April Lynn Luehmann

Science Teachers’ Perceived Benefits of an Out‐of‐school Enrichment Programme: Identity needs and university affordances

Science enrichment programmes housed outside traditional school settings offer unique opportunities to access and use authentic scientific tools and practices, especially for urban students whose school science experiences often lack resources. Yet opportunities to access these tools and practices are realized only when science teachers value them sufficiently to take advantage of them. This study examines how eight urban secondary science teachers evaluated a specific out‐of‐school science enrichment programme—a one‐year partnership with a local university science outreach centre, which culminated in a half‐day laboratory experience for their students. Teachers’ perceptions were captured through interviews and surveys. Findings indicate that these teachers came to identify and value many of the potential benefits for out‐of‐school enrichment programmes reported in the literature as well as some additional ones. The teachers’ also showed a shift over time with respect to their perceptions of the value of the out‐of‐school experience, moving from an initial focus on increasing test scores toward a greater appreciation for its impact on students’ motivation and identity development. The study offers insight into secondary science students’ and teachers’ identity needs, and what universities can offer to address them.

Students’ Perspectives of a Science Enrichment Programme: Out‐of‐school inquiry as access

Science enrichment programmes housed outside traditional school settings can offer students from traditionally under‐resourced schools valuable opportunities to access authentic scientific tools and practices. The present study contributes to our understanding of this potential and how it can best be realised through an analysis of the students’ own perspectives on a specific out‐of‐school programme—a one‐year partnership with a university‐based science outreach programme, which culminated in a half‐day laboratory experience for a total of 292 secondary students (ages 11–18 years). Extensive data were collected on this experience, including detailed field notes and video recordings of the classes’ visits to the university as well as the planning meetings with teachers at the beginning and end of the school year, surveys of the participating students, and surveys and interviews of the teachers, and were analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively using a grounded theory approach. Building on the valuable perspectives of the participating students, and comparing them with those of their eight teachers, this study confirms that carefully designed collaborative out‐of‐school inquiry programmes have the potential to broaden students’ (especially those from under‐resourced schools) experiences of science as well as bridge them to school science.

Blogs' Affordances for Identity Work: Insights Gained from an Urban Teacher's Blog

Reform-minded teachers encounter formidable challenges, especially in the difficult conditions of typical urban settings. Maintaining an online web log (or “blog”) has been suggested as a powerful tool to support their practice and continuing professional development. To further articulate how and why blogs can provide teachers with unique opportunities for identity work, I examine the blog of “Ms. Frizzle,” one reform-minded urban middle school science teacher and exceptional blogger. Four recurring features of her blogging, which are all critical elements of identity work, are identified and analyzed: (a) constructing stories of multifaceted aspects of science teaching that are often in tension with one another; (b) simultaneously supporting and being supported by a professional community that spanned traditional boundaries; (c) trying on and developing a variety of interrelated professional sub-identities; and (d) positioning herself centrally within a larger professional discourse. Various forms of investment that were instrumental to Ms. Frizzles identity work through blogging are also identified and discussed.

Web 2.0 Technologies, New Media Literacies, and Science Education: Exploring the Potential to Transform

The affordances of a new group of technologies commonly referred to as Web 2.0 align strongly with many of the aims for reform-based science education: positioning students centrally in the discourse of science, nurturing collaborative work among a community of learners, engaging in authentic practices with real audiences, supporting claims with evidence, and engaging in science in diverse and complementary ways. These social networking technologies such as blogging, wikis, and 3D virtual worlds prioritize collaboration, position users centrally as knowledge producers (not just consumers), and invite users to engage in developing arguments that easily link to and build on multimodal sources of support. Thus, these technologies hold potential for supporting science educators in engaging learners differently and thus offer the potential to meet many of the goals of reform-based, social constructivist science learning. Using New Media Literacies as a theoretical lens because of its focus on meaning-making, this chapter explores the potential of these tools to transform science education.

Practice-Linked Identity Development in Science Teacher Education

Starting a teacher education program, for many, begins an entirely new adventure – the route to becoming a special kind of professional person. The application process foregrounds the many, varied and rich building blocks each future teacher brings to bear on their future learning project including things like growing up with a mother as a teacher, having served in the Peace Corp, teaching or developing summer camps, working 20 years as an engineer, or earning a bachelor’s degree in environmental science.