Science Teachers' Learning Enhancing Opportunities, Creating Supportive Contexts (2015) / Chapter Skim
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8 Creating a Supportive Context for Teacher Learning
8 Creating a Supportive Context for Teacher Learning
Pages 175-212
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From page 175... ...
represent an important step in that evolution, articulating a vision for science education that is profoundly different from the status quo, and that will require science teachers to have a new set of skills. School, district, and state contexts can feed or starve teachers' efforts to grow.
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From page 176... ...
. Notably, a longitudinal study of more than 100 low-income, low-performing elementary schools in Chicago identified five supports that must be in place at the school level to improve student learning: professional capacity, coherent instructional guidance, leadership, parent-community ties, and a student-centered learning environment (Bryk et al., 2010)
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From page 177... ...
The committee found little research that investigated the effects of school, district, and state contexts on science teachers and their instruction or on students' learning of science. That said, a wide-ranging and gradually accumulating research literature examines various aspects of teacher development in different contexts.
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From page 178... ...
, coherent instructional guidance (e.g., state and district curriculum and assessment/accountability policies) , and leadership (e.g., principals and teacher leaders)
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From page 179... ...
Teachers also may require help in connecting with national groups such as the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) , particularly through the NSTA Learning Center which connects teachers through discussion forums and e-mail lists, and links teachers to thousands of free resources -- webinars readings, a portfolio system, and an index of professional development opportunities.
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From page 180... ...
Instead, policies that encourage the joint work of teachers, provide them with time to collaborate, and task them with significant work to accomplish in those groups can play an important role. Staffing Policies and Science Expertise Expertise in science teaching and learning is important for supporting teacher collaboration and enhancing professional capacity in science.
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From page 181... ...
Building on an earlier definition of the mathematics specialist (Reys and Fennell, 2003) , the Virginia Mathematics and Science Coalition's Science Specialist Task Force defines a science specialist as "a teacher whose interest and distinctive preparation in content and pedagogy are coordinated with particular teacher leadership assignments to support teaching and learning in the context of science instruction" (Reys and Fennell, 2003; Sterling et al., 2007, p.
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. As standardized testing in science begins to take hold in public education, however, it is likely that districts and school networks will begin to use coaching and mentoring for science teachers more often.
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Many states responded to the initiative, instituting new teacher evaluation systems that include teachers and school leaders making plans for teacher learning over the course of the year, repeated observations of teachers' practice, and the gathering of evidence of student learning through standardized tests. Two genres of teacher evaluation have emerged out of the renewed interest in this area: value-added measurement and standards-based observations (Milanowski, 2004; Papay, 2012)
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From page 184... ...
For example, the Teacher Research Academy at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory offers middle school, high school, and community college faculty five levels of professional development, including learning about research design from practicing scientists, participating in research projects, and receiving extensive exposure to content knowledge and instructional activities designed to engage middle and high school students in active learning. Science teachers in Seattle can spend 9 weeks in the summer conducting research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
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From page 185... ...
This program was initially developed to address a school district requirement that every 8th-grade student complete a long-term science investigation before moving on to high school but has grown to include 6th- and 7th-grade science teachers as well. UA's core mission is to build teachers', students', administrators', and parents' understanding of scientific inquiry and investigation by providing teachers with professional development, parents and teachers with access to cultural institutions, and principals with insight into the program's content and character.
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Beyond these aspects of instructional guidance are other relevant and linked policies, including student accountability and teacher evaluation.
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From page 187... ...
. The committee considered available research concerning two aspects of instructional guidance: curriculum materials and their potential to support teacher learning and assessment and accountability policies and practices.
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NGSX is designed around five research-based principles for professional development: • organized around teaching sense making of classroom cases; • focuses on high-leverage teaching practices; • rganizes teacher study groups that work to apply reforms to their own o practice; • combines a focus on science, student thinking, and pedagogy; and • develops capacity for teacher leaders. this allows them to transfer what they learn when teaching one unit to subsequent units (Ball and Cohen, 1996; Beyer and Davis, 2012a, 2012b; Davis and Krajcik, 2005)
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From page 189... ...
found that when preservice elementary teachers used science curriculum materials in conjunction with teacher education instructional experiences intended to support them, they were able to develop both pedagogical content knowledge and pedagogical design capacity. For example, they came to develop more robust and sophisticated repertoires of criteria they could use in considering changes they should make to curriculum materials for their classrooms.
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From page 190... ...
Educative curriculum materials should support teachers in • engaging students with topic-specific scientific phenomena; • using scientific instructional representations; • nticipating, understanding, and working with students' ideas about science; a • engaging students in questions; educative for teachers, though, play important roles in shaping students' opportunities to learn. Curriculum materials, particularly those designed to be educative for teachers, can provide a direct point of leverage for moving toward alignment of students' opportunities to learn with the Framework and NGSS (see Chapter 5 for additional discussion)
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From page 191... ...
Their goals included having students make connections between concepts, achieve content mastery, and engage productively in laboratory and cooperative work. Teachers in six additional schools who were part of a control group reported using more traditional science teaching methods, including the memorization of facts and terminology and a focus on "the scientific method." While there were significant differences in how teachers conceptualized effective science instruction, there were no statistical differences in the performance of
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From page 192... ...
As a result, especially in elementary schools, testing pressures in mathematics and English language arts have largely squeezed science out of the curriculum (Banilower et al., 2013)
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Formative and summative assessments produce information about student performance that requires interpretation and professional judgment (e.g., Popham, 2003, 2007)
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Teacher leaders have important roles to play as well. Principals In a study of reform in Chicago public schools by Bryk and colleagues (2010)
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. Teacher leaders may support science teachers by providing professional development, classroom support, mentoring, just-in-time help, and other means of strengthening instruction and curriculum.
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From page 196... ...
Indeed, reviews of research on mathematics and science teacher leadership, reveal that the majority of the published research in this area focuses on mathematics teacher leadership or on programs with mathematics and science teacher leaders, with reporting of results not distinguishing between the two (see, e.g., http://www.mspkmd.net/ blasts/tl.php [November 2015]
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From page 197... ...
While the literature does not provide a detailed understanding of how teacher leaders interact with their colleagues or which leadership activities are most effective (and under what conditions) , it does clearly suggest that the objectives for teacher leadership are "not about ‘teacher power,'" but about using collaborative and collegial relationships to harness experienced teachers' skills and attributes (Institute for Educational Leadership, 2008)
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From page 198... ...
. Qualitative studies of the factors that promote teacher leadership suggest that school culture is important, and that schools in which openness and collaboration are the norm are more hospitable to the development of teacher leaders and the success of leadership programs relative to other schools (Birky et al., 2006; Institute for Educational Leadership, 2008; Muijs and Harris, 2007; Wynne, 2001; York-Barr and Duke, 2004)
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From page 199... ...
Case studies suggest that, in addition to promoting a favorable school culture, principals can encourage teacher leadership by, for example, creating opportunities for leadership, trusting teachers to make decisions, and relinquishing authority (Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement, 2005; Neumerski, 2012)
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Formal degree programs in teacher leadership are growing in popularity; an informal review of schools of education identified more than 60 such programs (Editorial Projects in Education, 2012)
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Elementary science teachers are less likely than their middle and high school counterparts to view their resources as adequate. This lack of funding and other resources limits effective science teaching (or any science teaching at all)
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At the time of that study, fewer than 40 percent of school districts employed any staff dedicated to elementary science. Other resource-related factors that affect the amount and quality of science teaching at the elementary level include the elimination of lead science teachers; frequent reassignment of teachers to new grade levels; and inadequate access to instructional materials, including a lack of science textbooks or other supporting materials (Dorph et al., 2011, p.
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From page 203... ...
; • the percentage of salary teachers spend on professional growth, as stipulated in the teacher union contract or calendar or other wise mandated for use for staff development; • salary for education credits, which includes the increase in teacher salary that comes with participation in programs for professional growth; • curriculum development and support, which includes staff, sti pends, and contracts aimed at developing and writing curricu lum, as well as ongoing payments for instructional management or guidance systems; • teacher evaluation, which includes staff and contractors who administer an evaluation system, as well as quantification of the cost of staff time or positions for those who observe teachers and document and rate teacher performance; and • student assessment, which includes spending on both end-of-year testing and ongoing or formative assessments administered by the school system. Based on this analysis, Education Resource Strategies identified six steps to a more powerful school system strategy for professional growth: • Quantify current spending on the universe of teacher professional growth and support.
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, and leadership (e.g., principals and teacher leaders)
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There is increas ing attention to creating opportunities for teachers to take on leadership roles to both improve science instruction and strengthen the science teacher workforce. These include roles as instructional coaches, mentors, and teacher leaders.
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From page 206... ...
. Finding a New Way: Leveraging Teacher Leadership to Meet Unprecedented Demands.
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Leveraging Teacher Leadership, 71(2)
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. Teacher Leadership in High Schools: How Princi pals Encourage It, How Teachers Practice It.
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From page 209... ...
Labov, Rapporteurs. Planning Committee on Exploring Opportunities for STEM Teacher Leadership: Summary of a Convocation, Teacher Advisory Council, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education.
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. Supporting science teacher learning: The role of educa tive curriculum materials.
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From page 211... ...
. What do we know about teacher leadership?
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