More Like this

1. Fostering Collaboration across Disciplinary Divides to Support MLs: ESOL and Science Teachers Talking to Each Other.

   Mellom, PJ; Hixon, RK; Mativo, J; Weber, JP; De_Jesus, D (February 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-based instruction is essential to achieving access and rigor for all students, including multilingual learners (MLs), the fastest growing subset of the US student population (NASEM, 2018; NCES, 2021). Among the instructional shifts envisioned in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS, NGSS Lead States, 2013), three pose particularly acute and ongoing challenges to science teaching with MLs: 1) developing asset-oriented perspectives and instructional practices (Lee, 2020; Lyon et al., 2018); 2) integrating science and language instruction in mutually supportive ways (Lee et al., 2019; Buxton & Lee, 2023), and; 3) collaboratively engaging all students, including MLs, in science and engineering practices (SEPs) (NASEM, 2018; Grapin, 2019). As these shifts involve knowledge, beliefs, and practices largely absent from traditional science classrooms and teacher preparation curricula, teachers require innovative pedagogical support and professional learning (PL) opportunities to achieve them (NASEM, 2016; NRC, 2015). Crucially, such innovations necessitate greater collaboration between the science and ML education communities (Lee et al., 2019; Marshall, et al., 2021). As part of a 3-year, NSF-funded grant, this project aims to increase collaboration among high school science content and ESOL teachers by implementing a model of professional learning (PL) 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). This study examines how participating teachers discuss content and language and collaborate across disciplinary divides to plan and implement linguistically-sustaining lessons in science classrooms. Data include: teacher reflection logs, transcripts of recorded face-to-face PL sessions, and transcripts of focus groups. The study uses thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) to explore the supports teachers need to facilitate effective multidisciplinary collaboration for NGSS-aligned science teaching with MLs. 

   more » « less
2. Secondary Mathematics Teachers’ Efforts to Engage Students through Academic and Social Support

   Jansen, A. (January 2019, Proceedings of the 41st annual meeting of the North American Chapter for the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education)

   Teachers' efforts to support students, both academically and socially, can play a role in how high school students productively engage with mathematics in the moment. To examine the connection between teacher support and student engagement, we conducted an exploratory mixed-methods study combining data from 20 high school classroom observations with student self-reports taken during the observed activity. Our findings indicate that when teachers provide academic support to their students during a lesson, they are also likely to provide social support. Higher teacher support of both kinds correlates with higher student self-efficacy, as well as social and cognitive engagement. Investigating relationships between observations of teaching and students' self-reports of engagement in-the-moment is a potentially revealing approach for uncovering engaging instructional strategies in secondary mathematics classrooms. 

   more » « less
3. Creating Opportunities for Reflection: Analyzing Middle School Student Work During a Service-Learning Course on Solar Cells

   https://doi.org/10.24908/ijsle.v7i1.4246  

   Ing, Marsha; Huang, Peter; LaCombe, Nohemi; Martinez-Lopez, Yahaira; Haberer, Elaine D (June 2012, International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering, Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship)

   The purpose of this study is to describe how analyzing student work can be used to help undergraduates reflect on the effectiveness of their service-learning experiences. The service-learning collaboration between a university and middle school was designed to increase undergraduates’ and middle school students’ knowledge of solar energy. Three undergraduates enrolled in a service-learning course that covered basic solar energy concepts and formative assessment instructional strategies. The focal point of the course was the implementation of several activities in a middle school classroom that addressed middle school students’ misconceptions about solar energy, such as the amount of solar energy production at low temperatures or on a cloudy day. Data from this study includes student work during a small-group activity on solar cells. Findings suggest that undergraduates can analyze student work and use this information to better understand how their efforts can influence middle school student learning of solar energy. 

   more » « less
4. Factors Associated with High-Quality Computer Science Instruction: Data from a Nationally Representative Sample of High School Teachers

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3328778.3366831  

   Banilower, Eric; Craven, Laura (February 2020, SIGCSE '20: Proceedings of the 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education)

   This paper shares results from surveys administered in spring 2018 to a nationally representative sample of nearly 300 U.S. high school computer science teachers. It describes the nature of high school computer science instruction and the extent to which teacher background, classroom factors, and school context predict the type of instruction students experience. Data from the study were analyzed using path modeling-a form of regression analysis that estimates both direct and indirect effects (i.e., through intermediary variables)-to examine relationships between teacher, classroom, and school factors, and the extent to which teachers (1) emphasize reform-oriented instructional objectives (e.g., learning about real-life applications of computer science) and (2) engage students in computer science practices (e.g., recognizing and defining computational problems). Sample findings include that students are most commonly engaged in activities related to testing and refining computational artifacts, but are less often engaged in aspects of computer science related to end users (e.g., create a computational artifact to be used by someone else). The path analysis highlights several factors that are related to greater engagement of students in the computer science practices, including teacher participation in professional development and the use of coherent instructional materials. 

   more » « less
5. The Ripple Effect of Epistemological Framing: Linking Epistemology, Teacher Moves, and Student Learning

   Southerland, S. A.; Schellinger, J.; Jaber, L.Z.; Morandi, S.; Krishnan, H.; & Tekkumru-Kisa, M. (January 2021, Annual meeting program American Educational Research Association)

   null (Ed.)

   This work explores epistemological framing dynamics in a middle school biology classroom and how such dynamics shape student engagement and learning opportunities. Our data sources include student and teacher interviews, classroom videos of three multi-day lessons with a focus on argumentation, and work products collected across one academic year. Our analysis reveals that while the teacher made room for students to generate and negotiate ideas, brief but influential moves emphasizing single correct answers undermined students’ sensemaking. These instructional moves, while only occupying a small amount of instructional time, framed students’ sensemaking efforts not as a process to seek the strongest explanation from a number of possibilities, but rather to wait for the correct explanation to be revealed from an authority. 

   more » « less