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. While both instructors had similar years of experience teaching science education courses and used the same ECM, they implemented them differently. Substituting different activities or resources provided by the ECM or supplementing the ECM with alternate activities are examples of adaptations leveraged by the instructors. Decision-making around implementation was guided primarily by the instructors’ pedagogical approaches, the fit of the ECM with existing course content and goals, and alignment with problems of practice facing their elementary preservice teachers.
Melton, J. C. & Mikeska, J. N. (2025). Variation in the implementation of educative curriculum materials for elementary science teacher educators in two course contexts: An exploratory case study. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/1046560X.2025.2467469