Education Commons^™

Critical Factors For Effective And Equitable Ngss Science Teaching Practices, Elizabeth B. Lewis, Lyrica L. Lucas, Amy Tankersley, Elizabeth Hasseler, Brandon Helding

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Posters and Presentations

With the widespread adoption and adaption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and its implicit focus on inquiry-based instruction, reformed science teaching practices are critically important to meeting the U.S. vision of scientific literacy for all students. Thus, the role of teacher learning through both teacher preparation and professional development must be well understood and informed through empirical findings. Accordingly, the theme of this NARST conference paper set is to identify effective science teaching practices using the lens of the NGSS science and engineering practices (SEPs), science subject matter knowledge, and equitable teaching practices. We found that inquiry-based instruction …

Meeting The Vision Of The Ngss: Critical Factors Of Effective Science Teaching (Poster), Elizabeth B. Lewis, Lyrica L. Lucas, Amy Tankersley, Elizabeth Hasseler, Brandon Helding

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Posters and Presentations

With new national science education standards, we must understand how to prepare science teachers capable of advancing reform initiatives. In a 3-year longitudinal study we adopted a multi-method approach to investigate beginning science teachers’ instructional practices. We analyzed transcripts, observed science lessons, and documented weeks of lessons. Using this large dataset we posed research questions about the use of NGSS scientific practices in teachers’ science lessons (Project #1) and classroom diversity as it relates to teachers’ use of inquiry (Project #2). In order to expand our coding capability of science teaching data for use in our structural equation modelling efforts …

Measuring And Modelling How And When Effective Science Teaching Occurs, Elizabeth B. Lewis, Lyrica L. Lucas, Amy N. Tankersley, Elizabeth Hasseler, Brandon A. Helding

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Posters and Presentations

With new national science education standards, we must understand how to prepare science teachers capable of advancing reform initiatives. In a 3-year longitudinal study we adopted a multi-method approach to investigate beginning science teachers’ instructional practices. We analyzed transcripts, administered a teaching self-efficacy survey, observed science lessons, and documented weeks of lessons. Using this large dataset, we posed research questions about the use of NGSS scientific practices in teachers’ science lessons (Paper #1) and teacher- and student-level characteristics as it relates to teachers’ use of inquiry in the classroom (Paper #2). In order to expand our coding capability of science …

Building Exemplary Teaching Practices: Following The Paths Of New Science Teachers, Elizabeth B. Lewis, Ana Rivero, Aaron A. Musson, Jia Lu, Lyrica Lucas

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Posters and Presentations

There are few comprehensive studies of beginning science teachers that describe enacted teaching practices in terms of inquiry-based instruction, classroom discourse, assessment, and curricular choices, and explore how these factors interact with teaching self-efficacy. We conducted a 3-year, longitudinal study of four cohorts of master’s level science teacher education program graduates. We coded and analyzed 319 science lessons of new teachers from student teaching to third year post-program to describe teachers’ enacted practices and gathered annual teaching self-efficacy reports to examine teachers’ beliefs. Our analysis resulted in key findings relevant to future programmatic improvements. First, when we reviewed specific inquiry-based …

Secondary Science Teachers’ Translation Of Professional Development Through Affinity- And Institution-Identity, Elizabeth B. Lewis

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Posters and Presentations

This study provides greater detail concerning how science teachers did, or did not, use a professional development model of a scientific classroom discourse community with their students. Two biology teachers, Cathy and David, from the same urban high school were the subjects of two case studies. Identity was used as an analytic lens to consider teachers in the dual contexts of their classroom environment and professional development. Over time, as Cathy adopted the inquiry-based instructional practices she learned at the professional development seminars, her professional identity became more aligned with the norms and affinity group teaching philosophy and instructional practices …

Modeling Teacher Professional Development And Classroom Implementation Of Instructional Strategies For Building Scientific Classroom Discourse Communities, Elizabeth B. Lewis, Dale R. Baker, Nievita Bueno Watts, Brandon A. Helding, Michael Lang

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Posters and Presentations

Three-hundred-and-twenty-three classroom observations of secondary science and language arts teachers were made over two academic years while teachers engaged in professional development (PD) in how to construct scientific classroom discourse communities. These observations were used, along with teacher demographic information, to build a hierarchical linear model to explore statistical relationships. The length of time that teachers received PD was chosen as the exclusive predictor of teacher change while a schools’ percentage of students who qualified for free and reduced lunch (a proxy for SES) was chosen as the exclusive predictor of intercepts. Over the course of two years, the teachers …

Using Hlm To Analyze On-Going Teacher Professional Development And Implementation Of Scientific Classroom Discourse Community Strategies, Elizabeth B. Lewis, Dale R. Baker, Brandon Helding, Michael Lang

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Posters and Presentations

One-hundred-and-sixty classroom observations of secondary science and language arts teachers were made throughout the 2007-2008 academic year to determine the extent of their use of professional development, specifically using strategies to construct a scientific classroom discourse community (SCDC). Each observation was scored using a 36-item instrument of various SCDC instructional strategies designed to match the professional development. These observation scores and teacher demographic information were used to build a hierarchical linear model to explore for statistically significant relationships over time. The length of time that the teachers received professional development was chosen as the exclusive predictor of teacher change because …

Elementary Teachers’ Conceptions Of Flooding Before And After Professional Development, Elizabeth B. Lewis, Katrien J. Kraft, Nievita Bueno Watts, Meredith J. Wilson, Dale R. Baker, Michael Lang

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Posters and Presentations

This study focuses on elementary teachers' conceptions of flooding before and after inquiry-based Earth science content-based professional development. Several misconceptions emerged from the science content two tier pre-post test, some of which persisted throughout the institute while others led to evidence of teachers' conceptual change. On the post-test some teachers' ideas emerged as hybrid conceptions as they applied newly acquired academic language to prior conceptions. There was a significant increase (n = 17, mean gain = 4.3 (SD = 3.27, t (17) = 5.69, p < .000) from the pre- to post-test. The concepts most resistant to change from pre- to post-test were analyzing an overall topographic region, reading a map image, and hydrograph interpretation. The highest frequency of hybrid conceptions occurred as teachers attempted to add new academic language, such as storm surge and discharge, to their prior understandings. Teachers’ greatest conceptual change occurred in understanding the probability and role of ground conditions in flooding events. Teachers demonstrated significant growth in their understanding of flooding concepts through scaffolded inquiry lessons modeled through the professional development. Teachers who had greater levels of prior knowledge showed the most change to a normative view of flooding. This speaks to the importance of building teachers' background knowledge before initiating professional development with complex science concepts.

Refocusing The Revolution: A New Research Agenda For Geoscience Education., Elizabeth B. Lewis

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Posters and Presentations

Geoscience Education: Stuck in Low Gear or Poised for a Breakthrough?

We must act quickly & broaden approaches to four problems

• Falling geoscience undergraduate enrollments
• Lagging diversity in the geosciences
• Insufficient secondary Earth & space science teacher supply
• Low (7%) high school ESS course offerings and enrollment

Leverage existing educational research literature & theory

• Curriculum stability and change
• Culture, gender, and science education
• Socio-cultural models of science and theories of learning

Develop a new research agenda to spark the Revolution

Measuring Short-Term Teacher Learning Of Scientific Classroom Discourse Communities, Elizabeth B. Lewis, Dale R. Baker, Senay Yaşar-Purzer, Michael Lang

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Posters and Presentations

The Communication in Science Inquiry Project (CISIP) provides schoolbased teams of secondary science and English and/or ELL teachers with year-round professional development with the goal of establishing scientific classroom discourse communities (SCDC). Teams participated in one of two three-week CISIP summer institutes. Four CISIP model elements of a SCDC can be framed within a pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) taxonomy at two levels: domain-specific PCK, including academic language development, written discourse, and oral discourse; and general pedagogy, specifically scientific inquiry. The fifth professional development element focuses on overarching learning principles that are applicable to any discipline. By situating the CISIP professional …

Perceptions Of Secondary And Post-Secondary Interdisciplinary Faculty On Cisip Professional Development: A Teacher Learning Community Designing Scientific Classroom Discourse Communities, Elizabeth B. Lewis, Dale R. Baker, Senay Yaşar-Purzer, Sibel Uysal

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Posters and Presentations

This study summarizes semi-structured focus group exit interviews with Communication in Science Inquiry Project (CISIP) participants, experienced secondary and post-secondary science, English, and ELL faculty. CISIP is an NSF-funded initiative designed to meet the need for highly qualified teachers and science education reform. The main purpose of the larger study was to understand teachers’ application, in teams, of the CISIP model during the three-week summer institute. The focus group interviews helped to triangulate researchers’ observations with the participants’ perceptions. Participants expressed favorable attitudes toward their extended CISIP experience, at least one year’s participation before the summer institute. All acknowledged the …