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Prospective elementary teachers must engage in the science and engineering practices as learners of science before studying the pedagogies that prepare them to plan and implement science instruction. One way to enhance scientific literacy competence is by facilitating model-based inquiry instruction. Teachers possessing modeling and representational competence and knowledge of “epistemology of science” may carry out model-based inquiry with fidelity motivating students’ participation to construct written, oral, and visual (i.e., model) explanations and representations of phenomena that reveal “epistemologies for science” and conceptual understanding. We propose situating model-based inquiry in a physical science course for teachers where prospective elementary teachers are learners of science in a practice-centered environment. How do prospective elementary teachers explain and model physical phenomena?
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The Science Practice of Asking Questions About Phenomena: Shifting Towards Generating Explanatory Questions
To center the science practices and make coherent the science experiences of prospective elementary teachers in an undergraduate elementary education program, we implemented a model-based inquiry approach across the physical science for elementary teachers and elementary science education methods courses. Prospective elementary teachers constructed scientifically oriented questions as science learners in the physical science course when presented with a phenomenon that would guide a set of investigations and the development of a visual model and written explanation to describe how or why the phenomenon occurred. The proposed presentation focuses on the questions prospective elementary teachers ask, throughout the semester, upon observing five different phenomena for the first time.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2142641
- PAR ID:
- 10466269
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- NARST
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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