Understanding how teachers learn to notice and respond to students? scientific sense-making is necessary to improve beginning teacher practice and support student science learning. Without this understanding, effective science instruction called for by the Next Generation Science Standards may rarely occur, and we will not be able to meet the challenge of improving STEM education for all students. Our objective for this research is to document and define a range of beginning elementary teacher practices for noticing and responding to students? scientific sense-making and the contextual factors that impact their practice over a range of several years to determine how these practices develop over time. Contextual factors include aspects such as curriculum materials, professional community, prior experiences, and professional vision. Knowing more about how and why teachers learn to notice and respond to students? science sense-making can enable more effective design of educational programs, instructional supports, and tools helping teachers ensure that all of their students have opportunities to learn meaningful science.
Researchers from Michigan State University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison will use longitudinal comparative case-study methodology to analyze and describe how beginning elementary teachers notice and respond to students? scientific sense-making in multiple science topic areas across several years in urban school settings. Data will be collected from 32 beginning 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade elementary science teachers and six expert teachers across the upper Midwest (e.g., Chicago, IL, Lansing, MI, and Madison, WI). Data includes two teacher-generated sense-making portfolios a year containing: classroom video of science teaching, teacher analysis of student work, and teacher interviews about noticing and responding. Data analysis will be based on 4 dimensions of teacher performance and reflection: the nature and type of opportunities for student sense-making, noticing, interpreting/reasoning, and responding to students? scientific sense-making. We will use a constant comparative approach to analyze data ? examining and sorting case study data against aspects of teaching contexts and personal resources to look for patterns over time. Advisory board members will evaluate this project with respect to research design, tools, and outcomes.
The final products of our study will include (1) empirically-based descriptions of 32 beginning teacher practices across several years and six expert teachers to illustrate different types of teacher noticing and responding as well as different pathways, trajectories, and approaches of beginning teacher noticing and responding (2) a set of tested and revised data collection measures and analytical tools for documenting and describing teacher noticing, and (3) a model of beginning teacher noticing that can explain how noticing and responding to students? sense-making is mediated by personal resources and professional contexts. This research will positively affect participating teachers and their students, as well as the larger teacher education research community by transforming theories of elementary science teacher education and beginning teacher practice. The research will contribute knowledge about the influences of contexts on teacher practice and outline potential pathways for teacher development. Research products promise to contribute to the development of a highly qualified science teachers using high-leverage practices in diverse urban contexts.
