As part of learning to teach, teachers must learn to use a range of teaching practices. In this longitudinal study the authors explore how novice elementary teachers learn to engage in a set of high-leverage science teaching practices, such as "leading a science sensemaking discussion" and "setting up and managing small-group…

With the shifts in science education emphasizing the integration of science practices with science content, there is a need to know how teachers understand those science practices within their teaching practice. Our primary research question was, "What do novice elementary teachers know about the science practices, in terms of what the…

This longitudinal research examines the knowledge of, beliefs about, and planned use of the science practices of five novice elementary or primary teachers during their science methods course, student teaching, and first year of teaching. To answer our research questions, we collected lesson plans and conducted interviews after the teachers taught…

Preservice elementary teachers need to be able to engage young students in science practices but may not have extensive experiences with those practices. They also may have contrasting beliefs about them, which inform their teaching practice. To understand preservice teachers' beliefs related to science practices, we focus on the connections they…

The purpose of this study was to determine how elementary teachers used scientific language during a whole-class discussion to describe 3 biological phenomena (interactions, dependent relationships, and interdependent relationships) with and without educative curricula. Findings revealed that the ways in which the 6 teachers enacted the discussion…

This article identifies the principles that informed the design of educative curriculum supports for teaching science texts and reports how elementary teachers chose to use the supports, which included identified learning goals, discussion moves to support sensemaking with the text, and narratives of teachers' uses of text in science teaching. The…

New reform documents underscore the importance of learning both the practices and content of science. This integration of practices and content requires sophisticated teaching that does not often happen in elementary classrooms. Educative curriculum materials--materials explicitly designed to support teacher and student learning--have been posited…

The purpose of this study was to identify evidence in student work of teachers' uptake of educative features in educative curriculum materials. These are features in curriculum materials designed with the specific intent of supporting teacher learning and enactment. This study was prompted by previous work on educative curriculum materials and the…

Science education reforms articulate a vision of ambitious science teaching where teachers engage students in sensemaking discussions and emphasise the integration of scientific practices with science content. Learning to teach in this way is complex, and there are few examples of sensemaking discussions in schools where textbook lessons and…

Educative curriculum materials present a promising mechanism for promoting more ambitious science teaching in elementary classrooms, including engaging students in science practices. Integrating science practices with science content is emphasized in new education reforms. Elementary teachers, however, face challenges in engaging children in…

New reform documents underscore the importance of integrating science practices into the learning of science. This integration requires sophisticated teaching that does not often happen. Educative curriculum materials--materials explicitly designed to support teacher and student learning--have been posited as a way to support teachers to achieve…

The purpose of this study was to describe how teachers used and adapted a set of curriculum materials that included opportunities for students to engage in scientific practices. Two-fourth-grade teachers in the same school were observed and interviewed. Findings revealed that teachers enacted almost every type of scientific practice in the…

Curriculum materials serve as a key conceptual tool for science teachers, and better understanding how science teachers use these tools could help to improve both curriculum design and theory related to teacher learning and decision-making. The authors review the literature on teachers and science curriculum materials. The review is organised…

Part of the work of teaching elementary science involves evaluating elementary students' work. Depending on the nature of the student work, this task can be straightforward. However, evaluating elementary students' representations of their science learning in the form of scientific models can pose significant challenges for elementary teachers. To…

Teachers' "curricular role identities" are those dimensions of their professional identities concerned with the use of curriculum materials. In a previous study, we developed and tested a survey instrument designed to measure preservice elementary teachers' development of curricular role identity for science teaching through their use of science…