Deconstructing Teacher Response for Equitable Instruction in Elementary Science (1994)

• In Event: Transforming Early Science Teaching Through Professional Learning

Abstract

This descriptive, qualitative case study uses first-hand observations, notes, and interviews to explore the noticing and responding skills of one elementary teacher in a four-year NSF-funded science professional development project. The project sought to enhance teachers’ three-dimensional pedagogy and content knowledge; emphasize NGSS practices of modeling and explanation; ensure the value of historically marginalized students’ knowledge and experience; and facilitate equitable student discourse and sensemaking around science concepts in grades 3-6. Noticing theory, applied widely to mathematics, is used here to deconstruct effective science instruction, and newly unpack how one teacher’s responding skills to help her relinquish teacher-centric pedagogical practices, spotlight and build on students’ own relevant lived experience around science, and recruit them into sharing her epistemic authority.

Authors

• Linda K. Preminger, NextGen Science Innovations

• Kathryn N. Hayes, California State University - East Bay