Defining Progress Variables and Measureable Levels of Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Science

• In Event: Defining and Measuring What Math and Science Teachers Need to Know: Implications for Professional Development

Abstract

A growing body of research has shown that elementary students (K-6) can learn to engage in scientific practices and reason productively about natural phenomena (Lehrer & Schauble, 2004; Metz, 2008; NRC, 2007). Teachers play a critical role in fostering reform-based science learning environments by scaffolding students’ sense-making (Beyer & Davis, 2008; Haefner & Zembal-Saul, 2004). To engage students in reform-based science in the classroom, teachers must develop robust pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for science teaching. The purpose of this research is to define and operationalize levels of teachers’ knowledge of essential characteristics of scientific practices, a core component of their PCK for science teaching (Magnusson, Krajcik, & Borko, 1999), as a first step in the development of an empirically-based learning progression for elementary teachers’ PCK for science.
This study is embedded within a multi-year science professional development program for elementary teachers in a large, urban school district. In Year 1 of the project, the teachers (n=44) each completed a scenario-based assessment, as well as evaluations and videorecorded enactments of 3 science lessons. A subset of the teachers (n=8) also each participated in 10 semi-structured interviews. All data were coded using the five essential features of inquiry framework (NRC, 2000) which describes foundational elements of scientific sense-making. Each feature of inquiry from the NRC’s framework is a progress variable in the proposed learning progression. For each progress variable/feature, we analyzed coded data to articulate 4 levels (score range 0-3) of teachers’ knowledge. This rubric was used to score the scenario-based assessments.
Study findings highlight the affordances and limitations of elementary teachers’ knowledge of essential characteristics of scientific practices. First, the teachers tied scientifically-oriented questions to increasing student motivation and interest and to promoting sense-making. For giving priority to evidence, they sought to support students to identify patterns and trends in data, though they often did not distinguish between data, evidence, and explanation. Third, the teachers struggled to define and distinguish between the three essential features of inquiry focused on evidence-based explanations (formulating explanation from evidence, connecting explanations to scientific knowledge, and communicating and justifying explanations). As a result, the teachers’ assessment scores for questions and evidence were significantly higher than their scores for the three explanations progress variables.
This work makes important contributions to research on a) elementary teachers’ knowledge and learning and b) the empirical testing and development of learning progressions, particularly for teachers. Thus far, little research has been conducted on this component of PCK for science teaching, nor have learning progressions for elementary teachers’ PCK for science been developed. Findings from this study provide important insight into nuances of elementary teachers’ knowledge of these 5 essential characteristics of scientific practices, as well as how they can be quantified and rendered measureable. We are currently building on this work to a) conduct longitudinal research to investigate the temporal and relational progression of elementary teachers’ PCK and b) develop an assessment instrument based upon the progress variables defined here to measure elementary teachers’ PCK for science.

Authors

• Cory T. Forbes, University of Iowa

• Mandy Biggers, The Pennsylvania State University - University Park

• Laura Zangori, University of Missouri - Columbia