Science and Engineering in Preschool Through Elementary Grades The Brilliance of Children and the Strengths of Educators (2022) / Chapter Skim
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7 The Role of Curriculum Materials and Instructional Resources
7 The Role of Curriculum Materials and Instructional Resources
Pages 157-182
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From page 157... ...
• Physical instructional resources and facilities are crucial for preschool through elementary science and engineering instruc tion, but are often in short supply, particularly in under-re sourced schools.
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From page 158... ...
Cur riculum materials in preschool through elementary grades are still "catching up" to be able to build toward the vision of the Framework (NRC, 2012) and to demonstrate genuine alignment with it and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS; NGSS Lead States, 2013)
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. Furthermore, research on curriculum and curriculum materials across grade levels shows that curriculum materials need to support teachers' adaptation, including adaptation based on children's thinking and interests (Broderick and Hong, 2020; Clements, 2007; Davis et al., 2017)
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Box 7-2 provides an example of an effort that reflects some of the guidance presented in Box 7-1. The sections that follow review the literature on preschool and then elementary curricular efforts.2 The chapter then turns to a review of the BOX 7-1 Implications for the Design of Curriculum Materials To support children in developing and demonstrating proficiency in investi gation and design, effective curriculum materials help children… • Orient to phenomena and design challenges • Collect and analyze data and information • Develop explanations and design solutions • Communicate reasoning • Connect learning across content areas and sites of activity To support productive learning environments, effective curriculum materials help teachers...
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. literature on preschool through elementary teachers' use of and learning with curriculum materials.
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were developed based on strong theoretical foundations, emphasize the importance of integrating science throughout the day, and provide supports for teachers to integrate science with other domains. These programs, however, pre-date and do not always clearly align with current science frameworks, and research examining their impact on science teaching and learning has been limited.
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From page 163... ...
. Similar findings are reported for Science with Nico and Nor: results from a randomized controlled study in 20 public preschool classrooms indicate the curriculum program, which included science curricular activities and digital media, was used appropriately, and that children in classrooms that implemented the program made significant improvements in science learning relative to children in comparison classrooms (Domínguez and Goldstein, 2020)
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ELEMENTARY GRADES CURRICULUM AND STANDARDS EFFORTS In recent decades, there has been an emphasis on hands-on learning and engagement with materials as supporting engagement and children's "doing science" at the elementary level (NRC, 2007) .3 The field has called this "hands on rather than minds on." Until the release of the Framework in 2012, there had not, in general, been a focus on research-based learning progressions over long periods of time.
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From page 165... ...
Box 7-3 illustrates an example of how the SOLID Start curriculum has attended to some of these issues. District Selection of Materials According to the 2018 NSSME+ Horizon report, 72 percent of elementary classes use instructional materials for science instruction that have been designated by the district, and of these classes, 67 percent of teachers report having textbooks designated for their elementary science instruction, 51 percent of teachers report having kits or modules designated, and 43 percent of teachers report having state, country, district, or diocese-developed units and lessons designated (Banilower et al., 2018)
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, using questions to support children in discussing ideas and providing support for learning vocabulary for science practices (e.g., evidence) and science content (e.g., blow)
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, and research suggests that kits make the teaching of science feasible in the elementary grades. For example, a study conducted by Jones and colleagues (2012)
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That said, the materials developed by research projects tend to be of high quality, and in particular, tend to work toward not just technical alignment with the standards but also alignment with the vision of the Framework for elementary grades. Examples of such materials include NextGen Storylines (aimed at developing tools to support teachers in developing sequences of lessons that unfold coherently around science practices for children; Reiser et al., 2021)
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are designed to facilitate both student and teacher learning, afford multiple ways to adapt lessons to meet the range of learners' and teachers' needs, and may include features that help teachers see what an enacted lesson looks like, including the anticipated thinking and decision-making roles for teachers during a particular lesson. District Review Processes Districts have many criteria to consider and choices to make when deciding about curricular programs to adopt; at the same time, though, districts may have to make decisions about instructional materials under time pressure after only cursory reviews of textbooks or presentations of materials, with budgetary considerations determining the final choice (NASEM, 2018b)
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States and districts may have their own curricular review processes, as well. For example, Louisiana's instructional materials review process uses committees composed of Louisiana educators who evaluate materials 4 Formore information, see http://www.edreports.org.
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District and school leaders need to have a sense of how the curriculum materials should be used, including recognizing adaptation that is in keeping with the vision of the materials and understanding of the physical materials needed to engage children in first-hand investigation and design. Insufficiency of Instructional Materials for Investigations and Design Challenges Although having high-quality curriculum materials is key in supporting science and engineering for children, another factor also matters: the availability of the physical instructional resources one needs for conducting investigations and the facilities that make those investigations possible.
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Perhaps more saliently, elementary teachers are much more likely to rate their access to resources for mathematics as adequate, in comparison to science; the parallel figures for teachers' perceived adequacy of their access to instructional technology, measurement tools, consumable supplies, and manipulatives, in elementary mathematics, range from 65 to 87 percent. Overall, these findings show that science instruction is under-resourced and not highly prioritized in elementary classrooms, and that these concerns are exacerbated in under-resourced schools (Banilower et al., 2018)
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For example, teachers using educative curriculum materials can use them to support children in engaging in certain science practices (e.g., Arias, Davis, and Palincsar, 2014; Enfield, Smith, and Grueber, 2008) and to provide emergent multilingual learners with ambitious opportunities to learn (Cervetti, Kulikowich, and Bravo, 2015)
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. A study of educative features within science curriculum materials aimed at upper elementary grades looked at a range of educative features, including learning goals that outlined the conceptual focus of the reading, interactive reading guides, graphic aids to support teachers' and children's understanding of texts, and narratives that described how fictional teachers chose to support children during reading and discussions of readings (Arias, Palincsar, and Davis, 2015)
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Furthermore, some scholarship suggests that enacting curriculum materials with "fidelity" may be unrelated to students' science achievement gains (Lee, Penfield, and Maerten-Rivera, 2009) , though the use of curriculum materials in general seems supportive of student learning (Lee et al., 2008)
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. What influences elementary teachers' use of science curriculum materials?
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Furthermore, a close look at one dimension of this second factor reveals that specific types of educative features appear to have different effects on how teachers use the curriculum materials. For example, teachers with access to curriculum materials that incorporated narratives of how other educators used the materials themselves were likely to draw on the narratives frequently; other, less situated, but more explicit, educative features were used less often but were more likely to support teachers in learning specific educational principles of practice (Beyer and Davis, 2009)
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has developed an empirically grounded set of design principles for educative curriculum materials. These design principles recommend using multiple forms of support, providing suggestions for productive adaptations of the materials, providing supports that are situated in teachers' practice, incorporating educative features that can be applied directly as teaching tools, and -- directly related to elementary science and engineering -- focusing on supporting sensemaking and using instrumental science and engineering practices to incrementally work toward change in teachers' practice.
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From page 179... ...
Likewise, curriculum materials serve to support children with learning disabilities and/or learning differences; however, the committee did not find literature specific to adapting or differentiating science or engineering curriculum materials for preschool through elementary children with learning disabilities and/or learning differences, so this is an area for future research. Curriculum materials and instructional resources can shape the emphasis on increased student achievement, representation, and identification with science and engineering (Approach #2)
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Teachers learn from and with curriculum materials, and they adapt them to meet their needs. Curriculum materials can support teachers' learning with regard to many dimensions of teachers' work (e.g., supporting emergent multilingual learners)
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THE ROLE OF CURRICULUM MATERIALS AND INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES 181 to equity and justice is a significant challenge. The design of curriculum materials that specifically support the goal of teaching toward equity and justice in science and engineering in preschool and elementary settings is an area for further research and development and will require substantial investment of time and effort.
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