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10 Progressing Toward a Vision for Science and Engineering in Preschool Through Elementary Grades
Pages 235-260

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From page 235...
... seeing science and engineering as part of justice movements. Together, these four approaches comprise a spectrum of ways that the field can work toward equity and justice in preschool and elementary science and engineering, with the third and fourth centering more squarely on justice.
From page 236...
... may work for change via these four approaches to equity; ultimately, systemic change will be needed to help move those smaller efforts along. Using a similar structure to the report's Summary, this chapter synthesizes the committee's conclusions and recommendations for policy, practice, and research drawn across the full report and presents steps toward a new vision for science and engineering in preschool through elementary grades that emphasizes equity and justice in the work.
From page 237...
... . The lack of attention in policies constrains the time and resources (e.g., curriculum materials, assessments, physical and digital resources, professional learning experiences)
From page 238...
... CONCLUSION 5: There is limited research on how children with learning disabilities and/or learning differences engage in and experience science and engineering learning in preschool through elementary grades and forms of support that might be helpful. Further, children receiving academic supports often have been excluded or pulled out from key science and engineering learning experiences, limiting not just the research base but children's opportunities to learn.
From page 239...
... Moreover, engaging in science and engineering is a social endeavor -- one where children can practice important collaboration skills that can support social-emotional development and foster adaptive approaches to learning. CONCLUSION 6: Science and engineering learning experiences provide unique opportunities for children to identify as people who do and value science and engineering along with their other identities (e.g., racial, ethnic, linguistic, learning [dis]
From page 240...
... Instructional and curricular supports are needed to promote relationships, collective meaning-making, and discourse across children's development and learning contexts.  CONCLUSION 12: When teachers of science and engineering are able to elicit, notice, value, and build on the many ideas, experiences, and communicative resources that children bring to the classroom, they can organize connections between children's existing knowledge and curiosity and the environment around them, supporting children to continue to make sense of the natural and designed world. CONCLUSION 13: A robust formative assessment approach for preschool through elementary school provides appropriate supports for children to show their understanding and skill, includes ways for children to show their understanding in multiple modalities, and specifies a way of making inferences about children's understanding.
From page 241...
... It is unreasonable to expect preschool through elementary teachers to develop such materials independently. CONCLUSION 15: Educators' use and adaptation of science and engineering curriculum materials is influenced by their knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes about the disciplines, teaching science and engineering, and learners; by the characteristics of the materials themselves; and by the school and classroom contexts in which the materials are being used.
From page 242...
... Coherence across the initial teacher education system -- for example, across science content courses, science methods courses, and field experiences -- is key, and attention to quality within each element is important as well (e.g., ensuring that science content courses for preservice elementary teachers teach science in ways that are consistent with the vision of the Framework)
From page 243...
... To address this need, a growing body of research highlights the importance of diversifying the teacher educator workforce, placing preservice teachers in mentored and supportive field placements that involve children from a range of linguistic and cultural backgrounds, and using sustained professional learning experiences synergistically with educative curriculum materials. CONCLUSION 20: Preservice early childhood and elementary teachers demonstrate positive shifts in their beliefs, knowledge, and practice related to science and engineering teaching when they have opportunities to engage in science and engineering practices themselves and have opportunities to support children in engaging in these practices.  CONCLUSION 21: Professional learning experiences that engage preschool through elementary teachers in (a)
From page 244...
... These leaders also allocate time and resources and provide professional learning opportunities for teachers to develop expertise around science and engineering instruction. CONCLUSION 23: Although specialists can provide preschool and elementary science and engineering instruction when it may not otherwise be available, specialist positions appear to have the greatest impact when school and district administrators and other leaders are involved in science education and the overall district and school culture places value on science and provides resources to support it.
From page 245...
... Prioritizing Science and Engineering in Preschool Through Elementary Grades RECOMMENDATION 1: State policy makers should establish policies that ensure science and engineering are comprehensively, frequently, and consistently taught in all preschool through elementary settings. The policies should also ensure that children are not being pulled out of science and engineering instruction for remediation in other subjects.
From page 246...
... RECOMMENDATION 3: Preschool and elementary school leaders should evaluate the characteristics of classroom instruction, the quali fications of teachers hired and whether the hiring practices serve to promote educator diversity, and the professional learning opportuni ties offered to teachers so that adjustments can be made as needed to support and enhance teachers' capacities for teaching science and engineering well. RECOMMENDATION 4: State leaders, district leaders, and research ers should work together to build connections across preschool and el ementary school and to conduct research to investigate how alignment and coherence across preschool through elementary supports children's learning of science and engineering.
From page 247...
... RECOMMENDATION 12: State and district leaders should provide teachers with sustained professional learning opportunities for us ing and adapting curriculum materials, and should ensure that they have adequate access to materials, equipment, and other physical and digital resources needed for children to engage in investigation and design.
From page 248...
... , facilitators of professional learning experiences, and school and district leaders should • help preschool through elementary teachers to recognize the impor tance and value of teaching science and engineering; • understand and address the needs and goals of classroom teachers; • support teachers in connecting their professional learning with their classroom practice; • foreground authentic and equitable science and engineering content and disciplinary practice; • allow for meaningful integration of science and/or engineering with other subjects; and • support teachers' effective use and adaptation of science and engi neering curriculum materials. RECOMMENDATION 15: Designers and facilitators of professional learning opportunities should ensure that sustained opportunities to work on science and engineering teaching that works toward equity and justice, in conjunction with supportive curriculum materials, are offered.
From page 249...
... These professional learning opportunities should focus on science and engineering practices and support leaders in seeing multiple ways science and engineering are valuable for children. AREAS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH Considerable research exists that shows the potential of children in learning science and engineering.
From page 250...
... Areas of focus here include first and foremost, science and engineering pedagogies, curriculum, and teacher education and professional learning for preschool through elementary school that emphasize equity and justice, including seeing science and engineering as a part of justice movements. This includes connections to short- and long-term learning of educators and
From page 251...
... . A second key focus here would be exploring in more depth science and engineering learning with particular groups of children: Black and Brown children, Indigenous children, children with learning disabilities and/or learning differences, emergent multilingual learners, girls, and others who are often marginalized from science and engineering as professions and as school subject areas.
From page 252...
... Research must also focus on the complementary side -- that is, how schools and districts elicit, acknowledge, and leverage families' ways of knowing and connect these to more formal school-based ways of knowing. A second area of focus is to explore how partnerships across schools or districts, community-serving learning organizations like museums, and families and community members can promote equity- and justice-oriented science and engineering instruction with preschool through elementary aged children.
From page 253...
... What does effective "differentiation" look like for the kind of three-dimensional, phenomenon- or design challenge-based learning emphasized in the Framework? Related also to the next topic of teacher education and professional learning, what kinds of opportunities to learn are important for preschool through elementary teachers of science and engineering, in learning to teach children with learning disabilities and/or learning differences?
From page 254...
... Teacher Education and Professional Learning The committee urges that research be conducted to better understand how teachers learn to engage in high-quality, equitable science and engineering instruction with young learners. A key assumption of the committee is that the field needs to move beyond research that emphasizes preschool through elementary teachers' supposed deficits vis-à-vis science and engineering teaching, and toward research that explores how to leverage teachers' strengths and how to support them in developing their instructional practice.
From page 255...
... How can teachers be supported in integrating science and engineering with other subjects, through initial teacher education, ongoing professional learning, and/or educative curriculum materials? How does using innovative, high-quality curriculum materials shape teachers' readiness for and ability to plan for science and engineering instruction that foregrounds the proficiencies associated with investigation and design?
From page 256...
... , and what is the effect of those structural differences in early childhood and elementary teachers' science and engineering teaching? How can early childhood teachers, in particular, be supported in learning to teach science and engineering, and what should preparation for teaching preschool through third grade or preschool through fourth grade look like?
From page 257...
... Questions around time, then, become central in considering how the teaching and learning of science and engineering can be enhanced in the preschool through elementary grades. For example, what scheduling practices in elementary schools support investigation and design in the preschool or elementary classroom?
From page 258...
... Methodologies such as design-based implementation research, improvement science, networked-improvement communities, and social design experiments show potential, though have not been employed much within science and engineering at preschool through elementary. How can these methodologies or others be employed in studying preschool through elementary science and engineering?
From page 259...
... For example, given what the report has shown about the interaction between children's competence on the one hand and children's opportunities for learning on the other, studies could explore questions such as: How do teachers engage in this work over time, and what do they come to value about teaching science and engineering to children? What do preschool through elementary teachers' learning trajectories look like, for equity- and justice-oriented science and engineering teaching?


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