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This case study addresses the pedagogical challenges teachers face in incorporating elements of socioscientific issues (SSI) when planning science and mathematics lessons. In order to effectively plan and teach SSI lessons, teachers must develop pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) specific to unpacking elements of SSI such as identifying an issue that is debatable and relevant to students’ lives, employing reflective scientific skepticism, and evaluating multiple perspectives. This study was guided by the following research questions: 1) In what ways, if any, did teachers’ knowledge and instructional design of SSI change throughout the intensive series of workshops? 2) What areas of SSI required additional support? To answer our research questions, we analyzed changes in lesson plans from 29 teachers, mostly science and secondary, over the course of three intensive workshops as part of the Integrating STEM in Everyday Life Conference Series. Over the five month period, teachers worked in groups and with mentors to design and implement SSI lessons. Our findings show that teachers demonstrated positive changes in all SSI elements over the course of the workshops. However, deeper analysis reveals that teachers struggled to balance the social and scientific aspects of SSI. Moreover, our analysis suggests that teachers did not focus on the discursive nature of SSI in their lesson plans. Implications of our study include ways in which professional development programs can cultivate teachers’ PCK of SSI in order to better support them in planning and implementing SSI lessons.

Education reforms in the United States and abroad have increased efforts to improve student interest and capacity in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). Despite these attempts, students still have little opportunity to engage in STEM learning in K-12 education. This qualitative case study was designed to investigate how incorporating STEM into teacher education can promote STEM teaching as well as enhance math instruction. The study took place in the fourth year of an undergraduate teacher education program spanning a secondary math and science Methods course and student teaching. Guided by the framework of sensemaking, individual interviews, teaching artifacts, and written reflections for four teachers were analyzed to identify moments of dissonance that pushed participants to reach new understandings about the learning and teaching of math. Findings indicated that learning to teach math through the lens of STEM shifted pre-service teachers’ instructional emphasis in two ways: 1) figuring out math vs. learning about math; and 2) teaching math through authentic STEM contexts as opposed to focusing purely on mathematics. However, experiences in student teaching can either enhance or stifle these gains. Findings suggest the role of teacher education in promoting STEM education by shifting prospective teachers’ mindsets about mathematics and teaching.

Community colleges are a vital source of students in the STEM career pipeline. Yet, research indicates that rather than diversifying the STEM workforce, community colleges may be perpetuating gende...

Recent reform efforts in science education include a focus on science practices. Teachers require support in integrating these practices into instruction. Multimedia educative curriculum materials ...

Fidelity of implementation (FOI) has received attention in calls for funding and research; however, there are numerous ways of conceptualising and measuring this construct. We argue that this conce...

Teachers are central to providing high-quality science learning experiences called for in recent reform efforts, as their understanding of science impacts both what they teach and how they teach it. Yet, most elementary teachers do not enter the profession with a particular interest in science or expertise in science teaching. Research also indicates elementary schools present unique barriers that may inhibit science teaching. This case study utilizes the framework of identity to explore how one elementary classroom teacher’s understandings of herself as a science specialist were shaped by the bilingual elementary school context as she planned for and provided reform-based science instruction. Utilizing Gee’s (2000) sociocultural framework, identity was defined as consisting of four interrelated dimensions that served as analytic frames for examining how this teacher understood her new role through social positioning within her school. Findings describe the ways in which this teacher’s identity as a science teacher was influenced by the school context. The case study reveals two important implications for teacher identity. First, collaboration for science teaching is essential for elementary teachers to change their practice. It can be challenging for teachers to form an identity as a science teacher in isolation. In addition, elementary teachers new to science teaching negotiate their emerging science practice with their prior experiences and the school context. For example, in the context of a bilingual school, this teacher adapted the reform-based science curriculum to better meet the unique linguistic needs of her students.

Reform initiatives around the world are reconceptualising science education by stressing student engagement in science practices. Yet, science practices are language-intensive, requiring students to have strong receptive and productive language proficiencies. It is critical to address these rigorous language demands to ensure equitable learning opportunities for all students, including English language learners (ELLs). Little research has examined how to specifically support ELL students’ engagement in science practices, such as argumentation. Using case-study methodology, we examined one middle school science teacher's instructional strategies as she taught an argumentation-focused curriculum in a self-contained ELL classroom. Findings revealed that three trends characterized the teacher’s language supports for the structural and dialogic components of argumentation: (1) more language supports focused on argument structure, (2) dialogic interactions were most often facilitated by productive langu...

Educative curriculum materials provide teachers with authentic opportunities to learn new skills and practices. Yet, research shows teachers use curriculum in different ways for different reasons, and these modifications could undermine the learning goals of the curriculum. Little research, however, has examined the variation in teacher use of educative curriculum and the impact on teacher learning. In this article, we use organizational theory's concept of sensemaking to examine teacher learning from educative curriculum. Utilizing a multiple-case study methodology, we explored the variation in how teachers utilized the same educative, reform-oriented science curriculum to plan for instruction in addition to the differences in teacher interpretation and learning about argumentation from the curriculum. Participants included five middle school science teachers who differed with respect to teaching experience, prior exposure to argumentation, and school settings, including suburban and rural and public and private schools. Findings indicate that some teachers used the curriculum as a resource solely to support student learning, and consequently did not utilize the educative aspects or recognize the intended support for teacher learning. Second, we found that the teachers who actively engaged in their own learning while adapting the curriculum to their context made learning gains, indicating a need for teacher active reflection to learn new practices. Our findings suggest a need to shift teachers’ perspectives from viewing curriculum as a source of activities to a resource to support their own learning and professional goals. This study raises questions and makes suggestions for future educative curriculum development and teacher preparation. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 54: 141–168, 2017

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 represents an alternative to the traditional model of classroom teachers providing science instruction. Although changing who teaches science may remove personal challenges, we do not know if the specialist alone can overcome the school-based challenges to teaching science. This study explored how school supports for science teaching varied across five elementary schools with science specialists through a qualitative comparative case study methodology. Drawing upon theory from organizational studies, school supports were conceptualized as four interrelated dimensions: (1) leadership, (2) resources, (3) culture, and (4) the external environment. Findings indicate that the science specialist model alone is insufficient to overcome school-based challenges to science teaching. Findings also reveal the potential danger of the specialist model to marginalize science as a content area. Overall, this study clarifies the importance of the principal to provide schoolwide leadership for science and to establish the value of science necessary to support a strong elementary science program.