Supporting Science Teachers In Creating Lessons With Explicit Conceptual Storylines

We describe a four-step strategy used in our professional development program to help elementary science teachers recognize and create lesson plans with coherent conceptual storylines. The conceptual storyline of a lesson refers to sequencing its scientific concepts and activities to help students develop a main scientific idea and, often, is an implicit component of a lesson plan. The four steps of this learning strategy are, 1) Building awareness of conceptual storylines; (2) Analyze the coherence of the conceptual storyline of existing lessons; (3) Creating an explicit conceptual storyline as part of the planning process; and (4) Promote conceptual coherence throughout the storyline. We provide examples of how these steps were developed in our professional development program as well as evidence of teachers’ learning. We also discuss practical implications for using conceptual storylines in professional development for science teachers.

Cisterna, D., Lipsitz, K., Hanuscin, D., de Araujo, Z., & van Garderen, D. (2018). Supporting science teachers in creating lessons with explicit conceptual storylines. Innovations in Science Teacher Education, 3(1).