Improving Science Teaching & Learning: Studying How Beginning Elementary Teachers Notice and Respond to Students' Scientific Sense-making

了解教师如何学习注意和回应学生？科学意义建构是促进初任教师实践和支持学生科学学习的必要条件。如果没有这种理解，下一代科学标准所要求的有效科学教学可能很少发生，我们将无法应对改善所有学生STEM教育的挑战。本研究的目的是记录和定义一系列的开始小学教师的做法，注意和回应学生？科学意义的形成和影响他们实践的背景因素，以确定这些实践如何随着时间的推移而发展。背景因素包括课程材料、专业社区、先前经验和专业愿景等方面。了解更多关于教师如何以及为什么学习注意和回应学生？科学意义的形成可以使教育计划、教学支持和工具的设计更有效，帮助教师确保所有学生都有机会学习有意义的科学。来自密歇根州立大学和威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校的研究人员将使用纵向比较案例研究方法来分析和描述初级小学教师如何注意和回应学生？在城市学校环境中，在多个科学主题领域进行了多年的科学意义培养。数据将从32名三年级、四年级和五年级的小学科学教师和六名专家教师那里收集，这些教师来自中西部的上游地区（例如，芝加哥，IL，兰辛，MI和麦迪逊，WI）。数据包括两个教师生成的意义，使投资组合一年包含：课堂录像的科学教学，教师分析学生的工作，和教师采访有关的注意和反应。数据分析将基于教师表现和反思的4个维度：学生感觉、注意、解释/推理和回应学生的机会的性质和类型？科学意义的创造我们将使用一个不断的比较方法来分析数据？根据教学环境和个人资源方面检查和整理案例研究数据，以寻找随着时间推移的模式。顾问委员会成员将评估该项目的研究设计，工具和成果。 我们研究的最终成果将包括：（1）对32位初任教师几年来的实践和6位专家教师的描述，以说明不同类型的教师注意和反应以及不同的途径，轨迹，初任教师注意与回应的途径（2）一套经过测试和修订的数据收集措施和分析工具，用于记录和描述教师的注意，（3）初任教师的注意模式，可以解释初任教师如何注意和回应学生。个人资源和专业背景是理解的中介。这项研究将通过改变小学科学教师教育理论和初级教师实践，对参与的教师及其学生以及更大的教师教育研究界产生积极影响。本研究将有助于了解情境对教师实践的影响，并为教师发展勾勒出潜在的途径。研究产品承诺将有助于发展高素质的科学教师在不同的城市环境中使用高杠杆的做法。

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.