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1. Teaching Science Literacy for MLs: Examining Shifts in Teacher Practices to Make Science Accessible.

   Hixon, RK; Mellom, PJ; Mativo, J; Weber, JP; De_Jesus, D (March 2026, 2026 Annual International Conference of the American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL))

   There is broad consensus among researchers and educators that locally contextualized, language-rich science and engineering-based instruction exploring scientific phenomena is essential to achieving access and rigor for all students, including multilingual learners (MLs), the fastest growing subset of the U.S. student population (NASEM, 2018; NCES, 2021). For this study, we are looking at what it means to teach language and content in an integrated manner to build science literacy in high school science classrooms that include ML students. As part of a 3-year, NSF-funded exploratory grant, this project aims to increase science literacy among MLs by implementing a model of professional learning (PL) for high school teachers in which they learn how to embed the Instructional Conversation (IC) pedagogy (Mellom, Hixon & Weber, 2019; Saunders and Goldenberg, 1999) within standards-aligned scientific and engineering practices (SEPs) (NGSS Lead States, 2013). Under this model, high school science teachers collaborate with high school ESOL teachers to co-develop and implement linguistically-sustaining instructional materials that provide MLs with intentionally scaffolded opportunities to use scientific dialogue as they collaborate to explain natural phenomena. This study examines how the PL experiences supported shifts in the teachers’ instructional practices to foster ML scientific literacy. Data includes: teacher reflection logs, teacher-generated artifacts (e.g. differentiated Task Cards, and multimodal, scaffolded lesson materials), rubric-based data (Luning & Wyatt, 2010), and field notes from classroom observations. The study uses thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) and text analysis (Kuckartz, 2019) of these data to explore how the IC pedagogical strategies promote Teachers’ skills needed to enact three instructional shifts identified by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) as particularly relevant to science teaching with MLs: asset-based science teaching with multilingual learners (MLs); integrated content and language instruction; collaboratively engaging MLs in Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs). 

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2. Professional Learning in the Midst of Teaching Computer Science

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3230977.3230983  

   Hubbard, Aleata; D'Silva, Katie (January 2018, Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research - ICER '18)

   The recent groundswell of interest in computer science education across many countries has created a pressing need for computing teachers at the secondary level. To satisfy this demand, some educational systems are drawing from their pool of in-service teachers trained in other disciplines. While these transitioning teachers can learn about computing pedagogy and subject matter at professional learning workshops, daily teaching experiences will also be a source of their learning. We studied a co-teaching program where instructional responsibilities were distributed between teachers and volunteers from the tech industry to explore how specific teaching practices supported teacher learning, with a focus on pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Through qualitative analysis of questionnaire and interview data gathered from three teachers during one school year, we identified the practices they engaged in and how their learning related to the enactment of those practices. Our results highlight several factors that influenced the ways in which teaching practices provided participants with opportunities to learn PCK: (a) active participation of students and volunteers; (b) teacher’s level of content knowledge; (c) interdependent practices; and (d) immediacy of the classroom environment. 

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3. Citizen science in elementary classrooms: a tale of two teachers

   https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1470070  

   Carrier, Sarah J; Scharen, Danielle R; Hayes, Meredith; Smith, P Sean; Bruce, Anna; Craven, Laura (September 2024, Frontiers in education)

   IntroductionElementary teachers face many challenges when including reform-based science instruction in their classrooms, and some teachers have chosen to enhance their science instruction by introducing students to citizen science (CS) projects. When CS projects are incorporated in formal school settings, students have an opportunity to engage in real-world projects as they collect and make sense of data, yet relatively few CS projects offer substantial guidance for teachers seeking to implement the projects, placing a heavy burden on teacher learning. MethodsFramed in theory on teacher relationships with curricula, we prepared science standards-aligned educative support materials for two CS projects. We present convergent mixed methods research that examines two teachers’ contrasting approaches to including school-based citizen science (SBCS) in their fifth-grade classrooms, each using support materials for one of the two CS projects. Both are veteran teachers at under-resourced Title 1 (an indicator of the high percentage of the students identified as economically disadvantaged) rural schools in the southeastern United States. We document the teachers’ interpretations and use of SBCS materials for the CS projects with data from classroom observations, instructional logs, teacher interviews, and student focus groups. ResultsOne teacher adapted the materials to include scaffolding to position students for success in data collection and analysis. In contrast, the second teacher adapted the SBCS support materials to maintain a teacher-centered approach to instruction, identifying perceptions of students’ limited abilities and limited instructional time as constraining factors. DiscussionWe discuss the intersection of CS projects in formal education and opportunities for engaging students in authentic science data collection, analysis, and sense-making. The two teachers’ stories identify the influences of school context and the need for teacher support to encourage elementary teachers’ use of SBCS instruction to supplement their science instruction. 

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4. Integrating computational thinking into middle school science through co-designed storylines

   Biddy, Q.; Gendreau Chakarov, A.; Jacobs, J.; Recker, M.; Sumner, T.; Penuel, W. (January 2020, Association for Science Teacher Education)

   We describe a professional development model that supports teachers to integrate computational thinking (CT) and computer science principles into middle school science and STEM classes. The model includes the collaborative design (co-design) (Voogt et al., 2015) of storylines or curricular units aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013) that utilize programmable sensors such as those contained on the micro:bit. Teachers spend several workshops co-designing CT-integrated storylines and preparing to implement them with their own students. As part of this process, teachers develop or modify curricular materials to ensure a focus on coherent, student driven instruction through the investigation of scientific phenomena that are relevant to the students and utilize sensor technology. Teachers implement the storylines and meet to collaboratively reflect on their instructional practices as well as their students’ learning. Throughout this cyclical, multi-year process, teachers develop expertise in CT-integrated science instruction as they plan for and use instructional practices that align with three dimension science teaching and foreground computational thinking. Throughout the professional learning process, teachers alternate between wearing their “student hats” and their “teacher hats”, in order to maintain both a student and teacher perspective as they co-design and reflect on their implementation of CT-integrated units. This paper illustrates two teachers’ experiences of the professional development process over a two-year period, including their learning, planning, implementation, and reflection on two co-designed units. 

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5. Teachers' Instructional Vision and Practices around Promoting Productive Talk in Science Classrooms

   Akcil-Okan, O; Tekkumku-Kisa, M. (January 2022, National Association for Research in Science Teaching Annual Meeting)

   To support students’ learning, a wide body of research and instructional reforms emphasize students’ engagement in productive talk with rigorous thinking in science classrooms. However, despite efforts, productive science talk is not yet prevalent in many classrooms. To gain more insight into the generation of productive talk in science classrooms, we explored a group of science teachers’ instructional vision and practices with respect to promoting classroom discourse. Our analysis revealed variations in teachers’ instructional visions and quality of instruction in their classrooms. In most cases, there was an alignment between teachers’ instructional vision and practices. We observed high quality instruction in terms of facilitating productive discussions and rigorous students’ thinking in the classroom of teachers with sophisticated instructional vision. Low instructional quality is observed in the classrooms of teachers with less articulate instructional vision of productive classroom discussion. We contend that exploring science teachers’ instructional vision and their instructional practices together can provide a powerful lens to identify the areas of improvement for promoting high-quality instruction in many science classrooms. Moreover, working towards the development of a shared vision of instruction by stakeholders and teachers can support enactment of high-quality science instruction. 

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