Julie A. Bianchini

Teaching the Nature of Science through Inquiry to Prospective Elementary Teachers: A Tale of Two Researchers.

The teacher as researcher, Colburn, and the researcher, Bianchini, investigated Colburns use of inquiry to teach the nature of science to prospective elementary teachers; we attempted to identify those aspects of the nature of science addressed through inquiry instruction and the varied contexts in which such insights arose. We began by videotaping small group inquiries and whole class deliberations during three units of Colburns inquiry-oriented general science course. We then conducted separate qualitative analyses of the resulting 20 h of videotaped data. Colburn, the teacher and informant, adopted an emic perspective and employed examples of explicit and implicit deliberations and demonstrations of the nature of science to construct his case. Bianchini also used an emic perspective, but examined only what teacher and students explicitly identified as examples of and insights into the nature of science. Taken together, our analyses highlight the difficulties in presenting a cogent and comprehensive picture of the nature of science to students, the teachers pivotal role in initiating discussions of what science is and how scientists work, and the strengths and limitations of using classroom-based research to investigate nature of science instruction.

Crossing the Border from Science Student to Science Teacher: Preservice Teachers’ Views and Experiences Learning to Teach Inquiry

Preservice science teachers face numerous challenges in understanding and teaching science as inquiry. Over the course of their teacher education program, they are expected to move from veteran science students with little experience learning their discipline through inquiry instruction to beginning science teachers adept at implementing inquiry in their own classrooms. In this study, we used Aikenhead’s (Sci Educ 81: 217–238, 1997, Science Educ 85:180–188, 2001) notion of border crossing to describe this transition preservice teachers must make from science student to science teacher. We examined what one cohort of eight preservice secondary science teachers said, did, and wrote as they both conducted a two-part inquiry investigation and designed an inquiry lesson plan. We conducted two types of qualitative analyses. One, we drew from Costa (Sci Educ 79: 313–333, 1995) to group our preservice teacher participants into one of four types of potential science teachers. Two, we identified successes and struggles in preservice teachers’ attempts to negotiate the cultural border between veteran student and beginning teacher. In our implications, we argue that preservice teachers could benefit from explicit opportunities to navigate the border between learning and teaching science; such opportunities could deepen their conceptions of inquiry beyond those exclusively fashioned as either student or teacher.

Teaching While Still Learning to Teach: Beginning Science Teachers’ Views, Experiences, and Classroom Practices

In this chapter, I highlight what researchers have learned about the views, experiences, and classroom practices of beginning science teachers. I discuss three areas of study: the bridging of teacher education and classroom practice, the strengths and limitations of induction programs, and the influence of school context and individual agency. I also identify ways to improve research on beginning teachers, for example, by foregrounding the theory of teacher learning, framing the study, and/or by attending more closely to the study’s grain size (the number of participants included, the kinds of teacher education routes examined, or the length of the study). Finally, I suggest more research is needed that follows beginning science teachers from preservice teacher education through several years (rather than one) of classroom practice; and/or that traces mis/connections across induction, beginning teachers’ classroom practices, and student learning.

Adhesion to the host cell surface is sufficient to mediate Listeria monocytogenes entry into epithelial cells

Listeria monocytogenes invades epithelial cells by binding to the host cell receptor E-cadherin, a component of the adherens junction. E-cadherin serves primarily as an adhesive to mediate bacterial invasion; the canonical E-cadherin/catenin/F-actin complex is not required for this process.

Developing an Adaptive Disposition for Supporting English Language Learners in Science: A Capstone Science Methods Course

We developed a capstone science methods course to better support preservice teachers in learning how both to teach science in ways attentive to English Language Learners (ELLs) and to develop an adaptive disposition to engage in reflection on their teaching of ELLs. Our course embodies three principles: (1) building from students’ funds of knowledge; (2) implementing cognitively demanding tasks; and (3) providing opportunities for rich language and literacy exposure and practice. Our methods and analysis were guided by three research questions: How did preservice science teacher participants understand the three principles of our capstone course? What successes and struggles did they identify when attempting to use these three principles to inform their classroom practice? What suggestions did they have for ways to improve the course? From our qualitative analysis of interviews with preservice science teachers, we found they were better at describing and identifying language rich opportunities for their students than at identifying ways they used their students’ funds of knowledge to inform their instruction. We also found that they felt they would benefit from knowing how to identify the needs of ELLs and how to better differentiate instruction for students. These findings make clear that we can certainly improve this capstone course. Still, our goal remains to foster the development of an adaptive disposition so that preservice science teachers can effectively work with their unique and diverse group of ELLs, not only as student teachers in a temporary placement but also as beginning teachers in their own science classrooms.

Equity in Science Education

This chapter provides a brief introduction to the research literature on issues of equity in science education. The construct of equity encompasses both providing all students adequate opportunities to learn science and expecting all students to meet high academic standards (National Research Council [NRC], 2012).

Relationships Among Science Language, Concepts, and Processes: A Study of English Learners in Junior High School Science Classrooms

English learners (ELs) encounter the multiple challenges of learning new scientific concepts and processes in the unfamiliar languages of both science and English. In this study, we examined two eighth grade teachers’ physical science classrooms to better understand how ELs, students reclassified as fluent, and students fluent in English negotiated relationships among language, concepts, and processes. More specifically, during a 5-week forces unit, we investigated (1) our teacher participants’ views of effective instruction for EL students, (2) the kinds of learning opportunities they provided and their students took up during instruction, and (3) the science language, concepts, and processes students learned as a result. Data were analyzed along two dimensions identified by teacher participants as central to effective EL instruction: science language supports and science concepts and processes. Findings highlight the complexities of teaching science to English learners: Teachers’ implementation of different kinds of science language supports was inconsistent across lectures and investigations. Findings also foreground the importance of using more than one method to assess student learning: End-of-unit tests and interviews reflected different ways of conceptualizing science as a discourse community and led to differences in students’ perceived science competence. We close with recommendations for improving the teaching and learning of science for EL students.

Learning Pedagogy in Physics

We report on an adapted version of the Physics and Everyday Thinking (PET) curriculum. A unique aspect of PET is its inclusion of special activities that focus on Learning about Learning (LAL) in which undergraduates analyze videos of children talking about science and explicitly consider the nature of science. To create a course that intentionally linked science content, children’s ideas, and strategies for science instruction, we augmented the existing LAL activities with discussions about teaching, and added activities focused on LAL from companion curricula such as Physical Science and Everyday Thinking (PSET) and Learning Physical Science (LEPS). To compensate for the additional time on LAL, we reduced the content activities to only those that directly supported LAL activities. We found that students made significant gains on the CLASS and expressed beliefs about teaching consistent with the PET pedagogy.

Dancing Robots: A Collaboration Between Elementary School and University Engineering Students

We describe the benefits of a collaborative and creative mentorsupported engineering program conducted between a group of fifth- and sixth-grade students and engineering undergraduate students. The elementary students and undergraduates collaborated in small teams to design and build robots that would dance together. The program was augmented with mentors from the Society of Women Engineers who helped run weekly after school sessions at the elementary school. This program engaged elementary students in engineering design with a collaborative gender-neutral project. Moreover, this program exposed a group of elementary students with a predominantly masculine perception of engineering to female engineer mentors for the first time. By the end of the program, students developed a more comprehensive understanding of engineering and everyone considered engineering as a possible career.

Science and Mathematics Teachers Working Toward Equity Through Teacher Research: Tracing Changes Across Their Research Process and Equity Views

We investigated secondary science and mathematics teachers engaged in a two-and-a-half-year professional development effort focused on equity. We examined how teachers conducting research on their own instructional practices—a central learning strategy of the professional development project—informed and/or constrained their views related to three strands of equity: teachers and teaching, students and learning, and students’ families and communities. Data collected included recordings of professional development seminars and school-site meetings, three sets of individual interviews with teacher researchers, and drafts and final products of the classroom research teachers conducted. From our qualitative analyses of data, we found that most teachers addressed at least two of the three equity strands in researching their own practice. We also found that most transformed their understandings of teachers and students as a result of their teacher research process. However, teachers’ views of families and communities changed in less substantive ways. We close with recommendations for other researchers and professional developers intent on supporting science and mathematics teachers in using teacher research to work toward equity.