Learning From Text: Examining Teacher Thinking and Practice in Advanced Placement Environmental Science

• In Event: 29.083 - Poster Session 4
  In Poster Session: 29.083-2 - Innovation in Science Instruction and Science Teacher Preparation

Abstract

This comparative case study sought to understand how four teachers worked with texts in an Advanced Placement Environmental Science course redesigned to support text-based learning. In science education, an emphasis on inquiry- and project-based learning tends to focus on building content knowledge with scant attention to texts (Osborne, 2002); in addition, research suggests teachers have little experience supporting text-based learning (Greenleaf et al., 2011). The Interconnected Model for Professional Growth (Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2002) was used to analyze changes in teacher thinking and practice over a five-month period. Findings from this study contribute to the fields of disciplinary literacy and teacher learning by adding to theory about a particularly hard-to-learn (Billet, 2006) aspect of secondary subject-matter instruction: learning from text.

Author

• Sara Nachtigal, Educurious