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1. Opportunities and Challenges of Facilitating Educator’s Understanding and Use of the Next Generation Science Standards

   Hapgood, S.; Czerniak, C.; Gotwals, A. W.; Wright, T.; Fulmer, G.; Hand, B.; Lehman, E.; Gane, B.; Songer, N.; Newstadt, M. (April 2021, NARST 94th Annual International Conference)

   null (Ed.)

   This symposium will focus on five projects’ professional development efforts to enhance educators’ understanding and use of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Involving educators from preschool to middle school levels in diverse contexts, each project has worked in this problem space in different ways. Of central importance to all the projects is how the NGSS necessitate productive classroom discourse, but the projects differ on how to support educators to achieve “rich science talk.” For example, an “assessment for learning” lens guides one group’s work, while recognizing language and argument as epistemic tools is the driving conceptual framework for another. In this symposium, project leaders discuss the decisions and dilemmas of, and the lessons learned from, their work. This highly interactive session includes brief introductions from each project followed by time for interaction with the projects’ researchers and materials. Projects will bring materials such as scaffolds for collaborative instructional planning, a formative classroom observation tool to support teachers’ use of productive classroom discourse, and examples of instructional units with 7 curricular features designed to support the vision of the NGSS. The session will culminate with time for crosstalk and discussion. 

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2. Opportunities and Challenges of Facilitating Educator’s Understanding and Use of the Next Generation Science Standards [Symposium presentation]

   Hapgood, S. (January 2021, NARST 94th Annual International Conference.)

   null (Ed.)

   This symposium will focus on five projects’ professional development efforts to enhance educators’ understanding and use of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Involving educators from preschool to middle school levels in diverse contexts, each project has worked in this problem space in different ways. Of central importance to all the projects is how the NGSS necessitate productive classroom discourse, but the projects differ on how to support educators to achieve “rich science talk.” For example, an “assessment for learning” lens guides one group’s work, while recognizing language and argument as epistemic tools is the driving conceptual framework for another. In this symposium, project leaders discuss the decisions and dilemmas of, and the lessons learned from, their work. This highly interactive session includes brief introductions from each project followed by time for interaction with the projects’ researchers and materials. Projects will bring materials such as scaffolds for collaborative instructional planning, a formative classroom observation tool to support teachers’ use of productive classroom discourse, and examples of instructional units with 7 curricular features designed to support the vision of the NGSS. The session will culminate with time for crosstalk and discussion. 

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3. Bringing Research into the Classroom: Bacteriophage Discovery Connecting University Scientists, Students, and Faculty to Rural K-12 Teachers, Students, and Administrators

   https://doi.org/10.15695/jstem/v7i2.08  

   Brandl, Rayelynn L; Pavlovich, Christina L; Pedulla, Marisa L (February 2024, The Journal of STEM Outreach)

   Bringing Research into the Classroom (BRIC) engaged rural K-12 science teachers in sustained, mentored science research. BRIC’s goal was to equip teachers with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to provide high-quality biomedical research opportunities for K-12 students and teachers. Programmatic elements included authentic, place-based, microbiology outreach in K-12 classrooms, summer teacher research academies focused on content knowledge and research, and a capstone symposium. Over 9,000 Montana students collected and tested environmental samples to isolate new-toscience bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria). University scientists, faculty, and students mentored K-12 teachers and students during classroom outreach visits and teacher research academies. BRIC aimed to increase teacher and student bacteriophage content knowledge and research skills through meaningful, mentored research projects. BRIC researchers hypothesized greater program impacts from intensive teacher professional development combined with classroom outreach, compared to classroom outreach visits alone. Program evaluation compared two cohorts of teachers, which each received all programmatic elements through a four-year, staggered rollout. Teachers and students were assessed for gains in knowledge, skills, and science attitudes. A subset of our evaluation instruments and outcomes, program dissemination, lessons learned, and recommendations for replicating the BRIC model are discussed. 

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4. 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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5. A Study of Teacher Sensemaking about Productive Student Talk in Science Classrooms

   Vande Zande, D. & (January 2021, National Association for Research in Science Teaching Annual Meeting 2021)

   null (Ed.)

   One way to support teachers' learning to facilitate the recent reform vision (NRC, 2012) in their classrooms is through professional development (PD). We explored a biology teacher’s (Monica) sensemaking during the PD that focused on facilitating productive science classroom discourse to understand her responses to the PD in terms of teaching science by engaging students in productive talk in science classrooms. Using both video and interview data, we analyzed the process of her sensemaking about facilitating (productive) talk during the PD and the meaning she was making of productive talk. Our analysis indicated that Monica participated in sensemaking mostly about her students' participation in talk. Throughout the PD conversations, she rarely focused on what she could do (or could have done) to facilitate student talk without the PD facilitators' pressing. This is supported by our analysis of the interviews with Monica, which showed that the sense that she was making about productive talk mostly focuses on students' contributions to the talk and their accountability to reasoning, scientific knowledge, and sensemaking. These findings provide implications for facilitating teachers’ sensemaking around new instructional practices and reforms within PD contexts. 

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