ogbu, 1987). Instead, Science Club uses an array of student-centered science (physics, math, arts, chemistry, biology) projects to help students see themselves as citizen scientists who lead explorations of their world. We meet 1.5 hours a week in a 30 week school year. Science club helps students feel like powerful and capable science inquirers with 80% girls in attendance, and uses science experiments to cultivate essential inquiry skills like: Observation, Analysis, Reflection, and Laboratory Work in order to understand the phenomena we are exploring. This presentation discusses: the development of Science cCub as a student-centered inquiry space; how Sci Club addresses the inequities of the science experience gap; and student responses to pre and post test surveys about their growing science skills.

  17. Considering the Role of Self-Study of Teaching and Teacher Education Practices Research in Transforming Urban Classrooms

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hamilton, Mary Lynn; Pinnegar, Stefinee

    2015-01-01

    We explore the first four articles in this Special Issue of "Studying Teacher Education" to identify challenges to the self-study of teaching and teacher education practices (S-STEP) methodology, and how this methodology supports the work of teachers and teacher educators working in urban settings. We respond to these articles by…

  18. Working Together in Urban Schools: How a University Teacher Education Program and Teach for America Partner to Support Alternatively Certified Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Heineke, Amy J.; Carter, Heather; Desimone, Melissa; Cameron, Quanna

    2010-01-01

    The College of Teacher Education and Leadership (CTEL) at Arizona State University (ASU) embraced the opportunity to partner with Teach For America (TFA) to tailor existing teacher preparation programs to meet the unique needs of alternatively certified teachers in urban schools. Rather than harp on the distinctions between ideologies and…

  19. High School Physical Educators' Beliefs about Teaching Differently Abled Students in an Urban Public School District

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hersman, Bethany L.; Hodge, Samuel R.

    2010-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine general physical education (GPE) teachers' beliefs about teaching differently abled students in inclusive classes.The participants were 5 GPE teachers from a large urban school district. The research method was explanatory multiple-case study situated in planned behavior theory. Data were gathered using a…

  20. Teach for America's Paradoxical Diversity Initiative: Race, Policy, and Black Teacher Displacement in Urban Public Schools

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    White, Terrenda

    2016-01-01

    This article examines the paradox of Teach For America's diversity gains and its support for policies that contribute to Black teacher decline in urban communities. TFA has countered claims that its expansion is connected to teacher displacement, but its two-pronged structure--as an alternative certification program and an influential policy actor…

  1. Expanding the Circle: Decreasing American Indian Mental Health Disparities through Culturally Competent Teaching about American Indian Mental Health

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mays, Vickie M.; Gallardo, Miguel; Shorter-Gooden, Kumea; Robinson-Zanartu, Carol; Smith, Monique; McClure, Faith; Puri, Siddarth; Methot, Laurel; Ahhaitty, Glenda

    2009-01-01

    Recognizing that there has been a lack of systematic teaching about the unique mental health experiences of urban American Indians, this article examines data from national studies and specific case studies to illustrate some issues regarding the mental health of American Indians in urban areas. Some studies have reported that when American…

  2. Leaving or Staying in Teaching: A "Vignette" of an Experienced Urban Teacher "Leaver" of A London Primary School

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Towers, Emma; Maguire, Meg

    2017-01-01

    In the field of teacher attrition, there is a significant body of literature on why teachers leave high-needs urban schools and particularly why beginning teachers leave their schools and the profession. However, there is little research on the reasons why experienced teachers leave the teaching profession. This paper examines this subject by…

  3. Culturally Relevant Teaching: Hip-Hop Pedagogy in Urban Schools. Counterpoints: Studies in the Postmodern Theory of Education. Volume 396

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Prier, Darius D.

    2012-01-01

    "Culturally Relevant Teaching" centers hip-hop culture as a culturally relevant form of critical pedagogy in urban pre-service teacher education programs. In this important book, Darius D. Prier explores how hip-hop artists construct a sense of democratic education and pedagogy with transformative possibilities in their schools and communities. In…

  4. Rock-Solid Support: Florida District Weighs Effectiveness of Science Professional Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shear, Linda; Penuel, William R.

    2010-01-01

    The best science teachers are not only experts in teaching and knowledgeable about science content, but they are also great at teaching science. They have specialized teaching knowledge, including knowledge of effective pedagogical practices in science, student difficulties with understanding content, and curricular purposes. As a result,…

  5. Facilitating Elementary Science Teachers' Implementation of Inquiry-Based Science Teaching

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Qablan, Ahmad M.; DeBaz, Theodora

    2015-01-01

    Preservice science teachers generally feel that the implementation of inquiry-based science teaching is very difficult to manage. This research project aimed at facilitating the implementation of inquiry-based science teaching through the use of several classroom strategies. The evaluation of 15 classroom strategies from 80 preservice elementary…

  6. Turkish Preservice Science Teachers' Efficacy Beliefs Regarding Science Teaching and Their Beliefs about Classroom Management

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gencer, Ayse Savran; Cakiroglu, Jale

    2007-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to explore Turkish preservice science teachers' science teaching efficacy and classroom management beliefs. Data in this study were collected from a total number of 584 preservice science teachers utilizing the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument and the attitudes and beliefs on classroom control (ABCC)…

  7. Teaching for Conceptual Change in Elementary and Secondary Science Methods Courses.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Marion, Robin; Hewson, Peter W.; Tabachnick, B. Robert; Blomker, Kathryn B.

    1999-01-01

    Describes and analyzes two science methods courses at the elementary and secondary levels for how they addressed four ideas: (1) how students learn science; (2) how teachers teach science to students; (3) how prospective science teachers learn about the first two ideas; and (4) how methods instructors teach prospective science teachers about the…

  8. Teaching Teachers: Bringing First-Rate Science to the Elementary Classroom. An NSTA Press Journals Collection.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Smith, Betty, Ed.

    This document presents a collection of papers published in the "Teaching Teachers" column in the elementary-level journal, "Science and Children." Contents include: (1) "Science is Part of the Big Picture: Teachers Become Science Learners" (Anita Greenwood); (2) "Reaching the Reluctant Science Teacher: Learning How To Teach Inquiry-Based Science"…

  9. Controversy as a Blind Spot in Teaching Nature of Science: Why the Range of Different Positions Concerning Nature of Science Should Be an Issue in the Science Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kötter, Mario; Hammann, Marcus

    2017-01-01

    In this article, the argument is put forth that controversies about the scope and limits of science should be considered in Nature of Science (NOS) teaching. Reference disciplines for teaching NOS are disciplines, which reflect upon science, like philosophy of science, history of science, and sociology of science. The culture of these disciplines…

  10. Teacher Beliefs toward Using Alternative Teaching Approaches in Science and Mathematics Classes Related to Experience in Teaching

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Isiksal-Bostan, Mine; Sahin, Elvan; Ertepinar, Hamide

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among Turkish classroom, science and mathematics teachers' beliefs toward using inquiry-based approaches, traditional teaching approaches, and technology in their mathematics and science classrooms; their efficacy beliefs in teaching those subjects; and years of experience in teaching in…

  11. Developing Elementary Science PCK for Teacher Education: Lessons Learned from a Second Grade Partnership

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bradbury, Leslie U.; Wilson, Rachel E.; Brookshire, Laura E.

    2017-06-01

    In this self-study, two science educators partnered with two elementary teachers to plan, implement, and reflect on a unit taught in second grade classrooms that integrated science and language arts. The researchers hoped to increase their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for elementary science teaching so that they might use their experiences working in an elementary context to modify their practices in their elementary science method instruction. The research question guiding the study was: What aspects of our PCK for elementary science teaching do we as science educators develop by co-planning, co-teaching, and reflecting with second grade teachers? Data include transcripts of planning meetings, oral reflections about the experience, and videos of the unit being enacted. Findings indicate that managing resources for science teaching, organizing students for science learning, and reflecting on science teaching were themes prevalent in the data. These themes were linked to the model of PCK developed by Park and Oliver (Research in Science Education, 38, 261-284, 2008) and demonstrate that we developed PCK for elementary science teaching in several areas. In our discussion, we include several proposed changes for our elementary science methods course based on the outcomes of the study.

  12. Developing Preservice Teachers' Knowledge of Science Teaching Through Video Clubs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Johnson, Heather J.; Cotterman, Michelle E.

    2015-06-01

    Though an adequate understanding of content is a natural prerequisite of teaching (Carlsen in Journal of Research in Science Teaching 30:471-481, 1993), teachers also need to be able to interpret content in ways that facilitate student learning. How to best support novice teachers in developing and refining their content knowledge for teaching is a crucial and ongoing question for preservice teacher educators. Recently, video clubs are being explored as potential contexts for teacher learning (Barnhart & van Es in Teaching and Teacher Education 45:83-93, 2015; Sherin & Han in Teaching and Teacher Education 20:163-183, 2004). We hypothesized that pairing video clubs with student teaching experiences would provide a forum for preservice teachers to discuss issues relevant to their professional trajectory through exposure to models of peer teaching and opportunities to reflect on practice. In this study, we explored how secondary science preservice teachers used video club to restructure their overall science knowledge into science knowledge for teaching. Our findings suggest that video clubs allowed preservice teachers to access and leverage student thinking and instructional resources to deepen their understanding of science content and trajectories for science learning.

  13. Teachers' Ways of Talking about Nature of Science and Its Teaching

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Leden, Lotta; Hansson, Lena; Redfors, Andreas; Ideland, Malin

    2015-01-01

    Nature of science (NOS) has for a long time been regarded as a key component in science teaching. Much research has focused on students' and teachers' views of NOS, while less attention has been paid to teachers' perspectives on NOS teaching. This article focuses on in-service science teachers' ways of talking about NOS and NOS teaching, e.g. what…

  14. An Annotated Bibliography of Research into the Teaching and Learning of the Physical Sciences at the Higher Education Level.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Palmer, David

    This document contains an annotated bibliography aimed at the teaching of the physical sciences at the tertiary level to those who wish to become more informed about teaching related research evidence and undertake science education research. The bibliography offers an overview of teaching and learning in the physical sciences and key references…

  15. Teaching Primary Science in Rural and Regional Australia: Some Challenges Facing Practicing and Pre-Service Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Laidlaw, Kristy-Rebecca; Taylor, Neil; Fletcher, Peter

    2009-01-01

    The teaching of science has long been viewed as problematic within primary classrooms across Australia. This study explores the teaching of primary science in an area of rural and regional Australia (the New England Region of New South Wales) where small populations, remote settings and isolation can make the teaching of science and other Key…

  16. Analysis of Research in the Teaching of Science, July 1955 - July 1956. Bulletin, 1958, No. 7

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Osbourn, Ellsworth S.

    1958-01-01

    Beginning in 1950 the National Association for Research in Science Teaching and the U.S. Office of Education collaborated in preparing an annual summary of research in the teaching of science. The present bulletin continues their cooperative effort. This analysis of research in the teaching of science contains reports of published studies…

  17. Virtual school teacher's science efficacy beliefs: The effects of community of practice on science-teaching efficacy beliefs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Uzoff, Phuong Pham

    The purpose of this study was to examine how much K-12 science teachers working in a virtual school experience a community of practice and how that experience affects personal science-teaching efficacy and science-teaching outcome expectancy. The study was rooted in theoretical frameworks from Lave and Wenger's (1991) community of practice and Bandura's (1977) self-efficacy beliefs. The researcher used three surveys to examine schoolteachers' experiences of a community of practice and science-teaching efficacy beliefs. The instrument combined Mangieri's (2008) virtual teacher demographic survey, Riggs and Enochs (1990) Science-teaching efficacy Beliefs Instrument-A (STEBI-A), and Cadiz, Sawyer, and Griffith's (2009) Experienced Community of Practice (eCoP) instrument. The results showed a significant linear statistical relationship between the science teachers' experiences of community of practice and personal science-teaching efficacy. In addition, the study found that there was also a significant linear statistical relationship between teachers' community of practice experiences and science-teaching outcome expectancy. The results from this study were in line with numerous studies that have found teachers who are involved in a community of practice report higher science-teaching efficacy beliefs (Akerson, Cullen, & Hanson, 2009; Fazio, 2009; Lakshmanan, Heath, Perlmutter, & Elder, 2011; Liu, Lee, & Lin, 2010; Sinclair, Naizer, & Ledbetter, 2010). The researcher concluded that school leaders, policymakers, and researchers should increase professional learning opportunities that are grounded in social constructivist theoretical frameworks in order to increase teachers' science efficacy.

  18. A case of learning to teach elementary science: Investigating beliefs, experiences, and tensions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bryan, Lynn Ann

    This study examines how preservice elementary teacher beliefs and experiences within the context of reflective science teacher education influence the development of professional knowledge. From a cognitive constructivist theoretical perspective, I conducted a case analysis to investigate the beliefs about science teaching and learning held by a preservice teacher (Barbara), identify the tensions she encountered in learning to teach elementary science, understand the frames from which she identified problems of practice, and discern how her experiences influenced the process of reflecting on her own science teaching. From an analysis of interviews, observation, and written documents, I constructed a profile of Barbara's beliefs that consisted of three foundational and three dualistic beliefs about science teaching and learning. Her foundational beliefs concerned: (a) the value of science and science teaching, (b) the nature of scientific concepts and goals of science instruction, and (c) control in the science classroom. Barbara held dualistic beliefs about: (a) how children learn science, (b) the science students' role, and (c) the science teacher's role. The dualistic beliefs formed two contradictory nests of beliefs. One nest, grounded in life-long science learner experiences, reflected a didactic teaching orientation and predominantly guided her practice. The second nest, not well-grounded in experience, embraced a hands-on approach and predominantly guided her vision of practice. Barbara encountered tensions in thinking about science teaching and learning as a result of inconsistencies between her vision of science teaching and her actual practice. Confronting these tensions prompted Barbara to rethink the connections between her classroom actions and students' learning, create new perspectives for viewing her practice, and consider alternative practices more resonant with her visionary beliefs. However, the self-reinforcing belief system created by her didactic nest of beliefs, control beliefs, and belief about the goals of science instruction prevented Barbara from enacting new frames in practice. The findings contribute to an understanding of the relationship between beliefs and experiences in learning to teach and indicate that reframing is crucial in developing professional knowledge. Furthermore, the findings underscore the significance of (a) identifying prospective teachers' beliefs for designing teacher preparation programs, and (b) offering experiences as professionals early in the careers of prospective teachers.

  19. Common Interest, Common Visions? Chinese Science Teacher Educators' Views about the Values of Teaching Nature of Science to Prospective Science Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wan, Zhi Hong; Wong, Siu Ling; Yung, Benny Hin Wai

    2011-01-01

    Teaching nature of science (NOS) is beginning to take root in science education in China. This exploratory study interviewed 24 science teacher educators from economically developed parts of China about their conceptions of teaching NOS to prospective science teachers. Five key dimensions emerged from the data. This paper focuses on the dimension…

  20. Dazed and Confused: Learning to Engage Non-Science Undergraduates in the Geosciences

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Price, J.

    2014-12-01

    Teaching science courses to non-science undergraduate is often times difficult and frustrating for instructors because of the lack of interest and knowledge from students. Additionally, students find it difficult to learn from instructors that are not engaging or are unable to simplify concepts, methods, and analyses. These complications multiple when graduate students try to teach non-science undergraduates. Graduate instructional/teaching assistants have less teaching experience, often do not care about teaching, and frequently get frustrated with non-science undergraduates more easily. This presentation will focus on teaching non-science undergraduates in marine science and geology classes by engaging students, simplifying concepts, working in groups, and making the material fun and interesting. Instructional/teaching assistants teach undergraduate courses as a way to pay for their graduate education and in doing so, often forget to express their passion and interest in the subject. Graduate instructional/teaching assistants will be asked not give up on undergraduates because of their lack of interest and experience but rather challenge them to remember what it is like to feel lost and disinterested. While we may not be able to turn them into scientists, we can share our passion, teach them scientific concepts, and hope they leave feeling more knowledgeable, comfortable, and with more appreciation for the geosciences.

  1. Rediscovering Good Teaching: Exploring Selfhood and Solidarity in Urban Contexts

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mahoney, Timothy

    2012-01-01

    This paper describes the experiences of preservice teachers developing deeper understanding of themselves and diverse students through participation in the Philadelphia Urban Seminar. The Seminar focuses on the reconstruction of more complete understanding of urban students and urban communities by combining field experience in Philadelphia with…

  2. Native Avatars, Online Hubs, and Urban Indian Literature

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Estrada, Gabriel S.

    2011-01-01

    Teaching American Indian literature with online resources can help diverse urban Indian and multicultural students connect with American Indian cultures, histories, and Nations. This online-enriched pedagogy adopts Susan Lobo's sense of the city as an "urban hub," or activist community center, an urban area linked to reservations in which Native…

  3. Where Will Urban High School Teachers for the 21st Century Come From?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Follo, Eric; Hoerr, Bill; Vorheis-Sargent, Ann

    2002-01-01

    Describes urban teacher supply problem in Oakland County, Michigan. Reviews literature on urban teacher supply problem nationally. Describes Michigan's alternative teacher-certification program and Oakland University's partnership with the Pontiac School District to prepare teachers for teaching in urban schools. (Contains 50 references.) (PKP)

  4. Profile of an Effective Urban Music Educator

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Baker, Vicki D.

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to develop a profile of an effective urban music educator in an effort to provide strategies for university teacher training programs to prepare students to teach in urban schools. The study examined urban music teachers' (N = 158) educational background, effective and ineffective characteristics, perceived…

  5. A Comparison of Student Teachers' Beliefs from Four Different Science Teaching Domains Using a Mixed Methods Design

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Markic, Silvija; Eilks, Ingo

    2012-03-01

    The study presented in this paper integrates data from four combined research studies, which are both qualitative and quantitative in nature. The studies describe freshman science student teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning. These freshmen intend to become teachers in Germany in one of four science teaching domains (secondary biology, chemistry, and physics, respectively, as well as primary school science). The qualitative data from the first study are based on student teachers' drawings of themselves in teaching situations. It was formulated using Grounded Theory to test three scales: Beliefs about Classroom Organisation, Beliefs about Teaching Objectives, and Epistemological Beliefs. Three further quantitative studies give insight into student teachers' curricular beliefs, their beliefs about the nature of science itself, and about the student- and/or teacher-centredness of science teaching. This paper describes a design to integrate all these data within a mixed methods framework. The aim of the current study is to describe a broad, triangulated picture of freshman science student teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning within their respective science teaching domain. The study reveals clear tendencies between the sub-groups. The results suggest that freshman chemistry and-even more pronouncedly-freshman physics student teachers profess quite traditional beliefs about science teaching and learning. Biology and primary school student teachers express beliefs about their subjects which are more in line with modern educational theory. The mixed methods approach towards the student teachers' beliefs is reflected upon and implications for science education and science teacher education are discussed.

  6. Controversy as a Blind Spot in Teaching Nature of Science. Why the Range of Different Positions Concerning Nature of Science Should Be an Issue in the Science Classroom

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kötter, Mario; Hammann, Marcus

    2017-07-01

    In this article, the argument is put forth that controversies about the scope and limits of science should be considered in Nature of Science (NOS) teaching. Reference disciplines for teaching NOS are disciplines, which reflect upon science, like philosophy of science, history of science, and sociology of science. The culture of these disciplines is characterized by controversy rather than unified textbook knowledge. There is common agreement among educators of the arts and humanities that controversies in the reference disciplines should be represented in education. To teach NOS means to adopt a reflexive perspective on science. Therefore, we suggest that controversies within and between the reference disciplines are relevant for NOS teaching and not only the NOS but about NOS should be taught, too. We address the objections that teaching about NOS is irrelevant for real life and too demanding for students. First, we argue that science-reflexive meta-discourses are relevant for students as future citizens because the discourses occur publicly in the context of sociopolitical disputes. Second, we argue that it is in fact necessary to reduce the complexity of the above-mentioned discourses and that this is indeed possible, as it has been done with other reflexive elements in science education. In analogy to the German construct Bewertungskompetenz (which means the competency to make informed ethical decisions in scientific contexts), we suggest epistemic competency as a goal for NOS teaching. In order to do so, science-reflexive controversies must be simplified and attitudes toward science must be considered. Discourse on the scientific status of potential pseudoscience may serve as an authentic and relevant context for teaching the controversial nature of reflexion on science.

  7. Preservice Science Teacher Beliefs about Teaching and the Science Methods Courses: Exploring Perceptions of Microteaching Outcomes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McLaury, Ralph L.

    2011-01-01

    This study investigates beliefs about teaching held by preservice science teachers and their influences on self-perceived microteaching outcomes within interactive secondary science teaching methods courses. Hermeneutic methodology was used in cooperation with seven preservice science teachers (N = 7) to infer participant beliefs about teaching…

  8. The TRUST Project: A Formal-Informal Teacher Education Partnership for the Promotion of Earth Science Teacher Certification

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sloan, H.; Miele, E.; Powell, W.; MacDonald, M.

    2004-12-01

    The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in partnership with Lehman and Brooklyn Colleges of the City University of New York (CUNY) has initiated The Teacher Renewal for Urban Science Teaching (TRUST) project. TRUST combines informal and formal teacher education in a four-year initiative to enhance professional development and masters of science education programs, grades K-8 at Brooklyn College and 7-12 at Lehman College. This NSF-funded partnership brings together the resources of AMNH, CUNY, New York City school districts, New York City Department of Education-Museum Partnerships, and the expertise of scientists and teachers with research experiences. Following an initial planning year, TRUST will recruit and sustain 90 teachers over a period of 3 years as well as engage 30 school administrators in support of Earth science instruction. Program components include two new formal Earth systems science courses, intensive informal summer institutes, and a lecture and workshop series during which participants gain new Earth science content knowledge, develop action plans, and present their work on the local and national level. In addition, participants have access to ongoing resource and material support to enhance their learning and instruction. Continuous documentation and data collection by project investigators are being used to address questions regarding the impact various aspects of the TRUST participant experience on classroom instruction and learning, the acquisition of scientific knowledge in the new courses and institutes, and to examine the nature of the Museum experience in meeting certification goals. External formative and summative evaluation of the project is addressing issues surrounding the value of the program as a model for formal-informal partnership in urban Earth science teacher education and certification, analysis of policies that facilitate partnership arrangements, and how socialization of novices with experts affects retention and renewal. Details of the program's structure and preliminary results from the first two years will be presented.

  9. An exploration of equitable science teaching practices for students with learning disabilities

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Morales, Marlene

    In this study, a mixed methods approach was used to gather descriptive exploratory information regarding the teaching of science to middle grades students with learning disabilities within a general education classroom. The purpose of this study was to examine teachers' beliefs and their practices concerning providing equitable opportunities for students with learning disabilities in a general education science classroom. Equitable science teaching practices take into account each student's differences and uses those differences to inform instructional decisions and tailor teaching practices based on the student's individualized learning needs. Students with learning disabilities are similar to their non-disabled peers; however, they need some differentiation in instruction to perform to their highest potential achievement levels (Finson, Ormsbee, & Jensen, 2011). In the quantitative phase, the purpose of the study was to identify patterns in the beliefs of middle grades science teachers about the inclusion of students with learning disabilities in the general education classroom. In the qualitative phase, the purpose of the study was to present examples of instruction in the classrooms of science education reform-oriented middle grades science teachers. The quantitative phase of the study collected data from 274 sixth through eighth grade teachers in the State of Florida during the 2007--2008 school year using The Teaching Science to Students with Learning Disabilities Inventory. Overall, the quantitative findings revealed that middle grades science teachers held positive beliefs about the inclusion of students with learning disabilities in the general education science classroom. The qualitative phase collected data from multiple sources (interviews, classroom observations, and artifacts) to develop two case studies of reform-oriented middle grades science teachers who were expected to provide equitable science teaching practices. Based on their responses to The Teaching Science to Students with Learning Disabilities Inventory, the case study teachers demonstrated characteristics of successful teachers of diverse learners developed by Lynch (2000). Overall, the qualitative findings revealed that the case study teachers were unsure how to provide equitable science teaching practices to all students, particularly to students with learning disabilities. They provided students with a variety of learning experiences that entailed high expectations for all; however, these experiences were similar for all students. Had the teachers fully implemented equitable science teaching practices, students would have had multiple options for taking in the information and making sense of it in each lesson. Teaching that includes using a variety of validated practices that take into account students' individualized learning needs can promote aspects of equitable science teaching practices. Finally, this study provides implications for teacher education programs and professional development programs. As teachers implement science education reform efforts related to equitable science teaching practices, both teacher education programs and professional development programs should include opportunities for teachers to reflect on their beliefs about how students with learning disabilities learn and provide them with a variety of validated teaching practices that will assist them in teaching students with learning disabilities in the general education classroom while implementing science reform efforts.

  10. Developing a Constructivist Proposal for Primary Teachers to Teach Science Process Skills: "Extended" Simple Science Experiments (ESSE)

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hirça, Necati

    2015-01-01

    Although science experiments are the basis of teaching science process skills (SPS), it has been observed that a large number of prospective primary teachers (PPTs), by virtue of their background, feel anxious about doing science experiments. To overcome this problem, a proposal was suggested for primary school teachers (PSTs) to teach science and…

  11. Derivation and Implementation of a Model Teaching the Nature of Science Using Informal Science Education Venues

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Spector, Barbara S.; Burkett, Ruth; Leard, Cyndy

    2012-01-01

    This paper introduces a model for using informal science education venues as contexts within which to teach the nature of science. The model was initially developed to enable university education students to teach science in elementary schools so as to be consistent with "National Science Education Standards" (NSES) (1996) and "A Framework for…

  12. Identifying Twice-Exceptional Children and Three Gifted Styles in the Japanese Primary Science Classroom

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sumida, Manabu

    2010-10-01

    Children with mild developmental disorders sometimes show giftedness. In this study, an original checklist was developed to identify gifted characteristics specific to science learning among twice-exceptional primary school children in Japan. The checklist consisted of 60 items on Attitudes, Thinking, Skills, and Knowledge/Understanding. A total of 86 children from eight primary schools in an urban area in Japan, 50% of whom had Learning Disabilities (LD), Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and/or High-functioning Autism (HA), were observed using the checklist. Factor analysis revealed three factors. A cluster analysis with the subscale points of each factor identified three "gifted styles" in science. These were: (1) Spontaneous Style; (2) Expert Style; and (3) Solid Style. LD/ADHD/HA children characteristically displayed a Spontaneous Style while the non- LD/ADHD/HA children were characterized by the Solid Style. In both subject groups, the number of Expert Style children was the lowest with no significant difference in their numbers. Based on the results of this research, this paper discusses the implications of the findings for teaching science to twice-exceptional children and argues the benefits of inclusive science education for children with and without mild developmental disorders.

  13. Jordanian Preservice Primary Teachers' Perceptions of Mentoring in Science Teaching

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abed, Osama H.; Abd-El-Khalick, Fouad

    2015-03-01

    Quality mentoring is fundamental to preservice teacher education because of its potential to help student and novice teachers develop the academic and pedagogical knowledge and skills germane to successful induction into the profession. This study focused on Jordanian preservice primary teachers' perceptions of their mentoring experiences as these pertain to science teaching. The Mentoring for Effective Primary Science Teaching instrument was administered to 147 senior preservice primary teachers in a university in Jordan. The results indicated that the greater majority of participants did not experience effective mentoring toward creating a supportive and reflexive environment that would bolster their confidence in teaching science; further their understanding of primary science curriculum, and associated aims and school policies; help with developing their pedagogical knowledge; and/or furnish them with specific and targeted feedback and guidance to help improve their science teaching. Substantially more participants indicated that their mentors modeled what they perceived to be effective science teaching. The study argues for the need for science-specific mentoring for preservice primary teachers, and suggests a possible pathway for achieving such a model starting with those in-service primary teachers-much like those identified by participants in the present study-who are already effective in their science teaching.

  14. What Did They Take Away?: Examining Newly Qualified U.S. Teachers' Visions of Learning and Teaching Science in K-8 Classrooms

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Roberts-Harris, Deborah

    2014-01-01

    This study investigated newly qualified K-8 teachers' visions of science learning and teaching after they had completed preparation in a science teaching methods course I taught. What visions of science learning and teaching were these newly qualified teachers taking away from my course? How did these visions compare with those advocated by reform…

  15. The Titmouse Effect. Occasional Paper #3

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fluellen, Jerry E., Jr.

    2007-01-01

    What happens when standards, teaching for understanding, research based strategies for improving student achievement, and teacher inquiry become a whole? Power Teaching results. A prototype in development at an urban, elementary school in the South, power teaching connects the dots of state standards, Harvard Project Zero's teaching for…

  16. Middle school science teachers' teaching self-efficacy and students' science self-efficacy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pisa, Danielle

    Project 2061, initiated by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), developed recommendations for what is essential in education to produce scientifically literate citizens. Furthermore, they suggest that teachers teach effectively. There is an abundance of literature that focuses on the effects of a teacher's science teaching self-efficacy and a student's science self-efficacy. However, there is no literature on the relationship between the two self-efficacies. This study investigated if there is a differential change in students' science self-efficacy over an academic term after instruction from a teacher with high science teaching self-efficacy. Quantitative analysis of STEBI scores for teachers showed that mean STEBI scores did not change over one academic term. A t test indicated that there was no statistically significant difference in mean SMTSL scores for students' science self-efficacy over the course of one academic term for a) the entire sample, b) each science class, and c) each grade level. In addition, ANOVA indicated that there was no statistically significant difference in mean gain factor of students rated as low, medium, and high on science self-efficacy as measured by the SMTSL, when students received instruction from a teacher with a high science teaching self-efficacy value as measured by the STEBI. Finally, there was no statistically significant association between the pre- and post-instructional rankings of SMTSL by grade level when students received instruction from a teacher with a high science teaching self-efficacy value as measured by the STEBI. This is the first study of its kind. Studies indicated that teaching strategies typically practiced by teachers with high science teaching were beneficial to physics self-efficacy (Fencl & Scheel, 2005). Although it was unsuccessful at determining whether or not a teacher with high science teaching self-efficacy has a differential affect on students' science self-efficacy, it is worth repeating on a more diverse sample of teacher and students over a longer period of time.

  17. Science FEST: Preservice Teachers link Math and Science in Astronomy Lessons

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    DeMuth, N. H.; Kasabian, J.; Hacking, P. B.

    2005-12-01

    Funded by the National Science Foundation and corporate sponsored by Northrop Grumman, Science FEST (Science for Future Elementary School Teachers) aims to develop the science content and pedagogy for project participants by connecting their college coursework to the science they will eventually teach. Working individually and in pairs, future elementary and secondary school teachers design a comprehensive module in astronomy that is inquiry-based and reflects national and state science standards. Project participants then teach their module in local elementary or middle school classrooms. Science FEST project participants report gaining a deep understanding of the science they are teaching, learning to engage all students to explore science concepts, and reflecting on their teaching and how it can be improved. The project's website can be found at www.science-fest.org.

  18. High School Students' Exposure to Diversity in an Urban Teaching Academy and Their Conceptions of Its Place in Future Practice

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fletcher, Edward C., Jr.

    2014-01-01

    This study explored the meaning high school Urban Teaching Academy participants ascribed to the critical term of "diversity" and how that translated into shaping their philosophies on how to address the issue in their future classrooms. Findings indicated that perceptions of diversity and its place in the curriculum were most likely…

  19. What Is It about Me You Can't Teach? An Instructional Guide for the Urban Educator.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rodriguez, Eleanor Renee; Bellanca, James

    This book focuses on research conducted in the last 20 years that shows what urban teachers can do to add new knowledge and skills to their repertoire of teaching so that students can increase their own achievement. Dedicated to the idea that all children can learn, it provides hundreds of practical educational strategies. Some approaches that are…

  20. Crossing Boundaries: Exploring Black Middle and Upper Class Preservice Teachers' Perceptions of Teaching and Learning in High Poverty Urban Schools

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lewis, Andrea D.

    2012-01-01

    The intent of this study was to explore the perceptions of Black middle and upper class preservice teachers as they relate to teaching and learning in high poverty urban schools. Participants included 11 senior early childhood education preservice teachers at a historically Black college in the southeast region of the United States. The study was…

  1. [Legacy and promises from the teaching of Social Sciences in the Health field].

    PubMed

    Minayo, Maria Cecília de Souza

    2012-12-01

    The article analyzes the teaching and learning of social sciences in health sciences courses from the perspective of the curriculum and learning generated by research groups and thesis supervision activities. The author conducts a rereading of the classics and main contemporary scientists, based on the subarea's scientific output and her own personal experience as professor, researcher, and thesis supervisor. The article focuses on the tradition and teaching of the classics in social sciences, the main contemporary social theories, social sciences in health with an emphasis on teaching, and observations on the interface between teaching in social sciences and life sciences. The author concludes by highlighting the importance of work by social scientists in the health field and identifies the following problematic points: difficulties in dealing with mediations between the biological and the social; frequent subordination of foundations to techniques; and ideological and common-sense issues in the teaching and appropriation of Social Sciences in Health.

  2. Effect of structure in problem based learning on science teaching efficacy beliefs and science content knowledge of elementary preservice teachers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sasser, Selena Kay

    This study examined the effects of differing amounts of structure within the problem based learning instructional model on elementary preservice teachers' science teaching efficacy beliefs, including personal science teaching efficacy and science teaching outcome expectancy, and content knowledge acquisition. This study involved sixty (60) undergraduate elementary preservice teachers enrolled in three sections of elementary science methods classes at a large Midwestern research university. This study used a quasi-experimental nonequivalent design to collect and analyze both quantitative and qualitative data. Participants completed instruments designed to assess science teaching efficacy beliefs, science background, and demographic data. Quantitative data from pre and posttests was obtained using the science teaching efficacy belief instrument-preservice (STEBI-B) developed by Enochs and Riggs (1990) and modified by Bleicher (2004). Data collection instruments also included a demographic questionnaire, an analytic rubric, and a structured interview; both created by the researcher. Quantitative data was analyzed by conducting ANCOVA, paired samples t-test, and independent samples t-test. Qualitative data was analyzed using coding and themes. Each of the treatment groups received the same problem scenario, one group experienced a more structured PBL setting, and one group experienced a limited structure PBL setting. Research personnel administered pre and posttests to determine the elementary preservice teachers' science teaching efficacy beliefs. The results show elementary preservice teachers'science teaching efficacy beliefs can be influence by the problem based learning instructional model. This study did not find that the amount of structure in the form of core ideas to consider and resources for further research increased science teaching efficacy beliefs in this sample. Results from the science content knowledge rubric indicated that structure can increase science content knowledge in this sample. Qualitative data from the tutor, fidelity raters, and interviews indicated the participants were excited about the problem and were interested in the science content knowledge related to the problem. They also indicated they were motivated to continue informal study in the problem area. Participants indicated, during the interview, their initial frustration with the lack of knowledge gained from the tutor; however, indicated this led to more learning on their part. This study will contribute to the overall knowledge of problem based learning and its structures, science teaching efficacy beliefs of elementary preservice teachers, and to current teaching and learning practices.

  3. Dispositions Supporting Elementary Interns in the Teaching of Reform-Based Science Materials

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Eick, Charles J.; Stewart, Bethany

    2010-01-01

    Dispositions supporting the teaching of science as structured inquiry by four elementary candidates are presented. Candidates were studied during student teaching based on their positive attitudes toward teaching science with reform-based materials in their methods course. Personal learning histories informed their attitudes, values, and beliefs…

  4. Teaching Efficacy of Universiti Putra Malaysia Science Student Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bakar, Abd. Rahim; Konting, Mohd. Majid; Jamian, Rashid; Lyndon, Novel

    2008-01-01

    The objective of the study was to access teaching efficacy of Universiti Putra Malaysia Science student teachers. The specific objectives were to determine teaching efficacy of Science student teachers in terms of student engagement; instructional strategies; classroom management and teaching with computers in classroom; their satisfaction with…

  5. Turkish preservice science teachers' socioscientific issues-based teaching practices in middle school science classrooms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Genel, Abdulkadir; Sami Topçu, Mustafa

    2016-01-01

    Background: Despite a growing body of research and curriculum reforms including socioscientific issues (SSI) across the world, how preservice science teachers (PST) or in-service science teachers can teach SSI in science classrooms needs further inquiry. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe the abilities of PSTs to teach SSI in middle school science classrooms, and the research question that guided the present study is: How can we characterize Turkish PSTs' SSI-based teaching practices in middle school science classrooms (ages 11-14)? Sample: In order to address the research question of this study, we explored 10 Turkish PSTs' SSI-based teaching practices in middle school science classrooms. A purposeful sampling strategy was used, thus, PSTs were specifically chosen because they were ideal candidates to teach SSI and to integrate SSI into the science curricula since they were seniors in the science education program who had to take the field experience courses. Design and method: The participants' SSI teaching practices were characterized in light of qualitative research approach. SSI-based teaching practices were analyzed, and the transcripts of all videotape recordings were coded by two researchers. Results: The current data analysis describes Turkish PSTs' SSI-based teaching practices under five main categories: media, argumentation, SSI selection and presentation, risk analysis, and moral perspective. Most of PSTs did not use media resources in their lesson and none of them considered moral perspective in their teaching. While the risk analyses were very simple and superficial, the arguments developed in the classrooms generally remained at a simple level. PSTs did not think SSI as a central topic and discussed these issues in a very limited time and at the end of the class period. Conclusions: The findings of this study manifest the need of the reforms in science education programs. The present study provides evidence that moral, media, argumentation, risk analysis, and pedagogical aspects of SSI-based instruction should be incorporated into educational courses designed for the Turkish teacher education programs such as the science teaching methods course. When we find ways to improve PSTs or science teachers' SSI teaching practices in terms of these components, we can provide useful information for curriculum developers, policy-makers, and science educators in Turkey and other countries, that are facing similar problems. We believe that this study would initiate more investigative and exploratory studies toward this goal.

  6. Using fiction in the teaching of physics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Burko, Lior M.

    2016-03-01

    Fiction has been used in teaching since Plato told the story of Atlantis. However, relatively little use is made of it in teaching physics. We have created short stories that form the basis of case studies. One short story tells the story of a possible radioactive contamination on Earth because of the detonation by terrorists of a dirty bomb in a densely populated urban area. The short story discusses in what many would find an engaging way both the physics of radioactivity and the health aspects of radiation exposure and radiation sickness. Another case tells the story of a hypothetical future crewed mission to the Moon. The astronauts encounter a giant solar flare that would inevitably give the crew lethal dose of radiation. The astronauts do not have enough time to either abort the mission, or land on the Moon and seek shelter. There is, however, something they can do, but they do not think of think of it until it is too late to do anything about it, and being saved beccomes a matter of chance. This case discusses the history and future of lunar and space exploration, solar wind and space weather, and elements of planetary science. We describe some examples of short stories, and how we incorporate them in the teaching of physics and allied disciplines.

  7. Teaching science as inquiry in US and in Japan: A cross-cultural comparison of science teachers' understanding of, and attitudes toward inquiry-based teaching

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    Tosa, Sachiko

    Since the publication of the National Science Education Standards in 1996, learning science through inquiry has been regarded as the heart of science education. However, the TIMSS 1999 Video Study showed that inquiry-based teaching has been taking place less in the United States than in Japan. This study examined similarities and differences in how Japanese and American middle-school science teachers think and feel about inquiry-based teaching. Teachers' attitudes toward the use of inquiry in science teaching were measured through a survey instrument (N=191). Teachers' understanding of inquiry-based teaching was examined through interviews and classroom observations in the United States (N=9) and Japan (N=15). The results show that in spite of the variations in teachers' definitions of inquiry-based teaching, teachers in both countries strongly agree with the idea of inquiry-based teaching. However, little inquiry-based teaching was observed in either of the countries for different reasons. The data indicate that Japanese teachers did not generally help students construct their own understanding of scientific concepts in spite of well-planned lesson structures and activity set-ups. On the other hand, the observational data indicate that American teachers often lacked meaningful science content in spite of their high level of pedagogical knowledge. The need for addressing the importance of scientific concepts in teacher preparation programs in higher education institutions in the US is advocated. To the Japanese science education community, the need for teachers' acquisition of instructional strategies for inquiry-based teaching is strongly addressed.

  8. An administrative concern: Science teachers' instructional efficacy beliefs regarding racially, culturally, economically, and linguistically diverse student populations

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    Tuck Bonner, Natalie Christine

    A teacher's sense of {instructional} efficacy has been considered a critical variable in student academic performance. Researchers Tschannen-Moran and Hoy Woolfolk (2001, p.783) defined teachers' {instructional} efficacy as a teacher's judgment of his or her capabilities to bring about desired outcomes of student engagement and learning, even among those students who may be difficult or unmotivated. There has been a substantial amount of research which reveals a strong correlation among teacher efficacy, teaching performance, and student achievement (Goddard & Goddard, et.al., 2000; Hackett; Hackett, 1995; Pajares, 1997 as cited in Villereal, 2005). This research study explored the content area of science and teacher's personal perception of their competency level in teaching science to all learners regardless of socio-economic, ethnicity/race or gender for grade levels Pre-K to 12. Lewthwaite states that a science teacher's personal teacher attributes or intrinsic factors such as science teaching self-efficacy, professional science knowledge, science teaching, instructional methodologies, interest in science, and motivation to teach science are critical dimensions and noted barriers in the delivery of science programs on elementary level campuses (Lewthwaite, Stableford & Fisher, 2001). This study focused on teacher instructional efficacy issues which may affect diverse learners' classroom and state-mandated assessment academic performance outcomes. A SPSS analysis of data was obtained from the following teacher survey instruments: The Bandura Teacher Efficacy Scale, the SEBEST, and the SETAKIST. Research findings revealed that a majority of science teachers surveyed believe they can effectively teach learners of diverse backgrounds, but responded with a sense of lower efficaciousness in teaching English Language Learners. There was also a statistically significant difference found between a state science organization and a national science organization's instructional efficacy beliefs in effectively teaching science content to females.

  9. The Sources of Science Teaching Self-efficacy among Elementary School Teachers: A mediational model approach

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    Wang, Ya-Ling; Tsai, Chin-Chung; Wei, Shih-Hsuan

    2015-09-01

    This study aimed to investigate the factors accounting for science teaching self-efficacy and to examine the relationships among Taiwanese teachers' science teaching self-efficacy, teaching and learning conceptions, technological-pedagogical content knowledge for the Internet (TPACK-I), and attitudes toward Internet-based instruction (Attitudes) using a mediational model approach. A total of 233 science teachers from 41 elementary schools in Taiwan were invited to take part in the study. After ensuring the validity and reliability of each questionnaire, the results indicated that each measure had satisfactory validity and reliability. Furthermore, through mediational models, the results revealed that TPACK-I and Attitudes mediated the relationship between teaching and learning conceptions and science teaching self-efficacy, suggesting that (1) knowledge of and attitudes toward Internet-based instruction (KATII) mediated the positive relationship between constructivist conceptions of teaching and learning and outcome expectancy, and that (2) KATII mediated the negative correlations between traditional conceptions of teaching and learning and teaching efficacy.

  10. Science teaching self-efficacy in a primary school: A case study

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    de Laat, Jenny; Watters, James J.

    1995-12-01

    Bandura's theory of self-efficacy predicts that teachers with high, self-efficacy should persist longer, provide a greater academic focus in child-centred classrooms and exhibit different types of feedback than teachers who have lower self-efficacy. This paper reports on the science teaching self-efficacy in a group of teachers at a state primary school. The research was conducted in two stages using firstly the Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Instrument (STEBI-A) to identify cases, and secondly, a semistructured interview coupled with classroom observations. Thirty seven teaching staff were surveyed with the STEBI-A instrument. The five highest and five lowest scoring teachers on the personal science teaching self-efficacy subscale of the STEBI-A were interviewed. The analysis of interviews and observations indicated that teachers with high personal science teaching self-efficacy have had a long interest in science and a relatively strong background of formal science studies with opportunities for exploring out of school activities. Although they may have experienced negative science experiences in their own schooling other ameliorating factors existed which maintained their interest. Their instructional strategies in science lessons were more child-centred than those reported by teachers with lower personal science teaching self-efficacy. The implications of the results for the inservice training of teachers are discussed.

  11. What is taking place in science classrooms?: A case study analysis of teaching and learning in seventh-grade science of one Alabama school and its impact on African American student learning

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    Norman, Lashaunda Renea

    This qualitative case study investigated the teaching strategies that improve science learning of African American students. This research study further sought the extent the identified teaching strategies that are used to improve African American science learning reflect culturally responsive teaching. Best teaching strategies and culturally responsive teaching have been researched, but there has been minimal research on the impact that both have on science learning, with an emphasis on the African American population. Consequently, the Black-White achievement gap in science persists. The findings revealed the following teaching strategies have a positive impact on African American science learning: (a) lecture-discussion, (b) notetaking, (c) reading strategies, (d) graphic organizers, (e) hands-on activities, (f) laboratory experiences, and (g) cooperative learning. Culturally responsive teaching strategies were evident in the seventh-grade science classrooms observed. Seven themes emerged from this research data: (1) The participating teachers based their research-based teaching strategies used in the classroom on all of the students' learning styles, abilities, attitudes towards science, and motivational levels about learning science, with no emphasis on the African American student population; (2) The participating teachers taught the state content standards simultaneously using the same instructional model daily, incorporating other content areas when possible; (3) The participating African American students believed their seventh-grade science teachers used a variety of teaching strategies to ensure science learning took place, that science learning was fun, and that science learning was engaging; (4) The participating African American students genuinely liked their teacher; (5) The participating African American students revealed high self-efficacy; (6) The African American student participants' parents value education and moved to Success Middle School district for better educational opportunities; and (7) Teachers were not familiar with the term "culturally responsive teaching," but there was evidence that several aspects of it were present in the seventh-grade science classroom environment. Critical Race Theory (CRT) was the framework for analysis and interpretation of this research study. The findings support the following tenets of CRT: (a) racism is normal, (b) interest-convergence or colorblindness, (c) contextual-historical analysis, (d) storytelling or counterstorytelling, and (e) social transformation. These findings indicate that racial inequalities remain an issue in the underachievement of African Americans and may be the solution to improving science learning of African Americans. The outcome of this study contributes to the limited research on utilizing culturally responsive teaching along with best teaching strategies to improve academic achievement of African American students, and CRT exposes the issues that contribute to the Black-White achievement gap in science widening.

  12. The distinction between key ideas in teaching school physics and key ideas in the discipline of physics

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    Deng, Zongyi

    2001-05-01

    The distinction between key ideas in teaching a high school science and key ideas in the corresponding discipline of science has been largely ignored in scholarly discourse about what science teachers should teach and about what they should know. This article clarifies this distinction through exploring how and why key ideas in teaching high school physics differ from key ideas in the discipline of physics. Its theoretical underpinnings include Dewey's (1902/1990) distinction between the psychological and the logical and Harré's (1986) epistemology of science. It analyzes how and why the key ideas in teaching color, the speed of light, and light interference at the high school level differ from the key ideas at the disciplinary level. The thesis is that key ideas in teaching high school physics can differ from key ideas in the discipline in some significant ways, and that the differences manifest Dewey's distinction. As a result, the article challenges the assumption of equating key ideas in teaching a high school science with key ideas in the corresponding discipline of science, and the assumption that having a college degree in science is sufficient to teach high school science. Furthermore, the article expands the concept of pedagogical content knowledge by arguing that key ideas in teaching high school physics constitute an essential component.

  13. A Science Faculty's Transformation of Nature of Science Understanding into His Teaching Graduate Level Chemistry Course

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Aydin, Sevgi

    2015-01-01

    This is an interpretive case study to examine the teaching of an experienced science faculty who had a strong interest in teaching undergraduate and graduate science courses and nature of science specifically. It was interested in how he transformed knowledge from his experience as a scientist and his ideas about nature of science into forms…

  14. Why Implementing History and Philosophy in School Science Education Is a Challenge: An Analysis of Obstacles

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hottecke, Dietmar; Silva, Cibelle Celestino

    2011-01-01

    Teaching and learning with history and philosophy of science (HPS) has been, and continues to be, supported by science educators. While science education standards documents in many countries also stress the importance of teaching and learning with HPS, the approach still suffers from ineffective implementation in school science teaching. In order…

  15. Investigating Human Impact in the Environment with Faded Scaffolded Inquiry Supported by Technologies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Campbell, Todd; Longhurst, Max; Duffy, Aaron M.; Wolf, Paul G.; Nagy, Robin

    2012-01-01

    Teaching science as inquiry is advocated in all national science education documents and by leading science and science teaching organizations. In addition to teaching science as inquiry, we recognize that learning experiences need to connect to students' lives. This article details how we use a sequence of faded scaffolded inquiry supported by…

  16. Science That Matters: Exploring Science Learning and Teaching in Primary Schools

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fitzgerald, Angela; Smith, Kathy

    2016-01-01

    To help support primary school students to better understand why science matters, teachers must first be supported to teach science in ways that matter. In moving to this point, this paper identifies the dilemmas and tensions primary school teachers face in the teaching of science. The balance is then readdressed through a research-based…

  17. Measuring Primary Teachers' Attitudes toward Teaching Science: Development of the Dimensions of Attitude toward Science (DAS) Instrument

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    van Aalderen-Smeets, Sandra; Walma van der Molen, Juliette

    2013-01-01

    In this article, we present a valid and reliable instrument which measures the attitude of in-service and pre-service primary teachers toward teaching science, called the Dimensions of Attitude Toward Science (DAS) Instrument. Attention to the attitudes of primary teachers toward teaching science is of fundamental importance to the…

  18. Undergraduates' Perceived Gains and Ideas about Teaching and Learning Science from Participating in Science Education Outreach Programs

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Carpenter, Stacey L.

    2015-01-01

    This study examined what undergraduate students gain and the ideas about science teaching and learning they develop from participating in K-12 science education outreach programs. Eleven undergraduates from seven outreach programs were interviewed individually about their experiences with outreach and what they learned about science teaching and…

  19. Embedding Nature of Science in Teaching about Astronomy and Space

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Buaraphan, Khajornsak

    2012-01-01

    Science teachers need an adequate understanding of nature of science (NOS) and the ability to embed NOS in their teaching. This collective case study aims to explore in-service science teachers' conceptions of NOS and the embeddedness of NOS in their teaching about astronomy and space. Three science teachers participated in this study. All…

  20. Multiple case studies of STEM teachers' orientations to science teaching through engineering design

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    Rupp, Madeline

    The following master's thesis is composed of two manuscripts describing STEM teachers' orientations to science teaching through engineering within the context of the Science Learning through Engineering Design (SLED) partnership. The framework guiding both studies was science teaching orientations, a component of pedagogical content knowledge. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews, multi-day classroom observations, pre- and post-observation interviews, implementation plans, and written reflections. Data sources were analyzed to generate two orientations to science teaching through engineering design for each participant. The first manuscript illustrates a single case study conducted with a sixth grade STEM teacher. Results of this study revealed a detailed picture of the teacher's goals, practices, assessments, and general views when teaching science through engineering design. Common themes across the teacher's instruction were used to characterize her orientations to science teaching through engineering design. Overall, the teacher's orientations showed a shift in her practice from didactic to student-centered methods of teaching as a result of integrating engineering design-based curriculum. The second manuscript describes a comparative case study of two sixth grade SLED participants. Results of this study revealed more complex and diverse relationships between the teachers' orientations to teaching science through engineering design and their instruction. Participants' orientations served as filters for instruction, guided by their divergent purposes for science teaching. Furthermore, their orientations and resulting implementation were developed from knowledge gained in teacher education, implying that teacher educators and researchers can use this framework to learn more about how teachers' knowledge is used to integrate engineering and science practices in the K-12 classroom.

  1. Teaching Ethical Issues in Science.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Levinson, Ralph

    This paper presents a study that investigates the teaching and learning aspects of controversial issues in science education. Teaching ethical issues is mandatory for science teachers in England; however, teachers may experience difficulties in exploring contemporary issues in science due to rapid and unpredictable changes. The study carries an…

  2. Developing pre-service science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge by using training program

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    Udomkan, Watinee; Suwannoi, Paisan

    2018-01-01

    A training program was developed for enhancing pre-service science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The pre-service science teachers are able to: understand science curriculum, knowledge of assessment in science, knowledge of students' understanding of science, instructional strategies and orientations towards science teaching, which is conceptualized as PCK [5]. This study examined the preservice science teachers' understandings and their practices which include five pre-service science teachers' PCK. In this study, the participants demonstrated their PCK through the process of the training program by writing content representations (CoRes), preparing the lesson plans, micro-teaching, and actual teaching respectively. All pre-service science teachers' performs were collected by classroom observations. Then, they were interviewed. The results showed that the pre-service science teachers progressively developed knowledge components of PCK. Micro-teaching is the key activities for developing PCK. However, they had some difficulties in their classroom teaching. They required of sufficient ability to design appropriate instructional strategies and assessment activities for teaching. Blending content and pedagogy is also a matter of great concern. The implication of this study was that science educators can enhance pre-service science teachers' PCK by fostering their better understandings of the instructional strategies, assessment activities and blending between content and pedagogy in their classroom.

  3. Thai in-service teacher understanding of nature of science in biology teaching: Case of Mali

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    Aiemsum-ang, Napapan; Yuenyong, Chokchai

    2018-01-01

    This paper aimed to investigate the existing ideas of nature of science (NOS) teaching in Thailand biology classroom. The study reported the existing ideas of nature of science (NOS) teaching of one biology teacher Mrs. Mali who had been teaching for 6 years at in a school in Khon Kaen city. Methodology regarded interpretive paradigm. Tools of interpretation included 2 months of classroom observation, interviewing, and questionnaire of NOS. The findings revealed Mali held good understanding of the nature of science in the aspect of the use of evidence, the aspect of knowledge inquiry through different observation and deduction, the aspect of creativity and imagination influencing science knowledge inquiry, and the aspect of changeable scientific knowledge. Her biology teaching indicated that she used both the deficient nature of science approach and the implicit nature of science approach. The implicit nature of science approach was applied mostly in 7 periods and only 2 periods were arranged using the deficient nature of science approach. The paper has implication for professional development and pre-service program on NOS teaching in Thailand.

  4. Investigation of urban science teachers' pedagogical engagements: Are urban science teachers culturally responsive?

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    Udokwu, Chukwudi John

    This study utilized mixed methodology of quantitative and qualitative research approach to explore the current pedagogical engagements of twenty middle school urban science teachers in the Midwest region of the United States. It qualitatively examined twelve of these teachers' knowledge of culturally responsive pedagogy. The study investigated the following questions: What are the current pedagogical practices of urban middle school science teachers? To what extent are middle school science teachers' pedagogical practices in urban schools culturally responsive? What are urban students' perspectives of their teachers' current pedagogical engagements? The design of the study was qualitative and quantitative methods in order to investigate these teachers' pedagogical practices. Data collections were drawn from multiple sources such as lesson plans, students' sample works, district curriculum, surveys, observational and interview notes. Analysis of collected data was a mixed methodology that involved qualitative and quantitative methods using descriptive, interpretative, pattern codes, and statistical procedures respectively. Purposeful sampling was selected for this study. Thus, demographically there were twenty participants who quantitatively took part in this study. Among them were seven (35%) males and thirteen (65%) females, three (15%) African Americans and seventeen (85%) Caucasians. In determining to what extent urban science teachers' pedagogical practices were culturally responsive, eight questions were analyzed based on four cluster themes: (a) teachers' social disposition, (b) culturally responsive curriculum, (c) classroom interactions, and (d) power pedagogy. Study result revealed that only five (25%) of the participants were engaged in culturally responsive pedagogy while fifteen (75%) were engaged in what Haberman (1991) called the pedagogy of poverty. The goal was to investigate urban science teachers' pedagogical engagements and to examine urban students' perspective of their science teachers' pedagogical practices, and ensure that all students have a sense of ownership of their knowledge, a sense that is empowering and liberating. The implications of these findings were to promote urban students' achievements in science and see them employed in science and engineering. I hope this study helps in developing better professional development that will be culturally responsive and to ensure that all students have a sense of ownership of their knowledge.

  5. The Use of Photographs to Portray Urban Ecosystems in Six Introductory Environmental Science Textbooks

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sullivan, John P.

    2008-01-01

    This study examined how photographs in six introductory environmental science texts portrayed the urban environments in which most U.S. students lived. All photographs from all texts were coded to determine whether they depicted urban areas. The urban photographs were then coded to determine what they communicated about the urban environment. The…

  6. Cultivation of Science Identity through Authentic Science in an Urban High School Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chapman, Angela; Feldman, Allan

    2017-01-01

    This study examined how a contextually based authentic science experience affected the science identities of urban high school students who have been marginalized during their K-12 science education. We examined students' perceptions of the intervention as an authentic science experience, how the experience influenced their science identity, as…

  7. Transforming beliefs and practices: Elementary teacher candidates' development through shared authentic teaching and reflection experiences within an innovative science methods course

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    Naidoo, Kara

    Elementary teachers are criticized for failing to incorporate meaningful science instruction in their classrooms or avoiding science instruction altogether. The lack of adequate science instruction in elementary schools is partially attributed to teacher candidates' anxiety, poor content and pedagogical preparation, and low science teaching self-efficacy. The central premise of this study was that many of these issues could be alleviated through course modifications designed to address these issues. The design tested and presented here provided prospective elementary educators' authentic science teaching experiences with elementary students in a low-stakes environment with the collaboration of peers and science teacher educators. The process of comprehensive reflection was developed for and tested in this study. Comprehensive reflection is individual and collective, written and set in dialogic discourse, focused on past and future behavior, and utilizes video recordings from shared teaching experiences. To test the central premise, an innovative science methods course was designed, implemented and evaluated using a one-group mixed-method design. The focus of the analysis was on changes in self-efficacy, identity and teaching practices as a function of authentic science teaching experiences and comprehensive reflection. The quantitative tools for analysis were t-tests and repeated-measures ANOVA on the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument-B (STEBI-B) and weekly self-rating on confidence as a learner and a teacher of science, respectively. The tools used to analyze qualitative data included thematic analysis and interpretative phenomenological analysis. In addition, theoretically grounded tools were developed and used in a case study to determine the ways one prospective educator's science teaching identity was influenced by experiences in the course. The innovative course structure led the development of teacher candidates' science teaching identity, supported science teaching self-efficacy development, positioned teachers as agents in their learning and development, provided the opportunity for teacher candidates to problematize teaching experiences to improve practice, developed teacher candidates who were able to critically question and create science curricula with the primary purpose of mediating student learning, and improved teacher candidates questioning skills and assistance with student performance in order to better mediate student learning. Implications for teacher education and future directions for research are discussed.

  8. `You Have to Give Them Some Science Facts': Primary Student Teachers' Early Negotiations of Teacher Identities in the Intersections of Discourses About Science Teaching and About Primary Teaching

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    Danielsson, Anna T.; Warwick, Paul

    2014-04-01

    In the broadest sense, the goal for primary science teacher education could be described as preparing these teachers to teach for scientific literacy. Our starting point is that making such science teaching accessible and desirable for future primary science teachers is dependent not only on their science knowledge and self-confidence, but also on a whole range of interrelated sociocultural factors. This paper aims to explore how intersections between different Discourses about primary teaching and about science teaching are evidenced in primary school student teachers' talk about becoming teachers. The study is founded in a conceptualisation of learning as a process of social participation. The conceptual framework is crafted around two key concepts: Discourse (Gee 2005) and identity (Paechter, Women's Studies International Forum, 26(1):69-77, 2007). Empirically, the paper utilises semi-structured interviews with 11 primary student teachers enrolled in a 1-year Postgraduate Certificate of Education course. The analysis draws on five previously identified teacher Discourses: `Teaching science through inquiry', `Traditional science teacher', `Traditional primary teacher', `Teacher as classroom authority', and `Primary teacher as a role model' (Danielsson and Warwick, International Journal of Science Education, 2013). It explores how the student teachers, at an early stage in their course, are starting to intersect these Discourses to negotiate their emerging identities as primary science teachers.

  9. The adventures of Ann: A case study of a kindergarten teacher and her beliefs as she explored integrating science into her literacy curriculum

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    Potter, Gregory Ralph

    Science education is an often neglected portion of the curriculum in elementary school, particularly in the primary grades. While early childhood educators have many choices in their curricula, two constants remain, literacy and math education. Ideally, young children need science along with literacy and mathematics. This study investigated how one kindergarten teacher used science to enhance her literacy program and how this use of science in her classroom affected her teaching beliefs. The case study took place in a publicly funded early childhood education center devoted to teaching kindergarten children in the small town of Summers in rural northern California. "Ann" was a master kindergarten teacher who historically used developmentally appropriate activities to support her literacy instruction. She was posed with the suggestion of infusing science into her literacy program and over the course of one school year, she was observed planning, implementing, and reflecting on six integrated science and literacy units. Ann's general teaching beliefs as well as her beliefs about teaching literacy and science were explored in order to investigate whether her experience with the integrated science and literacy units had altered her teaching beliefs. It was discovered that not only had Ann significantly changed the way she taught science, her beliefs about teaching science had changed and had moved towards mimicking her pro-active and positive beliefs about teaching literacy.

  10. The effect of concept mapping on preservice elementary teachers' knowledge of science inquiry teaching

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    Jackson, Diann Carol

    This study examined the effect of concept mapping as a method of stimulating reflection on preservice elementary teachers' knowledge of science inquiry instruction methods. Three intact classes of science education preservice teachers participated in a non-randomized comparison group with a pretest and posttest design to measure the influence of mapping on participants' knowledge of inquiry science instruction. All groups followed the same course syllabus, in class activities, readings, assignments and assessment tasks. The manner in which they presented their ideas about inquiry science teaching varied. Groups constructed pre-lesson, post-lesson, and homework lists or maps across three inquiry based instruction modules (ecosystems, food chains, and electricity). Equivalent forms of the Teaching Science Inventory (TSI) were used to investigate changes in preservice teachers' propositional knowledge about how to teach using inquiry science instruction methods. Equivalent forms of the Science Lesson Planning (SLP) test were used to investigate changes in preservice teachers' application knowledge about how to teach using inquiry science instruction methods. Data analysis included intrarater reliability, ANOVAs, ANCOVAs, and correlations between lists and maps and examination responses. SLP and TSI scores improved from the pretest to the posttest in each of the three study groups. The results indicate that, in general, there were basically no relationships between the treatment and outcome measures. In addition, there were no significant differences between the three groups in their knowledge about how to teach science. Conclusions drawn from this study include, first, the learners did learn how to teach science using inquiry. Second, in this study there is little evidence to support that concept mapping was more successful than the listing strategy in improving preservice elementary teachers' knowledge of teaching science using inquiry science instruction methods.

  11. Capturing and portraying science student teachers' pedagogical content knowledge through CoRe construction

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    Thongnoppakun, Warangkana; Yuenyong, Chokchai

    2018-01-01

    Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is an essential kind of knowledge that teacher have for teaching particular content to particular students for enhance students' understanding, therefore, teachers with adequate PCK can give content to their students in an understandable way rather than transfer subject matter knowledge to learner. This study explored science student teachers' PCK for teaching science using Content representation base methodology. Research participants were 68 4th year science student teachers from department of General Science, faculty of Education, Phuket Rajabhat University. PCK conceptualization for teaching science by Magnusson et al. (1999) was applied as a theoretical framework in this study. In this study, Content representation (CoRe) by Loughran et al. (2004) was employed as research methodology in the lesson preparation process. In addition, CoRe consisted of eight questions (CoRe prompts) that designed to elicit and portray teacher's PCK for teaching science. Data were collected from science student teachers' CoRes design for teaching a given topic and student grade. Science student teachers asked to create CoRes design for teaching in topic `Motion in one direction' for 7th grade student and further class discussion. Science student teachers mostly created a same group of science concepts according to subunits of school science textbook rather than planned and arranged content to support students' understanding. Furthermore, they described about the effect of student's prior knowledge and learning difficulties such as students' knowledge of Scalar and Vector quantity; and calculating skill. These responses portrayed science student teacher's knowledge of students' understanding of science and their content knowledge. However, they still have inadequate knowledge of instructional strategies and activities for enhance student learning. In summary, CoRes design can represented holistic overviews of science student teachers' PCK related to the teaching of a particular topic and also support them to gain more understanding about how to teach for understanding. Research implications are given for teacher education and educational research to offer a potential way to enhance science student teachers' PCK for teaching science and support their professional learning.

  12. Science Pedagogy, Teacher Attitudes, and Student Success

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Munck, Miriam

    2007-01-01

    Through a century-long process, there has been a resolute effort to shape science teaching in elementary classrooms. A close look at science teaching and student learning may provide a better understanding of what really happens in elementary classrooms. This study examines relationships between science teaching pedagogy, teachers' science…

  13. Enriching the Teaching of Biology with Mathematical Concepts

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Andersen, Janet

    2007-01-01

    Secondary school educators are told to teach more mathematics and science to their students to help them become more proficient in the two subjects. Coordination of mathematics and science teaching is recognized as another means of improving proficiency. The National Science Foundation has funded the "Mathematics, Science and Technology…

  14. Approximations of Practice in the Preparation of Prospective Elementary Science Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nelson, Michele M.

    2011-01-01

    Elementary teacher education involves learning to teach science. Even in elementary school, teaching science is demanding work--teachers must orchestrate a complex set of teaching practices to support students' science learning. This dissertation examines the application of Grossman and colleagues' (2009) cross-professional learning framework,…

  15. Science Teaching Efficacy of Preservice Elementary Teachers: Examination of the Multiple Factors Reported as Influential

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tastan Kirik, Özgecan

    2013-01-01

    This study explores the science teaching efficacy beliefs of preservice elementary teachers and the relationship between efficacy beliefs and multiple factors such as antecedent factors (participation in extracurricular activities and number of science and science teaching methods courses taken), conceptual understanding, classroom management…

  16. Provocative Opinion: Fads in Science Teaching

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Parry, R. W.

    1975-01-01

    Criticizes the post-Sputnik wave of multi-disciplinary science curricula aimed at teaching the students about social problems and how science can help solve these problems. Suggests that science teaching should concentrate more on the basics of a given discipline and should be taught be specialists rather than generalists. (MLH)

  17. Perceptions and Practices of Culturally Relevant Science Teaching in American Indian Classrooms

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nam, Younkyeong; Roehrig, Gillian; Kern, Anne; Reynolds, Bree

    2013-01-01

    This study explores the perceptions of culturally relevant science teaching of 35 teachers of American Indian students. These teachers participated in professional development designed to help them better understand climate change science content and teaching climate change using both Western science and traditional and cultural knowledge. Teacher…

  18. Teaching the Human Dimension of Science

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Farland-Smith, Donna; McComas, William

    2009-01-01

    Teachers have the important responsibility of providing students with accurate and engaging science content while also helping them establish authentic views of scientists. Though there are numerous curriculum materials to assist in the teaching of science content, the authors have found that methods and materials to teach science as a human…

  19. The Sources of Science Teaching Self-Efficacy among Elementary School Teachers: A Mediational Model Approach

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wang, Ya-Ling; Tsai, Chin-Chung; Wei, Shih-Hsuan

    2015-01-01

    This study aimed to investigate the factors accounting for science teaching self-efficacy and to examine the relationships among Taiwanese teachers' science teaching self-efficacy, teaching and learning conceptions, technological--pedagogical content knowledge for the Internet (TPACK-I), and attitudes toward Internet-based instruction (Attitudes)…

  20. Learning from Rookie Mistakes: Critical Incidents in Developing Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Teaching Science to Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cite, Suleyman; Lee, Eun; Menon, Deepika; Hanuscin, Deborah L.

    2017-01-01

    While there is a growing literature focused on doctoral preparation for teaching about science teaching, rarely have recommendations extended to preparation for teaching science content to teachers. We three doctoral students employ self-study as a research methodology to investigate our developing pedagogical content knowledge for teaching…

  1. Observation of Reform Teaching in Undergraduate Level Mathematics and Science Courses

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wainwright, Camille; Flick, Larry; Morrell, Patricia D.; Schepige, Adele

    2004-01-01

    This paper reports on initial results from an ongoing evaluation study of a National Science Foundation project to implement reform-oriented teaching practices in college science and mathematics courses. The purpose of this study was to determine what elements of reform teaching are being utilized by college faculty members teaching undergraduate…

  2. "Almost Everything We Do Includes Inquiry": Fostering Inquiry-Based Teaching and Learning with Preschool Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hollingsworth, Heidi L.; Vandermaas-Peeler, Maureen

    2017-01-01

    Given the increased emphasis on science in early learning standards, two studies were conducted to investigate preschool teachers' efficacy for teaching science and their inquiry-based teaching practices. Fifty-one teachers completed a survey of their efficacy for teaching science and understanding of inquiry methods. Teachers reported moderate…

  3. Investigating Coherence among Turkish Elementary Science Teachers' Teaching Belief Systems, Pedagogical Content Knowledge and Practice

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bahcivan, Eralp; Cobern, William W.

    2016-01-01

    This study investigated comprehensive science teaching belief systems and their relation to science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge and teaching practices. Rokeach's (1968) belief system was used as a framework for representing the hierarchy among in-service teachers' teaching beliefs. This study employed a multiple case study design with…

  4. Exploring the use of lesson study with six Canadian middle-school science teachers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bridges, Terry James

    This qualitative case study explores the use of lesson study over a ten-week period with six Ontario middle school science teachers. The research questions guiding this study were: (1) How does participation in science-based lesson study influence these teachers': (a) science subject matter knowledge (science SMK), (b) science pedagogical content knowledge (science PCK), and (c) confidence in teaching science?, and (2) What benefits and challenges do they associate with lesson study? Data sources for this study were: teacher questionnaires, surveys, reflections, pre- and post- interviews, and follow-up emails; researcher field notes and reflections; pre- and post- administration of the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument; and audio recordings of group meetings. The teachers demonstrated limited gains in science SMK. There was evidence for an overall improvement in teacher knowledge of forces and simple machines, and two teachers demonstrated improvement in over half of the five scenarios assessing teacher science SMK. Modest gains in teacher science PCK were found. One teacher expressed more accurate understanding of students' knowledge of forces and a better knowledge of effective science teaching strategies. The majority of teachers reported that they would be using three-part lessons and hands-on activities more in their science teaching. Gains in teacher pedagogical knowledge (PK) were found in four areas: greater emphasis on anticipation of student thinking and responses, recognition of the importance of observing students, more intentional teaching, and anticipated future use of student video data. Most teachers reported feeling more confident in teaching structures and mechanisms, and attributed this increase in confidence to collaboration and seeing evidence of student learning and engagement during the lesson teachings. Teacher benefits included: learning how to increase student engagement and collaboration, observing students, including video data, observing colleagues teach, time to collaborate, plan, and reflect, teaching the same lesson to two classes, more intentional teaching, and increasing social interactions. Teacher challenges included: teacher unfamiliarity with the students being taught, time spent taking part in lesson study, teachers in the role of observers, and impact of observers and videotaping on students and teachers during lesson enactments.

  5. Perspectives on learning, learning to teach and teaching elementary science

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Avraamidou, Lucy

    The framework that characterizes this work is that of elementary teachers' learning and development. Specifically, the ways in which prospective and beginning teachers' develop pedagogical content knowledge for teaching science in light of current recommendations for reform emphasizing teaching and learning science as inquiry are explored. Within this theme, the focus is on three core areas: (a) the use of technology tools (i.e., web-based portfolios) in support of learning to teach science at the elementary level; (b) beginning teachers' specialized knowledge for giving priority to evidence in science teaching; and (c) the applications of perspectives associated with elementary teachers' learning to teach science in Cyprus, where I was born and raised. The first manuscript describes a study aimed at exploring the influence of web-based portfolios and a specific task in support of learning to teach science within the context of a Professional Development School program. The task required prospective teachers to articulate their personal philosophies about teaching and learning science in the form of claims, evidence and justifications in a web-based forum. The findings of this qualitative case study revealed the participants' developing understandings about learning and teaching science, which included emphasizing a student-centered approach, connecting physical engagement of children with conceptual aspects of learning, becoming attentive to what teachers can do to support children's learning, and focusing on teaching science as inquiry. The way the task was organized and the fact that the web-based forum provided the ability to keep multiple versions of their philosophies gave prospective teachers the advantage of examining how their philosophies were changing over time, which supported a continuous engagement in metacognition, self-reflection and self-evaluation. The purpose of the study reported in the second manuscript was to examine the nature of a first-year elementary teacher's specialized knowledge and practices for giving priority to evidence in science teaching. The findings of this study indicated that Jean not only articulated, but also enacted, a student-centered approach to teaching science, which emphasized giving priority to evidence in the construction of scientific explanations. It also became evident through data analysis that Jean's practices were for the most part consistent with her knowledge and beliefs. This contradicts the findings of previous studies that indicate a mismatch between beginning teachers' knowledge and practices. Furthermore, the findings of this study illustrated that critical experiences during teacher preparation and specific university coursework acted as sources through which this aspect of pedagogical content knowledge was generated. The third manuscript proposes new directions for teaching science in elementary schools in Cyprus and makes recommendations to improve the current teacher preparation program in light of the need for a reform. This manuscript is built upon contemporary perspectives of learning and cognition, and is informed by current trends in science education in the United States and United Kingdom. Issues of teaching and learning science as inquiry, engaging in scientific argumentation, and the use of software scaffolds in support of learning and learning to teach science are discussed with special attention to the unique educational setting of Cyprus.

  6. Using the Urban Environment to Engage Youths in Urban Ecology Field Studies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Barnett, Michael; Lord, Charles; Strauss, Eric; Rosca, Camelia; Langford, Heather; Chavez, Dawn; Deni, Leah

    2006-01-01

    Recent science education reform proponents explicitly put forward the idea that all students, regardless of culture, gender, race, or socioeconomic status, are capable of understanding and doing science. To address this need, the authors have developed and implemented a field-based urban ecology science program to engage traditionally…

  7. Primary teachers conducting inquiry projects: effects on attitudes towards teaching science and conducting inquiry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    van Aalderen-Smeets, Sandra I.; Walma van der Molen, Juliette H.; van Hest, Erna G. W. C. M.; Poortman, Cindy

    2017-01-01

    This study used an experimental, pretest-posttest control group design to investigate whether participation in a large-scale inquiry project would improve primary teachers' attitudes towards teaching science and towards conducting inquiry. The inquiry project positively affected several elements of teachers' attitudes. Teachers felt less anxious about teaching science and felt less dependent on contextual factors compared to the control group. With regard to attitude towards conducting inquiry, teachers felt less anxious and more able to conduct an inquiry project. There were no effects on other attitude components, such as self-efficacy beliefs or relevance beliefs, or on self-reported science teaching behaviour. These results indicate that practitioner research may have a partially positive effect on teachers' attitudes, but that it may not be sufficient to fully change primary teachers' attitudes and their actual science teaching behaviour. In comparison, a previous study showed that attitude-focused professional development in science education has a more profound impact on primary teachers' attitudes and science teaching behaviour. In our view, future interventions aiming to stimulate science teaching should combine both approaches, an explicit focus on attitude change together with familiarisation with inquiry, in order to improve primary teachers' attitudes and classroom practices.

  8. Understanding primary school science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge: The case of teaching global warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chordnork, Boonliang; Yuenyong, Chokchai

    2018-01-01

    This aim of this research was to investigate primary school science teachers understanding and teaching practice as well as the influence on teaching and learning a topic like global warming. The participants were four primary science teachers, who were not graduated in science education. Methodology was the case study method, which was under the qualitative research regarded from interpretive paradigm. Data were collected by openended questionnaire, semi-structure interview, and document colleting. The questionnaire examined teachers' background, teachers' understanding of problems and threats of science teaching, desiring of development their PCK, sharing the teaching approaches, and their ideas of strength and weakness. a semi-structured interview was conducted based on the approach for capturing PCK of Loughran [23] content representation (CoRe). And, the document was collected to clarify what evidence which was invented to effect on students' learning. These document included lesson plan, students' task, and painting about global warming, science projects, the picture of activities of science learning, the exercise and test. Data analysis employed multiple approach of evidence looking an issue from each primary science teachers and used triangulation method to analyze the data with aiming to make meaning of teachers' representation of teaching practice. These included descriptive statistics, CoRe interpretation, and document analysis. The results show that teachers had misunderstanding of science teaching practice and they has articulated the pedagogical content knowledge in terms of assessment, goal of teaching and linking to the context of socio cultural. In contrast, knowledge and belief of curriculum, students' understanding of content global warming, and strategies of teaching were articulated indistinct by non-graduate science teacher. Constructing opportunities for personal development, the curiosity of the student learning center, and linking context of socio-culture were the creative factor in the teaching global warming. On the other hand, the teachers had an idea that lack of technology and the defect of child's intelligence were hinder factors teaching global warming.

  9. Listening to their voices: Exploring mathematics-science identity development of African American males in an urban school community

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wilson, Kimi Leemar

    National data continues to show an underrepresentation of African American males pursuing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) majors, careers and professions in the United States. Whites and Asian Americans are continuously positioned as the face of STEM education and participation. And while research has provided ways to support mathematics and science learning for African American males, there still remains a gap in understanding how their formed mathematics-science identities in K-12 public schooling influences STEM participation. The research undertaken in this study explores this gap, and uses an integrative identity framework to understand mathematics-science identity development which goes beyond personal identity, and explores the relational, collective and material components of identity. Specifically, this research seeks to answer the following research questions: What are the shared lived experiences that exist between a group of African American male students developing a mathematics-science identity, and how these shared lived experiences shape their mathematics-science identity development? Therefore, by analyzing African American males lived experiences employing an integrative identity framework fosters a greater understanding of how mathematics-science identity is formed in K-12 public schools, which impacts STEM education and participation. The high school aged youth featured in this study consist of four African American males, who live in a moderate size city in California. Data for this study consists of observations, phenomenological interviews, and policy document analysis that took place over six months. Data has been analyzed to describe and interpret the young men's mathematics and science experiences, as revealed in their K-12 public school education. This inquiry sought to make meaning of how African American males experience mathematics and science teaching and learning within K-12 public schooling and how these experiences impact mathematics-science identity development. The goal of the study seeks to inform educational, psychological and sociological theory about how urban adolescent African American males understand, develop and make use of their mathematics and science knowledge. Finally, this work seeks to inform mathematics and science educational research to include identity theory, beyond a personal or individual identity perspective, but also to include relational, collective, and material identity components to understand how the culture of mathematics and science within and outside of K-12 public schooling impacts African American males in an endeavor to become learners of mathematics and science.

  10. Developing a Tool to Evaluate Differences in Beliefs about Science Teaching and Learning among Freshman Science Student Teachers from Different Science Teaching Domains: A Case Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Markic, Silvija; Eilks, Ingo; Valanides, Nicos

    2008-01-01

    This paper presents a pilot case study on developing a qualitative tool to evaluate science student teachers' beliefs concerning science teaching and learning. The study is based on student teachers' drawings of themselves in a typical classroom situation and four open questions. Data was collected from 104 freshman science student teachers, and…

  11. A Comparative Study of the Quality of Teaching Learning Process at Post Graduate Level in the Faculty of Science and Social Science

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shahzadi, Uzma; Shaheen, Gulnaz; Shah, Ashfaque Ahmed

    2012-01-01

    The study was intended to compare the quality of teaching learning process in the faculty of social science and science at University of Sargodha. This study was descriptive and quantitative in nature. The objectives of the study were to compare the quality of teaching learning process in the faculty of social science and science at University of…

  12. Relationship between Science Teaching Practices and Students' Achievement in Singapore, Chinese Taipei, and the US: An Analysis Using TIMSS 2011 Data

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gao, Su

    2014-01-01

    The assumption that inquiry-based instruction is more effective in influencing student science achievement than traditional didactic teaching has been the driving force of science education reform in recent decades and in many countries. However, the empirical relationship between these two kinds of science teaching and student science performance…

  13. Turkish Preservice Science Teachers' Socioscientific Issues-Based Teaching Practices in Middle School Science Classrooms

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Genel, Abdulkadir; Topçu, Mustafa Sami

    2016-01-01

    Background: Despite a growing body of research and curriculum reforms including socioscientific issues (SSI) across the world, how preservice science teachers (PST) or in-service science teachers can teach SSI in science classrooms needs further inquiry. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe the abilities of PSTs to teach SSI in middle…

  14. Learning to Teach Elementary Science in an Experiential, Informal Context: Culture, Learning, and Identity

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wallace, Carolyn S.; Brooks, Lori

    2015-01-01

    Lack of time for teaching science in traditional classroom placements in the United States has led some science teacher educators to provide practice teaching time for elementary education students in informal science settings. The purposes of this study were to describe the culture of one science methods course taught in conjunction with a K-7…

  15. Elementary Teachers' Beliefs about Teaching Science and Classroom Practice: An Examination of Pre/Post NCLB Testing in Science

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Milner, Andrea R.; Sondergeld, Toni A.; Demir, Abdulkadir; Johnson, Carla C.; Czerniak, Charlene M.

    2012-01-01

    The impact of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandated state science assessment on elementary teachers' beliefs about teaching science and their classroom practice is relatively unknown. For many years, the teaching of science has been minimized in elementary schools in favor of more emphasis on reading and mathematics. This study examines the…

  16. Graduate Teaching Assistants; Critical Colleagues or Casual Components in the Undergraduate Laboratory Learning? An Exploration of the Role of the Postgraduate Teacher in the Sciences

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ryan, Barry J.

    2014-01-01

    Laboratory training is key to many science subjects and those that teach the practical laboratory skills maintain a pivotal role in undergraduate science training. Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) are regularly used in higher education institutes to teach these practical lab skills. The GTA can be involved in both laboratory teaching and…

  17. A REPORT ON THE SECOND YEAR, 1964-65, OF THE URBAN SEMESTER, A PROGRAM IN TEACHER EDUCATION OF THE ASSOCIATED COLLEGES OF THE MIDWEST.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Associated Colleges of the Midwest, Chicago, IL.

    TO PREPARE STUDENTS FOR TEACHING IN URBAN SCHOOLS, 27 SELECTED SENIOR STUDENTS FROM ASSOCIATED COLLEGES OF THE MIDWEST (ACM) SPENT 16 WEEKS (BEGINNING IN SEPTEMBER 1964) OBSERVING, TEACHING, AND STUDYING IN CHICAGO. THE FIRST 8 WEEKS WERE SPENT IN AN AVERAGE SOCIOECONOMIC-LEVEL SCHOOL AND THE FINAL 8 WEEKS IN A DISADVANTAGED SCHOOL. THE STUDENTS…

  18. Taking Place and Mapping Space: How Pre-Service Art Education Students' Visual Narratives of Field Experiences in Urban/Inner-City Schools Reveal a Spatial Knowing of Place

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sutters, Justin Peter

    2012-01-01

    This doctoral study concerns itself with how primarily White, suburban, middle-class Art Education pre-service students are prepared in academia to teach in urban/inner-city schools. As a researcher, student-teaching supervisor, Cooperating teacher, and public school Art Educator, the author examines the shifting demographics of public education…

  19. Teaching long-term science investigations: A matter of talk, text, and time

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bills, Patricia Susan

    Science educators regard long-term investigations as one impactful form of teaching science through inquiry in K-12 classrooms. While we have idealized notions of what this work looks like, we have few, if any, descriptive studies about investigations that engage students in sustained, focused work over a period of time longer than a few days or even weeks. In a policy context that calls for teachers to develop strategies for engaging students in authentic science practices, such as those that can come from long-term science investigations, we would do well to learn from experienced teachers. This study followed three middle school science teachers in a large U. S. urban school district as they conducted long-term investigations. Using discourse analysis and taking a sociocultural perspective, this study documented the classroom talk and interaction of teachers and their students. The study's goals were to describe how teachers engage students in long-term investigations and the ways that classroom interaction involved specific reform-based science practices. Data include field notes and transcripts of audio recordings from 15 observations of three experienced middle school science teachers, three semi-structured interviews with each teacher, curriculum materials, student work, and classroom demographic data. Teachers engaged students in whole group, small group, and one-on-one conversations about several stages of the long-term investigations. Teachers most often discussed two of the eight science practices: 1) planning and carrying out investigations; and 2) obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information. The planning discussions involved conversations about identifying and describing variables, measuring and recording data, and concerns about data collection procedures. Conversations about using and communicating scientific information included talk about formal science writing conventions, and using background information to support all other parts of the investigation process. In all of the observed lessons, regardless of the practice or types of investigations students were to engage, teachers used curricular tools to support students' work, scaffolding students' introduction to and use of scientific content, practices, and discourse. In these ways, teachers helped students master a science-specific vocabulary and set of practices that allow for the authentic exploration of science concepts. This study describes how teachers who generate opportunities for students to experience two science practices more often than others, which may have implications for science education and science education research - especially concerning how science practices are engaged in classrooms - moving forward.

  20. The effects of a regional natural history course on outcome expectancy, self-efficacy, and instructional methods of science teachers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dechant, Thomas Fredrick

    Recent concerns about the effectiveness of science instruction have prompted a variety of strategies and research to effect positive changes. Research has indicated that among the contributing factors to the success of students learning science are teacher outcome expectancy, self-efficacy, and the selection and use of various teaching methods. Inservice training opportunities for public school teachers have been proposed as a strategy that can yield positive changes in these areas. Environmental education has also been proposed as a viable component of teaching science, but focus on global, and the omission of local themes is common. This study assessed the effects of an inservice training course entitled "Natural History of the Southern Appalachians" on regional teachers' outcome expectancy, self-efficacy, and science teaching methods. Through the administration of the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument and the Science Teaching Strategies Survey before taking the course and after taking the course, changes in the teachers outcome expectancy (p<.05), self-efficacy (p<.10), and teaching strategy selection were measured. In all three areas, desired positive changes have resulted from teachers completing the course. It appears that regionally specific Natural History training gives teachers inexpensive options to teach science, as well as making them more comfortable with the delivery of science instruction.

  1. Teaching With and About Nature of Science, and Science Teacher Knowledge Domains

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abd-El-Khalick, Fouad

    2013-09-01

    The ubiquitous goals of helping precollege students develop informed conceptions of nature of science (NOS) and experience inquiry learning environments that progressively approximate authentic scientific practice have been long-standing and central aims of science education reforms around the globe. However, the realization of these goals continues to elude the science education community partly because of a persistent, albeit not empirically supported, coupling of the two goals in the form of `teaching about NOS with inquiry'. In this context, the present paper aims, first, to introduce the notions of, and articulate the distinction between, teaching with and about NOS, which will allow for the meaningful coupling of the two desired goals. Second, the paper aims to explicate science teachers' knowledge domains requisite for effective teaching with and about NOS. The paper argues that research and development efforts dedicated to helping science teachers develop deep, robust, and integrated NOS understandings would have the dual benefits of not only enabling teachers to convey to students images of science and scientific practice that are commensurate with historical, philosophical, sociological, and psychological scholarship (teaching about NOS), but also to structure robust inquiry learning environments that approximate authentic scientific practice, and implement effective pedagogical approaches that share a lot of the characteristics of best science teaching practices (teaching with NOS).

  2. ScienceFEST: Preservice Teachers link Math and Science in Astronomy Lessons

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    DeMuth, N. H.; Kasabian, J.

    2005-05-01

    Funded by the National Science Foundation, Science FEST (Science for Future Elementary School Teachers) aims to develop the science content and pedagogy for project participants by connecting their college coursework to the science they will eventually teach. Working individually and in pairs, future elementary and middle school teachers design a comprehensive module in astronomy that is inquiry-based and reflects the national and state science standards. Project participants then teach their modules in local elementary or middle school classrooms. Science FEST project participants report gaining a deep understanding of the science they are teaching, learning to engage all students to explore science concepts, and reflecting on their teaching and how it can be improved. The session presenters will share some of the instructional materials developed by the college students and how their experiences in Science FEST have enhanced their pre-professional development. The project's website can be found at www.science-fest.org.

  3. Five male preservice elementary teachers: Their understandings, beliefs and practice regarding science teaching

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hoover, Barbara Grambo

    Many factors influence teacher choices concerning the frequency, instructional methods, and content of science teaching. Although the role of gender in science learning has been studied extensively, the gender of elementary teachers as it intersects their teaching of science has not been investigated. In this ethnographic study, I focused on five male preservice elementary teachers as they experienced their student teaching internship, aiming to understand their underlying beliefs about science and science teaching and how those beliefs influenced their practice. In an attempt to illuminate the complex interplay of personality, experience, interests, and gender in the professional lives of these men, this study emphasized the importance of context in the formation and expression of their science beliefs and pedagogy. For this reason, I collected data from a number of sources. From September, 2001 to May, 2002, I observed my participants in their science methods courses and on multiple occasions as they taught science in elementary classrooms in a suburban school district. I reviewed journal entries required for the science methods class and examined documents such as handouts, readings and teacher guides from their elementary teaching experience. I conducted semi-structured and informal interviews. I analyzed data from these sources using grounded theory methodology. Although these five men had many similarities, they differed in their love of science, their exposure to science, their avocational interests, and their views of science pedagogy. This study, however, revealed a unifying theme: each participant had his own set of personal and academic resources that he carried into the classroom and used to construct a distinctive science learning environment. Some of these resources intersect with gender. For example, several men had science-related avocational interests. There was a common emphasis on creating a relaxed, enjoyable, hands-on teaching environment as reported in other studies of male elementary teachers. These findings have implications for elementary school science teaching and recruitment goals for elementary teachers that should be further explored in additional studies.

  4. The efficacy beliefs of preservice science teachers in professional development school and traditional school settings

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Newsome, Demetria Lynn

    Teachers' efficacy beliefs have been shown to correlate positively with to the successful implementation of science reform measures (National Research Council, 1996) and are context specific (Koul & Rubba, 1999). Studies on teacher efficacy in specific contexts have been conducted including the availability of resources and parent support (Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2002), classroom management (Emmer & Hickman, 1990; Raudenbush, Rowen, & Cheong, 1992); and institutional climate and behavior of the principal (Hoy & Woolfolk, 1993). The purpose of this study was to compare the science teaching efficacy beliefs of teacher interns prepared in professional development schools with those of student teachers prepared in traditional school settings. Other variables examined included academic level, academic major, and area of science concentration. Preservice science teacher efficacy beliefs were measured using the Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Instrument for Preservice Science Teachers, STEBI Form B (Enoch & Riggs, 1990) with demographic information being collected by an accompanying questionnaire. Analyses included scoring the surveys on two scales, Personal Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Scale and the Outcome Expectancy Scale, calculating descriptive statistics, as well as performing MANOVAS and correlations. Results indicate that preservice science teachers working in professional development schools exhibit higher personal science teaching efficacy beliefs. This finding corroborates previous studies on the efficacy beliefs of preservice teachers working in PDS schools (Long, 1996; Sandholtz & Dadlez, 2000). Results also show a strong correlation between the personal science teaching efficacy beliefs and the setting where student teaching takes place. In addition, significant differences were found in the personal science teaching efficacy beliefs between elementary education majors and science majors, science education majors, and secondary education majors. Findings of the study have implications for the design of preservice science teacher clinical experiences including providing longer, organized clinical experiences and preferential selection of preservice science teachers for PDS practicum assignments.

  5. Study of Turkish Preschool Teachers' Attitudes toward Science Teaching

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Erden, Feyza T.; Sönmez, Sema

    2011-05-01

    This study aims to explore preschool teachers' attitudes toward science teaching and its impact on classroom practices through the frequency of science activities provided in the classroom. In addition, the study investigates if their attitudes are related to factors such as educational level, years of teaching experience, and the school type they work in. The present research was conducted with 292 preschool teachers who work in public and private schools in different districts of Ankara, Turkey. The data were collected by administering the Early Childhood Teachers' Attitudes toward Science Teaching Scale. Our analyses indicate that there is a significant but weak link between preschool teachers' attitudes toward science teaching and the frequency of science activities that they provide in the classroom. Further, while teachers' characteristics such as educational level and experience are found to play an insignificant role on the overall measures of the scale, type of school appears to be a major factor in explaining the attitudes toward science teaching.

  6. Urban Science Education: Examining Current Issues through a Historical Lens

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McLaughlin, Cheryl A.

    2014-01-01

    This paper reviews and synthesizes urban science education studies published between 2000 and 2013 with a view to identifying current challenges faced by both teachers and students in urban classrooms. Additionally, this paper considers the historical events that have shaped the conditions, bureaucracies, and interactions of urban institutions.…

  7. Co-teaching Perspectives from Secondary Science Co-teachers and Their Students with Disabilities

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    King-Sears, Margaret E.; Brawand, Anne Eichorn; Jenkins, Melissa C.; Preston-Smith, Shantha

    2014-10-01

    An in-depth case study of one team of co-teachers' practice from multiple perspectives is described. A high school science co-teaching team and their students with disabilities completed surveys about their perceptions of co-teaching. Additionally, observations of the two co-teachers occurred to determine roles and types of interactions for each co-teacher during science instruction. Observational data revealed effective teaching behaviors demonstrated by each co-teacher. Detailed descriptions of the co-teachers' instruction are provided. The science educator was observed interacting with the large group twice as often as the special educator. The science educator also presented new content nearly three times as often as the special educator. The co-teacher surveys were consistent with the observational data. Both educators disagreed that the special educator was primarily the lead for instruction. Both educators strongly agreed they had an effective co-teaching relationship, although the science educator indicated stronger agreement for parity in roles and responsibilities than the special educator noted. Forty-three percent of the students identified the science educator as in charge of lessons, while 43% identified both educators. Most students thought teaching was divided in half, and all students enjoyed having two teachers in science. Eighty-six percent of the students indicated team teaching was the most frequently used co-teaching model, and 14% indicated one teach, one drift. Implications for co-teachers' reflections on their collaboration, including the relevance of student perceptions (i.e., Who is the "real" teacher?), and the extent to which educators are prepared at preservice and inservice levels for co-teaching are discussed.

  8. Impact of an informal learning science camp on urban, low socioeconomic status middle school students and participating teacher-leaders

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Votaw, Nikki L.

    Studies suggest that students have difficulty connecting science to their own lives (Lee & Fradd, 1998; Aikenhead, 1996). This difficulty results in a decline in students' attitudes toward science, leading to low science achievement. These factors result in fewer students interested in careers related to science, specifically for urban, minority students. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact that a ten day informal learning immersion science camp had on the participants, both urban, low-socioeconomic status middle school students and teacher-leaders. The students were incoming seventh grade students involved in a community-based scholar program designed to recruit and support socioeconomically disadvantaged, academically talented students. The teacher-leaders were professional educators working toward an advanced degree. This ten day camp included seven visits to different sites and complementary classroom-based activities. The purpose of the camp was to immerse the students in informal learning environments that affect their daily lives. Students and teacher-leaders visited facilities that provide public utility services (i.e. power plant, sewage treatment facility, and water company), zoo, large commercial cave system, planetarium, university based electrooptics and nanotechnology center, and forest and arboretum. These site visits were supported by activities that were provided by teacher-leaders. A model used as a framework for studying learning in the context of this ten day camp as Falk and Dierking's (2000) Contextual Model for Learning. This model described three basic intersecting elements that contributed to learning within the given context. The three contexts (personal, sociocultural, and physical) intersect affecting the learning that takes place. A mixed methodology design was employed to determine the impact of the camp on students' content knowledge and attitudes toward science. Qualitative data were collected to determine the impact of the camp on teacher-leaders' content knowledge and pedagogy. A variety of data sources were used including data collected before, during, and immediately following the camp as well as data collected several months after the conclusion of the camp. Results of the study indicated that both students and teacher-leaders were positively impacted by their experience at the camp. Data from the content assessments, interviews, and student journals indicate that students' content knowledge was enhanced and expanded through the learning of factual knowledge as well as understanding of the importance of broad scientific processes. Through their new experiences, students developed an awareness of the natural world and a foundation for future learning. Students also developed an awareness of science as it applies to their own lives. Data from students' letters to themselves, student interviews, and parent focus groups indicated that students' attitudes toward science were positively impacted through development of an increased resource appreciation, positive social experiences, and experiential sharing with others. Teacher-leader experiences with the camp also had positive results. Teacher-leaders entered the camp with a variety of unique personal contexts, and in spite of this variability each reported that this was a value-added experience for their teaching. These personal contexts helped to enhance the sociocultural context which provided a rich environment to support teacher-leader learning. Among the pedagogical impacts, teacher-leaders expressed enhanced teaching capacity through acquisition of: new classroom activities; new connections among science content; new stories and experiences to share with future classes; and new contexts for situating the understanding of science principles. Along with the positive impacts, teacher-leaders also identified and articulated several barriers to implementing site visits in their own classrooms. This camp is unique in that it is an immersion experience within informal learning contexts where seven sites were visited within ten days. It is also unique in that students and teacher-leaders were simultaneously experiencing most of these sites for the first time. This study has implications for science camp coordinators (i.e. university faculty), classroom teachers, and informal educators (i.e. museum, zoo, planetarium).

  9. Mapping Science in Discourse-based Inquiry Classrooms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yeneayhu, Demeke Gesesse

    Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate how discourse-based inquiry science lessons provided opportunities for students to develop a network of semantic relations among core ideas and concepts in science. It was a naturalistic inquiry classroom lessons observation study on three science teachers--- a middle school science teacher and two high school physics teachers in an urban school district located in the Western New York region. Discourse and thematic analysis drawn from the theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics were utilized as guiding framework and analysis tools. Analysis of the pre-observation and post-observation interviews of the participant teachers revealed that all of the three teachers participated in at least one inquiry-based science teaching teacher professional development program and they all thought their classroom teaching practice was inquiry-based. Analysis of their classroom lesson videos that each participant teacher taught on a specific science topic revealed that the middle school teacher was found to be a traditional teacher-dominated classroom whereas the two high school physics teachers' classroom teaching approach was found to be discourse-based inquiry. One of the physics teachers who taught on a topic of Magnetic Interaction used relatively structured and guided-inquiry classroom investigations. The other physics teacher who taught on a topic of Color Mixing utilized open-ended classroom investigations where the students planned and executed the series of classroom science investigations with minimal guidance from the teacher. The traditional teacher-based classroom communicative pattern was found to be dominated by Triadic Dialogue and most of the science thematics were jointly developed by the teacher and the students, but the students' role was limited to providing responses to the teacher's series questions. In the guided-inquiry classroom, the common communicative pattern was found to be True Dialogue and most of the science thematic patterns in the lessons were not only developed by the students but also resemble the standard thematics. Similarly, in the open-ended inquiry classroom, True Dialogue and Cross-discussion were the two most common communicative patterns and students did most of the science thematic patterns in the lessons but most of the student thematics were commonsense than resembling the standard thematics on the topic. This research showed that if teachers are to help students participate in classroom discourse that would enable them meaningfully connects core ideas and concepts in science, teachers could use various discourse tools and pedagogic resources that could fit into their particular classroom realities and contexts. This study demonstrated that when given the opportunity, students in challenging contexts such in typical inner city schools are able to engage in scientific processes and develop nuanced understandings of scientific phenomena.

  10. Can the Faculty Development Door Swing Both Ways? Science and Clinical Teaching in the 1990s.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tedesco, Lisa A.

    1988-01-01

    The relationship between clinical teaching and research in the basic sciences is discussed. The same energy expended to enhance clinical research will also efficiently build new curricula; ease the strains associated with assigning a priority to teaching or research; and serve to further science, teaching, and technology transfer. (MLW)

  11. Teaching Writing in the Social Sciences: A Comparison and Critique of Three Models

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hansen, Kristine; Adams, Joyce

    2010-01-01

    This article describes and evaluates three approaches to teaching writing in the social sciences, particularly psychology: an English department-based course for all social science majors; a team-teaching model that embeds writing in core courses in psychology; and a stand-alone course dedicated to teaching writing in psychology, often taken…

  12. Teaching about Teaching Science: Aims, Strategies, and Backgrounds of Science Teacher Educators

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Berry, Amanda; Van Driel, Jan H.

    2013-01-01

    Despite pressing concerns about the need to prepare high-quality teachers and the central role of teacher educators (TEs) in this process, little is known about how TEs teach about teaching specific subject matter, and how they develop their expertise. This empirical study focuses on the specific expertise that science TEs bring into teacher…

  13. PCK in Action: Examining One Chemistry Teacher's Practice through the Lens of Her Orientation toward Science Teaching

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Boesdorfer, Sarah; Lorsbach, Anthony

    2014-01-01

    A teacher's orientation toward science teaching has been proposed as very influential to a teacher's pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and teaching practice. Experienced teachers' orientation toward science teaching and its connections to their practice has not been well explored. Focusing on a unit about the periodic table, this study provides…

  14. Teaching Concepts of Natural Sciences to Foreigners through Content-Based Instruction: The Adjunct Model

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Satilmis, Yilmaz; Yakup, Doganay; Selim, Guvercin; Aybarsha, Islam

    2015-01-01

    This study investigates three models of content-based instruction in teaching concepts and terms of natural sciences in order to increase the efficiency of teaching these kinds of concepts in realization and to prove that the content-based instruction is a teaching strategy that helps students understand concepts of natural sciences. Content-based…

  15. The Teaching Practices Inventory: A New Tool for Characterizing College and University Teaching in Mathematics and Science

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wieman, Carl; Gilbert, Sarah

    2014-01-01

    We have created an inventory to characterize the teaching practices used in science and mathematics courses. This inventory can aid instructors and departments in reflecting on their teaching. It has been tested with several hundred university instructors and courses from mathematics and four science disciplines. Most instructors complete the…

  16. Teaching Traditions in Science Education in Switzerland, Sweden and France: A Comparative Analysis of Three Curricula

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Marty, Laurence; Venturini, Patrice; Almqvist, Jonas

    2018-01-01

    Classroom actions rely, among other things, on teaching habits and traditions. Previous research has clarified three different teaching traditions in science education: the academic tradition builds on the idea that simply the products and methods of science are worth teaching; the applied tradition focuses on students' ability to use scientific…

  17. Fieldwork, Co-Teaching and Co-Generative Dialogue in Lower Secondary School Environmental Science

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rahmawati, Yuli; Koul, Rekha

    2016-01-01

    This article reports one of the case studies in a 3-year longitudinal study in environmental science education. This case explores the process of teaching about ecosystems through co-teaching and co-generative dialogue in a Year-9 science classroom in Western Australia. Combining with co-teaching and co-generative dialogue aimed at transforming…

  18. Co-Teaching as an Approach to Enhance Science Learning and Teaching in Primary Schools

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Murphy, Colette; Beggs, Jim

    2006-01-01

    In this article, we explore some of the experiences of student teachers, classroom teachers, science teacher educators, and children in co-teaching contexts in primary schools. The model of co-teaching adopted enabled student teachers (science specialist), classroom teachers, and university tutors to share expertise and work as equals, without…

  19. Teaching Life Sciences to Blind and Visually Impaired Learners

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fraser, William John; Maguvhe, Mbulaheni Obert

    2008-01-01

    This study reports on the teaching of life sciences (biology) to blind and visually impaired learners in South Africa at 11 special schools with specific reference to the development of science process skills in outcomes-based classrooms. Individual structured interviews were conducted with nine science educators teaching at the different special…

  20. Culturally Inclusive Science Teaching (CIST) Model for Teachers of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yoon, Jiyoon; Kim, Kyoung Jin; Martin, Leisa A.

    2016-01-01

    Purpose: This study aims to design and measure the effects of the culturally inclusive science teaching (CIST) model on 30 teacher candidates to teach science to culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students. Design/methodology/approach: The CIST model for culturally inclusive science lessons included six sessions: inquiring, questioning,…

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