Teacher Attitudes/Beliefs

Socioscientific Issues: Promoting Science Teachers’ Pedagogy on Social Justice

Socioscientific issues (SSI) are problems involving the deliberate use of scientific topics that require students to engage in dialogue, discussion, and debate. The purpose of this project is to utilize issues that are personally meaningful and engaging to students, require the use of evidence-based reasoning, and provide a context for scientific information.

Author/Presenter

Augusto Z. Macalalag Jr.

Alan Kaufmann

Benjamin Van Meter

Aden Ricketts

Erica Liao

Gabrielle Ialacci

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2024
Short Description

Socioscientific issues (SSI) are problems involving the deliberate use of scientific topics that require students to engage in dialogue, discussion, and debate. The purpose of this project is to utilize issues that are personally meaningful and engaging to students, require the use of evidence-based reasoning, and provide a context for scientific information. This study highlights the value of integrating SSI in science education to engage students with social justice.

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.

Ten Years of Three-Dimensional Science and Its Implementation in the Secondary Classroom: A Scoping Review

In the decade following the release of the Next-Generation Science Standards in the United States, many efforts have occurred to reform K-12 science teaching. While not all states have adopted NGSS, 48 of 50 have adopted standards that are consistent with the underlying philosophy and research base of NGSS: three-dimensional (3D) science. This scoping review explores the research activity on classroom implementation of 3D Science in secondary schools in the US.

Author/Presenter

Clara M. Smith

Heather M. Leary

Jamie L. Jensen

Rebecca L. Sansom

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2024
Short Description

In the decade following the release of the Next-Generation Science Standards in the United States, many efforts have occurred to reform K-12 science teaching. While not all states have adopted NGSS, 48 of 50 have adopted standards that are consistent with the underlying philosophy and research base of NGSS: three-dimensional (3D) science. This scoping review explores the research activity on classroom implementation of 3D Science in secondary schools in the US.

Development of a Questionnaire on Teachers' Beliefs, Preparedness, and Instructional Practices for Teaching NGSS Science with Multilingual Learners

The limited availability of research instruments that reflect the vision of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) restricts the field's understanding of whether and how teachers are making instructional shifts called for by the standards. The need for such instruments is particularly urgent with teachers of multilingual learners (MLs), who are called on to make shifts in how they think about and enact instruction related to both science and language.

Author/Presenter

Scott E. Grapin

Courtney Plumley

Eric Banilower

Alycia J. Sterenberg Mahon

Laura Craven

Kristen Malzahn

Joan Pasley

Abigail Schwenger

Alison Haas

Okhee Lee

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2024
Short Description

The limited availability of research instruments that reflect the vision of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) restricts the field's understanding of whether and how teachers are making instructional shifts called for by the standards. The need for such instruments is particularly urgent with teachers of multilingual learners (MLs), who are called on to make shifts in how they think about and enact instruction related to both science and language. The purpose of this study was to develop and gather validity evidence for a questionnaire that measures elementary teachers' beliefs, preparedness, and instructional practices for teaching NGSS science with MLs.

“I Really Got to Think About My Background, Their Background, and How Do We Come Together on Something?”: One Emergent Mathematics Teacher Leader's Reflexive Journey with Social Justice Mathematics

This 2-year qualitative case study focuses on one emergent mathematics teacher leader, Mr. Miller, and his conceptualization of Social Justice Mathematics (SJM). SJM is a justice-oriented pedagogical approach where students simultaneously learn dominant mathematics and explore social injustices to take action toward justice. Using Rodriguez's (Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 1998, 35, 589–622) sociotransformative constructivism framework, findings illuminate how dialogic conversation, authentic activity, and metacognition supported Mr.

Author/Presenter

Kari Kokka

Year
2024
Short Description

This 2-year qualitative case study focuses on one emergent mathematics teacher leader, Mr. Miller, and his conceptualization of Social Justice Mathematics (SJM). SJM is a justice-oriented pedagogical approach where students simultaneously learn dominant mathematics and explore social injustices to take action toward justice.

Profiling Teachers’ Motivation for Professional Development: A Nationwide Study

Situated in the context of advanced placement (AP) reform in the United States, we investigated profiles of teachers’ motivation for participating in professional development (PD) courses in a two-cohort sample of nt1 = 2,369 and nt2 = 2,170 chemistry teachers via multilevel latent class analysis. In addition, the study investigated to what extent profile membership was related to factors at the teacher, school, and PD levels.

Author/Presenter

Eric Richter

Tim Fütterer

Arthur Eisenkraft

Christian Fischer

Year
2024
Short Description

Situated in the context of advanced placement (AP) reform in the United States, we investigated profiles of teachers’ motivation for participating in professional development (PD) courses in a two-cohort sample of nt1 = 2,369 and nt2 = 2,170 chemistry teachers via multilevel latent class analysis.

Schoolyard SITES: School-Community Partnership to Learn About Teaching Locally-Relevant Citizen Science

Author/Presenter

Lara Gengarelly

Sameer Honwad

Megan Glenn

Erik Froburg

Malin Clyde

Haley Andreozzi

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2023
Short Description

Our research study examines the community-based partnership PD model and its impact on school teachers’ self-efficacy and their success in engaging students in the NGSS science practices through citizen science projects.

“That is Still STEM”: Appropriating the Engineering Design Process to Challenge Dominant Narratives of Engineering and STEM

Author/Presenter

Jessica Watkins

Year
2023
Short Description

Teachers can play critical roles in challenging or reinscribing dominant narratives about what counts as STEM, who is seen within STEM disciplines, and how these disciplines should be taught. However, teachers have often experienced STEM in limited ways in their own education and are thereby provided with few resources for re-imagining these disciplines.

Examining Interactions Between Dominant Discourses and Engineering Educational Concepts in Teachers' Pedagogical Reasoning

Background
Engineering's introduction into K–12 classrooms has been purported to support meaningful and inclusive learning environments. However, teachers must contend with dominant discourses embedded in US schooling that justify inequitable distributions of resources.

Author/Presenter

Natalie De Lucca

Jessica Watkins

Rebecca D. Swanson

Merredith Portsmore

Year
2023
Short Description

Drawing on Gee's notion of discourses, we examine how teachers incorporate language legitimizing socially and culturally constructed values and beliefs. In particular, we focus on the discourse of ability hierarchy—reflecting dominant values of sorting and ranking students based on perceived academic abilities—and the discourse of individual blame—reflecting dominant framings of educational problems as solely the responsibility of individual students or families.

Centering Educators’ Voices in the Development of Professional Learning for Data-Rich, Place-Based Science Instruction

This self-reflective case study describes our project team’s efforts to promote equity in science professional learning (PL) by centering the voices of educators in the PL design process and within the course itself. We believe that educators’ experiences, priorities, and expertise are essential to developing professional learning that meets the needs of teachers and their students. We have a particular interest in amplifying the voices of those in historically underrepresented communities.

Author/Presenter

Nicole Wong

Rasha Elsayed

Katy Nilsen

Leticia R. Perez

Kirsten R. Daehler

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2024
Short Description

This self-reflective case study describes our project team’s efforts to promote equity in science professional learning (PL) by centering the voices of educators in the PL design process and within the course itself. In this case study, we share and critique the practices and tools that we have employed to center educator voices, rather than those of the PL designers and researchers.