In this session, presenters from three projects seek to elaborate teaching practices in mathematics and science that support the development of central mathematical or scientific ideas and result in significant learning opportunities for students. More specifically, they seek to ground a larger conversation about equity in mathematics and science education in the sharing of specific analyses of their work. All three presentations focus on supporting teachers’ development of ambitious (rigorous and equitable) instructional practices.

CAREER Centering the Teaching of Mathematics on Urban Youth is an integrated professional development and research project that collaborates with and studies the practices of mathematics teachers in high schools in low-income urban neighborhoods. This presentation describes the ways that teachers use (and do not use) contexts in their teaching of mathematics as well as the instructional practices that support the use of contexts. The analysis then unpacks the relationship between the low-income, urban context, teacher beliefs about “these” students, and the ways that teachers use contexts in their teaching of mathematics.

The goal of the Investigating and Supporting the Development of Ambitious and Equitable Mathematics Instruction at Scale project is to understand what it takes to support middle-grades mathematics teachers’ development of ambitious teaching at the scale of large urban districts. This presentation focuses on (a) the identification of a high-leverage practice—setting up cognitively demanding tasks to support all students’ productive engagement in the task; and (b) the design of professional development across role groups (teachers, math coaches, and principals) and contexts (school-based and district-based professional development) to support teachers’ development of this practice.

Tool Systems to Support Progress Toward Expert-Like Teaching by Early Career Science Educators is a project that supports novice teachers in developing a core set of four ambitious science teaching practices. Tools and specialized socio-professional routines support the development of a beginner’s repertoire of practice, which attends to the intellectual and social development of students’ ideas. This presentation features an analysis of “rigorous and responsive moves” novice teachers learn to use when working with secondary science students. The project team conceptualizes responsive teaching not just in terms of what a teacher does with students’ ideas, but rather how all members of the learning community are enabled to work toward the advancement of scientific explanations.

There is much support for embedding teachers’ professional learning in the analysis of practice. This approach can engage teachers in deepening both their content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge in more meaningful contexts than typical courses or professional development workshops. The purposes of this session are (1) to examine four different approaches to analysis of practice in professional development work with mathematics and science teachers and (2) to consider the affordances and constraints of different strategies for assessing the impact of these approaches. After addressing the session’s focus question—What are we learning about how to engage teachers in analyzing practice, and how are we studying/assessing their ability to do so?—presenters involve audience members in a discussion about the promise and challenges of conducting and studying this kind of professional development. Questions discussed: (1) What do these and other approaches to analysis of practice have in common? What are important differences? (2) How are these and other projects contributing to our knowledge about how to assess the impact of analysis of practice professional development? (3) What can our collective projects contribute to understanding analysis of practice as a mechanism for improving mathematics and science education? What other research is going on in this area? What are gaps in our knowledge?

The projects include:

Science Teachers Learning from Lesson Analysis—Through analysis of content-specific videocases, this project supports and studies upper elementary teachers as they deepen their science content knowledge, develop their ability to be analytical about science teaching and learning, improve their science teaching practice, and improve their students’ science learning. Teachers learn a process for analyzing science teaching and learning through two lenses: the Student Thinking Lens and the Science Content Storyline Lens.

Mathematics Discourse in Secondary Classrooms—This project is creating professional development materials for secondary mathematics teachers. The materials are designed to support teachers as they learn about and reflect on their discourse practices in ways that help them become purposeful about helping students engage in mathematics in productive and powerful ways. Analysis of practice includes analyzing teaching cases, analyzing student work, analyzing video/audio from participants’ own classrooms, and conducting action research.

Virtual Learning Communities: An Online Professional Development Resource for STEM Teachers—This project is creating online settings and materials to support first- and fourth-grade teachers using the Everyday Mathematics curriculum. Analysis of practice integrates learning objects rooted in practice, such as lesson video, community-building Internet tools, and focused mathematical content.

Energy: A Multidisciplinary Approach for Teachers—This project is developing and studying an online course designed to enhance teachers’ knowledge and practice related to energy concepts. The facilitated course integrates a constructivist learning approach with extensive use of lesson analysis. Lesson analyses are designed to enhance teachers’ science content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and practice as they reflect on lessons using two lenses: the Science Content Storyline and Student Thinking Lenses.

In this session, presenters describe a systematic review of research on the achievement outcomes of all types of approaches to teaching science in elementary schools. Presenters discuss the need for the review and will detail the research design. Study inclusion criteria included use of randomized or matched control groups, study duration of at least four weeks, and use of achievement measures independent of the experimental treatment. A total of 17 studies met these criteria. Among studies evaluating inquiry-based teaching approaches, programs that used science kits did not show positive outcomes on science achievement measures (weighted ES=+0.02 in four studies). The studies included rigorous evaluations of programs such as FOSS, STC, and Insights. However, inquiry-based programs that emphasized professional development but not kits did show positive outcomes (weighted ES=+0.30 in eight studies). These included approaches such as cooperative learning and science-reading integration. Technology approaches integrating video and computer resources with teaching and cooperative learning, such as BrainPOP and The Voyage of the Mimi, showed promise (ES=+0.37 in five studies). The review concludes that science teaching methods focused on enhancing teachers’ classroom instruction throughout the year, such as cooperative learning and science-reading integration, as well as approaches that give teachers technology tools to enhance instruction, have significant potential to improve science learning in the elementary grades.