Using Heuristics as Transformative Tools to Foster Identity Development of Elementary Teachers of Science

• In Event: Poster Session 6
  In Poster Session: Division K Section 3 Poster Session 1

Abstract

The National Board of Professional Teaching Standards promotes systematic reflective thinking on teaching experiences to improve teaching practices. However, teachers often have difficulty transferring the pedagogical theories they generate into practice. This study investigates the utility of heuristics as mediators between theory generation and teaching enactments. As a participant observer, the researcher interviewed preservice elementary teachers who engaged heuristics before enacting science lessons with third and fourth graders during an afterschool science program. Preservice teachers reported that heuristics helped them switch into their teaching roles, translate theory into practice, meet specific pedagogical goals, evaluate themselves over time, and feel confident over future identity development. Heuristics foster higher quality transformation of “who teachers are” to “who teachers want to become”.

Author

• Adam Devitt, New York University