Disciplinary Content Knowledge

Developing Elementary Teachers’ Climate Change Knowledge and Self-efficacy for Teaching Climate Change Using Learning Technologies

Elementary teachers require support through professional learning activities to enhance their climate change literacy and bolster their self-efficacy for teaching climate change. This study explores methods for supporting in-service elementary teachers’ self-efficacy in climate change teaching by examining the impact of professional learning activities that incorporate learning technologies on climate change literacy.

Author/Presenter

Amal Ibourk

Lauren Wagner

Khadija Zogheib

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2024
Short Description

Elementary teachers require support through professional learning activities to enhance their climate change literacy and bolster their self-efficacy for teaching climate change. This study explores methods for supporting in-service elementary teachers’ self-efficacy in climate change teaching by examining the impact of professional learning activities that incorporate learning technologies on climate change literacy.

Teacher Talk Supporting Student Progressive Discourse in Science

Student participation in science discourse requires multiple levels of support through tools such as curricular materials, as well as teacher talk. The actions of the teacher can provide opportunities for students to engage in disciplinary science talk. The norms associated with this talk can be used to define what students sound like when engaged in authentic science talk. However, often talk moves are employed in service of in-the-moment tasks rather than development of disciplinary talk norms.

Author/Presenter

Kraig A. Wray

Scott McDonald

Year
2025
Short Description

For this study, we focused on the Ambitious Science Teaching–based teacher talk engaged in by two middle school science teachers to support student sensemaking regarding a phenomenon-based science unit with embedded data visualization and simulation software over the course of a 2-week teaching unit. This descriptive case study identifies how differences in the purpose of questioning impacts the patterns of teacher talk regarding establishing norms in support of the norms of progressive discourse.

Variation in the Implementation of Educative Curriculum Materials for Elementary Science Teacher Educators in Two Course Contexts: An Exploratory Case Study

Educative curriculum materials (ECM) have been shown to support K-12 teacher learning, but little is known about teacher educators’ use of ECM. In this study, we report on enactments of ECM designed to support the development of preservice elementary teachers’ content knowledge for teaching about matter in two different courses to understand how teacher educators use ECM. Participants were two full professors teaching science content and science methods courses for elementary preservice teachers at a public university in the Pacific Northwest.

Author/Presenter

Josie C. Melton

Jamie N. Mikeska

Year
2025
Short Description

Educative curriculum materials (ECM) have been shown to support K-12 teacher learning, but little is known about teacher educators’ use of ECM. In this study, we report on enactments of ECM designed to support the development of preservice elementary teachers’ content knowledge for teaching about matter in two different courses to understand how teacher educators use ECM.

Variation in the Implementation of Educative Curriculum Materials for Elementary Science Teacher Educators in Two Course Contexts: An Exploratory Case Study

Educative curriculum materials (ECM) have been shown to support K-12 teacher learning, but little is known about teacher educators’ use of ECM. In this study, we report on enactments of ECM designed to support the development of preservice elementary teachers’ content knowledge for teaching about matter in two different courses to understand how teacher educators use ECM. Participants were two full professors teaching science content and science methods courses for elementary preservice teachers at a public university in the Pacific Northwest.

Author/Presenter

Josie C. Melton

Jamie N. Mikeska

Year
2025
Short Description

Educative curriculum materials (ECM) have been shown to support K-12 teacher learning, but little is known about teacher educators’ use of ECM. In this study, we report on enactments of ECM designed to support the development of preservice elementary teachers’ content knowledge for teaching about matter in two different courses to understand how teacher educators use ECM.

Anchoring Phenomena and Summary Writing Working Together to Improve Student Learning

Abstract concepts, such as gravity, may provide the perfect opportunity to bring phenomena into the classroom. As a knowledge generation strategy, summarizing can foster that opportunity. Using phenomena and summary writing together might help student learning since it requires making connections between their ideas and words to explain the natural phenomena. This article describes how anchoring phenomena and summary writing were integrated into a cohesive unit by using five generative activities that include different language and epistemic practices.

Author/Presenter

Allison Hart Richards

Jale Ercan-Dursun

Jee Kyung Suh

Brian Hand

Gavin Fulmer

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2023
Short Description

Abstract concepts, such as gravity, may provide the perfect opportunity to bring phenomena into the classroom. Using phenomena and summary writing together might help student learning since it requires making connections between their ideas and words to explain the natural phenomena. This article describes how anchoring phenomena and summary writing were integrated into a cohesive unit by using five generative activities that include different language and epistemic practices.

Developing and Using a Scalable Assessment to Measure Preservice Elementary Teachers' Content Knowledge for Teaching About Matter

There is strong agreement in science teacher education of the importance of teachers' content knowledge for teaching (CKT), which includes their subject matter knowledge and their pedagogical content knowledge. However, there are limited instruments that can be easily administered and scored on a large scale to assess and study elementary science teachers' CKT.

Author/Presenter

Katherine E. Castellano

Jamie N. Mikeska

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2023
Short Description

There is strong agreement in science teacher education of the importance of teachers' content knowledge for teaching (CKT), which includes their subject matter knowledge and their pedagogical content knowledge. However, there are limited instruments that can be easily administered and scored on a large scale to assess and study elementary science teachers' CKT. Such measures would support strategic monitoring of large groups of science teachers' CKT and the investigation of comparative questions about science teachers' CKT longitudinally across the professional continuum or across teacher education or professional development sites. To address this gap, this study focused on designing an automatically scorable summative assessment that can be used to measure preservice elementary teachers' (PSETs') CKT in one high-leverage science content area: matter and its interactions.

Designing Educative Curriculum Materials for Teacher Educators: Supporting Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Content Knowledge for Teaching About Matter and Its Interactions

Research on teacher educators’ professional learning has gained increasing interest within science education. Curriculum materials have been suggested as a means of supporting teacher learning for several decades but have not yet been examined as a potential tool for supporting the learning of teacher educators. In this paper, we conceptualize a set of design heuristics to guide the development of educative curriculum materials for teacher educators.

Author/Presenter

Deborah Hanuscin

Josie Melton

Jamie N. Mikeska 

Year
2024
Short Description

Research on teacher educators’ professional learning has gained increasing interest within science education. Curriculum materials have been suggested as a means of supporting teacher learning for several decades but have not yet been examined as a potential tool for supporting the learning of teacher educators. In this paper, we conceptualize a set of design heuristics to guide the development of educative curriculum materials for teacher educators.

Designing Educative Curriculum Materials for Teacher Educators: Supporting Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Content Knowledge for Teaching About Matter and Its Interactions

Research on teacher educators’ professional learning has gained increasing interest within science education. Curriculum materials have been suggested as a means of supporting teacher learning for several decades but have not yet been examined as a potential tool for supporting the learning of teacher educators. In this paper, we conceptualize a set of design heuristics to guide the development of educative curriculum materials for teacher educators.

Author/Presenter

Deborah Hanuscin

Josie Melton

Jamie N. Mikeska 

Year
2024
Short Description

Research on teacher educators’ professional learning has gained increasing interest within science education. Curriculum materials have been suggested as a means of supporting teacher learning for several decades but have not yet been examined as a potential tool for supporting the learning of teacher educators. In this paper, we conceptualize a set of design heuristics to guide the development of educative curriculum materials for teacher educators.

Online Teacher Professional Learning: An Approach to Foster Personalized Pathways

Teachers tend to be lifelong learners, motivated to pursue professional learning that is meaningful to their particular needs. In 2013, Marrongelle et. al., noted “it is incumbent on the field to capitalize on emerging technologies in the design and delivery of effective professional development.” (p. 208). While the past decade has seen an increase in development of opportunities for personalized learning for mathematics teachers online (e.g., Silverman & Hoyos, 2018), more work is needed to provide additional research-based opportunities.

Author/Presenter

Hollylynne S. Lee

Emily P. Thrasher

Matt Grossman

Gemma F. Mojica

Bruce Graham

Adrian Kuhlman

Year
2022
Short Description

The InSTEP professional learning platform aims to support grades 6-12 teachers’ professional learning in teaching statistics and data science through a personalized online learning platform. While statistics and data analysis are included in standards for both mathematics and science, there are also many states across the country envisioning high school course pathways that include a heavier emphasis on statistics and even stand alone courses on data science. In this brief research report, we aim to share how we have designed supports for teachers to personalize their professional learning and results from a collective case study of 37 participants engaged in a field test of the platform in Fall 2022.

Engagement in the InSTEP Professional Learning Platform: Developing Expertise to Teach Data and Statistics

In this study, 82 middle and high school teachers engaged with the InSTEP online professional
learning platform to develop their expertise in teaching data science and statistics. We
investigated teachers’ engagement within the platform, aspects of the platform that were most
and least effective in building teachers’ expertise, and the extent to which teachers’ self-efficacy
changed. Using mixed methods, we collected, analyzed and integrated multiple data sources.

Author/Presenter

Gemma F. Mojica

Emily Thrasher

Adrian Kuhlman

Bruce Graham

Hollylynne S. Lee

Michelle Pace

Year
2023
Short Description

In this study, 82 middle and high school teachers engaged with the InSTEP online professional
learning platform to develop their expertise in teaching data science and statistics. We
investigated teachers’ engagement within the platform, aspects of the platform that were most
and least effective in building teachers’ expertise, and the extent to which teachers’ self-efficacy
changed.