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1. “He got a glimpse of the joys of understanding” – The role of epistemic empathy in teacher learning

   https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2021.1936534  

   Jaber, Lama Z. (June 2021, Journal of the Learning Sciences)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract Background. Efforts to promote reform-based instruction have overlooked the import of affect in teacher learning. Drawing on prior work, I argue that teachers’ affective experiences in the discipline are integral to their learning how to teach the discipline. Moreover, I suggest that both affective and epistemological aspects of teachers’ experiences can serve to cultivate their epistemic empathy—the capacity for tuning into and valuing someone’s intellectual and emotional experience within an epistemic activity— in ways that support student-centered instruction. Methods. Using a case study approach, I examine the learning journey of one preservice teacher, Keith, who after having expressed strong skepticism about responsive teaching, came to value and take up responsive teaching in his instruction. Findings. The analysis identifies epistemological and affective dynamics in Keith’s interactions with students and in his relationship with science that fostered his epistemic empathy. By easing his worries about arriving at correct answers, Keith’s epistemic empathy shifted his attention toward supporting students’ sensemaking and nurturing their relationships with the discipline. Contributions. These findings highlights teachers’ affective experiences in the discipline as integral to their learning how to teach; they also call attention to epistemic empathy as an important aspect of and target for teacher learning. 

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2. “Well that's how the kids feel!”—Epistemic empathy as a driver of responsive teaching

   https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21726  

   Jaber, Lama_Z; Dini, Vesal; Hammer, David (August 2021, Journal of Research in Science Teaching)

   Abstract While research shows that responsive teaching fosters students' disciplinary learning and equitable opportunities for participation, there is yet much to know about how teachers come to be responsive to their students' experiences in the science classroom. In this work, we set out to examine whether and how engaging teachersas learnersin doing science may support responsive instructional practices. We draw on data from a year‐long blended‐online science professional development (PD) program that began with an emphasis on teachers' doing science and progressed to supporting their attention to their students' doing science. By analyzing videos from teachers' classrooms collected throughout the PD, we found that teachers became more stable in attending and responding to their students' thinking. In this article, we present evidence from teachers' reflections that this stability was supported by the teachers' intellectual and emotional experiences as learners. Specifically, we argue that engaging in extended scientific inquiry provided a basis for the teachers havingepistemic empathyfor their students—their tuning into and appreciating their students'intellectualandemotionalexperiences in science, which in turn supported teachers' responsiveness in the classroom. 

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3. “I Understand Their Frustrations a Little Bit Better”: Elementary Teachers’ Affective Stances in Engineering in an Online Learning Program

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--33969  

   Portsmore, Merredith; Watkins, Jessica; Swanson, Rebecca (January 2020, ASEE annual conference)

   As K-12 engineering education becomes more ubiquitous in the U.S, increased attention has been paid to preparing the heterogeneous group of in-service teachers who have taken on the challenge of teaching engineering. Standards have emerged for professional development along with research on teacher learning in engineering that call for teachers to facilitate and support engineering learning environments. Given that many teachers may not have experienced engineering practice calls have been made to engage teaches K-12 teachers in the “doing” of engineering as part of their preparation. However, there is a need for research studying more specific nature of the “doing” and the instructional implications for engaging teachers in “doing” engineering. In general, to date, limited time and constrained resources necessitate that many professional development programs for K-12 teachers to engage participants in the same engineering activities they will enact with their students. While this approach supports teachers’ familiarity with curriculum and ability to anticipate students’ ideas, there is reason to believe that these experiences may not be authentic enough to support teachers in developing a rich understanding of the “doing” of engineering. K-12 teachers are often familiar with the materials and curricular solutions, given their experiences as adults, which means that engaging in the same tasks as their students may not be challenging enough to develop their understandings about engineering. This can then be consequential for their pedagogy: In our prior work, we found that teachers’ linear conceptions of the engineering design process can limit them from recognizing and supporting student engagement in productive design practices. Research on the development of engineering design practices with adults in undergraduate and professional engineering settings has shown significant differences in how adults approach and understand problems. Therefore, we conjectured that engaging teachers in more rigorous engineering challenges designed for adult engineering novices would more readily support their developing rich understandings of the ways in which professional engineers move through the design process. We term this approach meaningful engineering for teachers, and it is informed by work in science education that highlights the importance of learning environments creating a need for learners to develop and engage in disciplinary practices. We explored this approach to teachers’ professional learning experiences in doing engineering in an online graduate program for in-service teachers in engineering education at Tufts University entitled the Teacher Engineering Education Program (teep.tufts.edu). In this exploratory study, we asked: 1. How did teachers respond to engaging in meaningful engineering for teachers in the TEEP program? 2. What did teachers identify as important things they learned about engineering content and pedagogy? This paper focuses on one theme that emerged from teachers’ reflections. Our analysis found that teachers reported that meaningful engineering supported their development of epistemic empathy (“the act of understanding and appreciating someone's cognitive and emotional experience within an epistemic activity”) as a result of their own affective experiences in doing engineering that required significant iteration as well as using novel robotic materials. We consider how epistemic empathy may be an important aspect of teacher learning in K-12 engineering education and the potential implications for designing engineering teacher education. 

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4. Learning to Listen: Cultivating Pre-Service Teachers’ Attunement to Student Thinking

   https://doi.org/10.1080/1046560X.2024.2302694  

   Davidson, Shannon G; Jaber, Lama Z; Metcalf, Allison (January 2024, Journal of Science Teacher Education)

   Reform efforts in science and mathematics education highlight students’ experiences and sensemaking repertoires as valuable resources for instruction. Yet, there is much to learn about how to cultivate teachers’ capacity for eliciting, understanding, and responding to students’ contributions. We argue that the first step of this cultivation is teachers’ learning to listen: to attune and attend to the novel ways that students make sense of scientific phenomena and the natural world. While this notion of listening as critical to teaching is intuitive, the work behind it can be challenging. As such, this study explores promises and tensions of learning to listen through the journey of one pre-service teacher and examines her shifting views on teaching as related to her reflective practice around the work of listening. Focusing on listening as a core tenet of teaching, we discuss implications for teacher education to center listening as an instructional target for teacher learning in science and mathematics education. 

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5. Co-Constructing and Sharing STEAM Knowledge through a Culturally Relevant Literacy-Based Early Childhood School-University Partnership

   Caudle, Lori; Harper, Frances K.; Quinn, Margaret; Greene, Darelene (January 2021, Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference of the Journal Scuola Democratica)

   null (Ed.)

   Through school-university partnerships that situate learning within culturally relevant educational experiences, faculty, preservice teachers, and school-based educators are able to co-construct and share scientific knowledge. This knowledge consists of pedagogical content knowledge and funds of knowledge that include both knowledge and skills developed in cultural context that have evolved historically. In early childhood education, culturally relevant Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) learning experiences are particularly important for young children's cognitive and social emotional development. This paper describes how intentional co-planning and collaboration to celebrate the US Read across America Day provided over 100 preschool children in eight classrooms with access to STEAM lessons virtually led by university preservice teachers in partnership with educators in the school. These activities engaged children in exploring art, computer science, physical science, engineering, and mathematics within the context of a culturally relevant version of the fairy tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Lessons implemented as part of school-university partnerships support Black and Latinx children's development of a sense of belonging in STEAM. Further, these experiences enhance teacher candidates' abilities to engage in culturally responsive STEAM teaching while receiving ongoing guidance and education from university faculty and school-based educators. Teacher education programs within higher education institutions should embrace school- university partnerships as contexts for the development of shared scientific knowledge and discourse since the benefits are twofold. First, children and teachers gain access to, and engage with, innovative STEAM experiences. Second, preservice teachers learn culturally relevant research-based instructional strategies through university coursework situated in authentic learning experiences; thus, their learning as teacher candidates is enhanced through planning, implementation, evaluation, and critical reflection. 

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