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Though it has been nearly ten years since the Framework (NRC, 2013) and NGSS have been released, there remains a persistent need for effective professional learning (PL) that supports teachers’ knowledge of the NGSS and their science and engineering content knowledge. Grades 3-5 rural teachers across four states participated in a week-long PL with ongoing supports. We asked to what extent the intervention enhanced teachers’ knowledge of NGSS-aligned teaching strategies and science and engineering content knowledge. We developed a vignette that embedded practical planning and teaching experiences that align with the NGSS vision. More specifically, the vignette focused on planning and classroom instruction with both hypothetical and realistic situations that were brief and incomplete and had open questions that targeted their own perspective. A purposefully selected subgroup of teachers (n=33) representing a range of grades and the four states were asked to complete the vignette in Spring 2024. We are following the six-step thematic analysis process (Braun & Clark, 2012). Findings indicate teachers needed more support with the following themes: what the three dimensions are, how the three dimensions should be integrated, how phenomena should be implemented, and how to align the lesson with the standard.
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Investigating the mangle of teaching oxidation–reduction with the VisChem approach: problematising symbolic traditions that undermine chemistry concept development
Specific to the topic of oxidation–reduction (redox), teachers are obligated by the discipline to prioritise symbolic traditions such as writing equations, documenting oxidation states, and describing changes ( e.g. , what undergoes oxidation/reduction). Although the chemistry education research community endorses connecting the vertices of Johnstone's triangle, how symbolic traditions undermine chemistry concept development, especially during lesson planning and teaching, is underexplored. To clarify this gap, we use the Mangle of Practice framework to unpack the clash between symbolic vs. particulate-focused instruction. We investigate teachers’ ( n = 3) co-planning and micro-teaching of a redox learning design at the VisChem Institute-2 using a narrative approach and video research methods. Our results show that the traditions of redox instruction are problematically entrenched in chemistry symbols. Mnemonics, the single replacement reaction scheme, and the written net ionic equation all constrain instruction focused on chemical mechanism and causality in various ways. We assert that the nature of redox knowledge in terms of what is worth teaching and learning must first be re-evaluated for reform-based efforts to succeed. Implications and suggestions for chemistry teaching and research at both secondary and tertiary levels are discussed.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1908121
- PAR ID:
- 10417709
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Chemistry Education Research and Practice
- ISSN:
- 1109-4028
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1039/d2rp00321j
