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1. “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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2. Teachers’ Beliefs in Enacting an Interdisciplinary Engineering Project in Inclusive and General Classroom Contexts

   Lilly, Sarah; McAlister, Anne M.; Chiu, Jennifer (January 2022, Annual meeting of the American Society for Engineering Education.)

   In this study, we examine the reported beliefs of two elementary science teachers who co-taught a four-week engineering project in which students used a computational model to design engineering solutions to reduce water runoff at their school (Lilly et al., 2020). Specifically, we explore the beliefs that elementary science teachers report while enacting an engineering project in two different classroom contexts and how they report that their beliefs may have affected instructional decisions. Classroom contexts included one general class with a larger proportion of students in advanced mathematics and one inclusive class with a larger proportion of students with individualized educational programs. During project implementation, we collected daily surveys and weekly interviews to consider teachers’ beliefs of the class sections, classroom activities, and curriculum. Two researchers performed a thematic analysis of the surveys and interviews to code reflections on teachers’ perceived differences between students in the class sections and their experiences teaching engineering in the class sections. Results suggest that teachers’ beliefs about students in these two different classroom contexts may have influenced opportunities that students had to understand and engage in disciplinary practices. The teachers reported making changes to activities based on their perceptions of student understanding and engagement and to save time which led to different experiences for students in each class section, specifically a more teacher-centered implementation for the inclusive class. Teachers also suggested specific professional development and educative supports to help teachers to support all students to engage in engineering tasks. Thus, it is important to understand teachers’ beliefs to build support for teachers in their implementation of engineering projects that meet the needs of their students and ensure that students have access and support to engage in engineering practices. 

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3. Integrating Computer Science in Science: Considerations for Scale

   Krakowski, A; Greenwald, E; Duke, J; Comstock, M; Roman, N (June 2020, PROCEEDINGS OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE LEARNING SCIENCES 2020)

   Facility with foundational practices in computer science (CS) is increasingly recognized as critical for the 21st century workforce. Developing this capacity and broadening participation in CS disciplines will require learning experiences that can engage a larger and more diverse student population (Margolis et al., 2008). One promising approach involves including CS concepts and practices in required subjects like science. Yet, research on the scalability of educational innovations consistently demonstrates that their successful uptake in formal classrooms depends on teachers’ perceived alignment of the innovations with their goals and expectations for student learning, as well as with the specific needs of their school context and culture (Blumenfeld et al., 2000; Penuel et al., 2007; Bernstein et al., 2016). Research is nascent, however, about how exactly to achieve this alignment and thereby position integrated instructional models for uptake at scale. To contribute to this understanding, we are developing and studying two units for core middle school science classrooms, known as Coding Science Internships. The units are designed to support broader participation in CS, with a particular emphasis on females, by expanding students’ perception of the nature and value of coding. CS and science learning are integrated through a simulated internship model, in which students, as interns, apply science knowledge and use computer programming as a tool to address real-world problems. In one unit, students gain first-hand experience with sequences, loops, and conditionals as they program and debug an interactive scientific model of a coral reef ecosystem under threat. The second unit engages students in learning concepts related to data analysis and visualization, abstraction, and modularity as they code data visualizations using real EPA air quality data. A core goal for both units is to provide students experience with some of the increasingly prevalent ways that computer science is integrated into the work of scientists. 

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4. Fostering critical consciousness: a systematic review of K-12 teachers’ integrations of sociopolitical issues in science and mathematics classrooms

   https://doi.org/10.1186/s43031-025-00126-y  

   Castro, Sheila_K; Brown, Julie_C; Crippen, Kent_J (April 2025, Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science Education Research)

   Abstract Efforts towards providing inclusive science and mathematics education for marginalized students are increasingly found in literature advocating for equity-oriented instruction through supporting students’ critical consciousness. Despite a growing body of research centering on teachers’ development of culturally relevant pedagogies, studies examining how teachers support students’ critical consciousness development are scarce in the context of science and mathematics education. Thus, this systematic review uses empirical literature on critical consciousness to explore teachers’ experiences integrating sociopolitical issues into their science and mathematics classrooms. Using keywords synonymous with critical consciousness, 19 studies were identified through searches in various databases. The 19 studies were analyzed through an iterative coding process to identify how teachers supported students’ critical reflection, critical efficacy, and critical action by analyzing reported incorporation of sociopolitical issues, instructional strategies, and science and mathematical practices. The results highlight four themes: (1) Teachers discussed sociopolitical issues at various distances to the self (2) Classroom discussions and community projects were used to engage students in their critical consciousness (3) Science and mathematics instruction and sociopolitical issues were used synergistically to further student understanding (4) Critical efficacy was seldom explicitly discussed in the studies. Implications of this study include suggestions for future research and practices. 

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5. Elementary Teachers’ Verbal Support of Engineering Integration in an Interdisciplinary Project

   Lilly, S. C.; McAlister, A. M.; Chiu, J. L. (July 2021, 2021 ASEE Annual Conference proceedings)

   null (Ed.)

   This study investigates how teachers verbally support students to engage in integrated engineering, science, and computer science activities across the implementation of an engineering project. This is important as recent research has focused on understanding how precollege students’ engagement in engineering practices is supported by teachers (Watkins et al., 2018) and the benefits of integrating engineering in precollege classes, including improved achievement in science, ability to engage in science and engineering practices inherent to engineering (i.e., engineering design), and increased awareness of engineering (National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council; Katehi et al., 2009). Further, there is a national emphasis on integrating engineering, science, and computer science practices and concepts in science classrooms (NGSS Lead States, 2013). Yet little research has considered how teachers implement these disciplines together within one classroom, particularly elementary teachers who often have little prior experience in teaching engineering and may need support to integrate engineering design into elementary science classroom settings. In particular, this study explores how elementary teachers verbally support science and computer science concepts and practices to be implicitly and explicitly integrated into an engineering project by implementing support intended by curricular materials and/or adding their own verbal support. Implicit use of integration included students engaging in integrated practices without support to know that they were doing so; explicit use of integration included teachers providing support for students to know how and why they were integrating disciplines. Our research questions include: (1) To what extent did teachers provide implicit and explicit verbal support of integration in implementation versus how it was intended in curricular materials? (2) Does this look different between two differently-tracked class sections? Participants include two fifth-grade teachers who co-led two fifth-grade classes through a four-week engineering project. The project focused on redesigning school surfaces to mitigate water runoff. Teachers integrated disciplines by supporting students to create computational models of underlying scientific concepts to develop engineering solutions. One class had a larger proportion of students who were tracked into accelerated mathematics; the other class had a larger proportion of students with individualized educational plans (IEPs). Transcripts of whole class discussion were analyzed for instances that addressed the integration of disciplines or supported students to engage in integrated activities. Results show that all instances of integration were implicit for the class with students in advanced mathematics while most were explicit for the class with students with IEPs. Additionally, support was mainly added by the teachers rather than suggested by curricular materials. Most commonly, teachers added integration between computer science and engineering. Implications of this study are an important consideration for the support that teachers need to engage in the important, but challenging, work of integrating science and computer science practices through engineering lessons within elementary science classrooms. Particularly, we consider how to assist teachers with their verbal supports of integrated curricula through engineering lessons in elementary classrooms. This study then has the potential to significantly impact the state of knowledge in interdisciplinary learning through engineering for elementary students. 

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