Lynn A. Bryan

Research on Science Teacher Beliefs

Over the last two decades, the field of science education has amassed a literature base on teacher beliefs that establishes that teachers are creative, intelligent decision makers who hold complex systems of beliefs that influence how they view teaching and learning, their students, and subject matter. In this chapter I review both time-honored and contemporary international studies on science teachers’ epistemological and pedagogical beliefs with the aim of depicting the most salient themes that have emerged from this research. This research presents a portrait of both prospective and practicing teachers who hold deeply entrenched beliefs that are for some congruous and for others incongruous with their classroom practices and/or major tenets of reform initiatives. A number of studies examine change in teachers’ beliefs over time within the context of a teacher education program or an intervention aimed at facilitating teachers’ refinement of beliefs and actions to be congruous with reform initiatives. Finally, there is a small but emerging set of studies that examine the complexity of teacher beliefs and belief systems.

Improving Preservice Middle Grades Science Teachers’ Understanding of the Nature of Science Using Three Instructional Approaches

The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in preservice teachers’ understanding of the nature of science (NOS) as a result of four activity-based interventions that represent three instructional approaches used in a middle grades science methods course. Ten participants’ understanding of NOS and their perceptions about the activity-based interventions were investigated. Data were collected using open-ended questionnaires and in-depth interviews before and after the interventions. Written artifacts and recorded group discussions were collected during the interventions. The results of this study showed that inclusion of various approaches to teaching NOS can contribute to developing preservice teachers’ understanding of NOS. The activities complemented each other in the teaching of the NOS components. In addition, the preservice teachers perceived that the four interventions were helpful in improving their understanding of NOS and in preparing them for future teaching.

Examining Physics Graduate Teaching Assistants’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Teaching a New Physics Curriculum

In this study, we investigated the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) that physics graduate teaching assistants (TAs) developed in the context of teaching a new introductory physics curriculum, Matter and Interactions (M&I). M&I is an innovative introductory physics course that emphasizes a unified framework for understanding the world and presents physics through a few fundamental principles rather than exposing students to concepts through a series of derived equations. Through a qualitative, multiple case study research design, data were collected from multiple sources: non-participant observations, digitally recorded video, semi-structured interviews, TAs’ written reflections, and researchers’ field notes. The TAs’ PCK included three components: (a) knowledge of M&I curriculum goals, (b) knowledge of instructional strategies appropriate to the M&I course, and (c) knowledge of students’ learning. This study shows the complexity of adopting curriculum reforms and the necessity to support the faculty’s and TAs’ knowledge development when a novel science curriculum is adopted.

Special issue on Pre-college nanoscale science, engineering, and technology learning

In the year 2000, U.S. President William J. Clinton established the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), a federal government research and development initiative involving 20 federal departments and independent agencies, whose overarching vision is “a future in which the ability to understand and control matter at the nanoscale leads to a revolution in technology and industry that benefits society” ([1], p. 5). The NNI would be one of the many nanoscale science, engineering, and technology (NSET) initiatives, centers, collaborations, and networks developed globally, on nearly every continent, during the early years of the new millennium. From university programs to multi-national networks, by the end of the first decade of the 21st century, it was clear that nanotechnology was emerging as one of the most promising and rapidly expanding fields of research and development worldwide. It would not be long before scientists, science educators, engineers, and policy makers began advocating for NSET concepts to be introduced in the K-12 education system. Mihail C. Roco, Senior Advisor for Nanotechnology at the U.S. National Science Foundation, speculated on the emergence of nanoscale concepts in K-12 education (and beyond) and emphasized the urgent need for science and engineering education to focus on the development of interconnected, interdisciplinary knowledge:

Published research on pre-college students’ and teachers’ nanoscale science, engineering, and technology learning

Abstract By the end of the first decade of the 21st century, it was clear that nanotechnology was emerging as one of the most promising and rapidly expanding fields of research and development worldwide. It would not be long before scientists, science educators, engineers, and policy makers began advocating for nanoscience, engineering, and technology (NSET) related concepts to be introduced in K-12 classrooms. Indeed, there has been a surge in the development of pre-college NSET-related education programs over the last decade, as well as millions in funding to support the creation of these programs. In an effort to characterize the state of research to date on pre-college students’ and teachers’ learning of NSET content knowledge and related practices, we have conducted a systematic review of the peer-reviewed, published research studies to answer the following questions: What NSET content knowledge and practices in a pre-college context have been examined in empirical learning studies? What do these studies tell us about the NSET content knowledge and practices that pre-college students and teachers are learning? Implications and recommendations for future research are also discussed.

Facilitating teachers’ development of nanoscale science, engineering, and technology content knowledge

Abstract As nanoscale science, engineering, and technology (NSET) becomes more integrated into precollege science curricula, it is crucial for teachers to develop coherent understandings of science principles (e.g., the structure of matter, size and scale, forces and interactions, and size-dependent properties) that allow them to coordinate these understandings from the macro- to the nanoscale. Furthermore, as teachers acquire new NSET content knowledge through professional learning opportunities, it is incumbent upon NSET educators to understand their developing content knowledge. To this end, we report results from a study in which we used a pre-/post-/delayed-posttest design to examine the change in 24 secondary (grades 7–12) science teachers’ NSET content knowledge as a result of their participation in a year-long professional development program that consisted of a 2-week intensive course and academic year follow-up activities. Participants showed significant gains from pretest to posttest and significant gains on the delayed test compared to the pretest. We also present trends that emerged in teachers’ open-ended responses that provided deeper insight into teachers’ NSET content knowledge. Finally, we discuss issues related to the assessment of teachers’ NSET content knowledge as well as the design of NSET professional development for teachers.

Middle-and High-School Students’ Interest in Nanoscale Science and Engineering Topics and Phenomena

Research has shown that an increase in students’ interest in science and engineering can have a positive effect on their achievement (Baird, 1986; Eccles & Wigfield, 2002; French, Immekus & Oakes, 2005; Schiefele, Krapp, & Winteler, 1992; SchwartzBloom & Haplin, 2003; Weinburgh, 1995). Whereas many NSFfunded programs in materials science and nanotechnology have included efforts to develop curriculum materials for use in secondary or tertiary classrooms, relatively little work has been done to determine the topics that increase students’ interest in science, engineering, and technology. As part of the work done by the National Center for Learning and Teaching in Nanoscale Science and Engineering (NCLT, 2008), we examined middleschool and highschool students’ interest in topics and phenomena from the field of nanoscale science and engineering (NSE). Analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data suggested that students were most interested in topics and phenomena that related to their everyday lives, were novel, and involved manipulatives. Conversely, students were least interested in topics and phenomena they viewed as irrelevant to their lives, they believed they had learned previously, and in which they were not actively involved. These results were used to inform the development of curriculum materials for middle school and high school students aimed at enhancing the learning of NSE topics.

A Modeling-Based Inquiry Framework for Early Childhood Science Learning

In this chapter, we present a modeling-based inquiry framework for the teaching and learning of science in early childhood classrooms. The framework that we present is grounded in our beliefs that (1) a fundamental cultural feature of science is the process of constructing, testing/evaluating, and reconstructing models of the world, and (2) PreK-2 science instruction should be designed to facilitate—through discourse-rich interactions—young children’s understanding of the relationships among domain models as well as their ability to use models generatively. Reflecting a modeling-based inquiry orientation to the teaching and learning of science, our framework is an adaptation and extension of seven key features of the National Research Council’s Practices of for K-12 Science Classrooms from the Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. Drawing from a research study involving a kindergarten science unit on “What is Science?”, we provide an example of how teacher-scaffolded inquiry discourse helps children learn to articulate physical science models and develop an understanding of models and modeling in the science classroom, illustrating several dimensions of the framework including: articulating a model; identifying evidence with which to make a prediction; communicating models, and collecting and analyzing evidence. Finally, we discuss how the modeling-based inquiry framework has yielded important theoretical information about the nature of young children’s conceptual development in science and provide implications for its use in classrooms and future research.

SECONDARY SCIENCE TEACHERS' DEVELOPMENT OF PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE AS RESULT OF INTEGRATING NANOSCIENCE CONTENT IN THEIR CURRICULUM

Nanoscale science is a rapidly-developing, multidisciplinary field of science and research that combines engineering, chemistry, physics, biology, and information technology pushes and the boundary between the science and the technology required to conduct it. Nanoscale science involves investigating and working with matter on the scale of 1–100 microns and has broad societal implications for new technologies. It is estimated that the worldwide workforce necessary to support the field of nanoscale science and nanotechnology will be close to 2 million by 2015 (National Nanotechnology Initiative, 2005). With such rapid developments in nanoscale science and technology, it is becoming more incumbent upon K-12 science teachers to provide the learning experiences necessary for students to understand the principles that govern behavior at the nanoscale and develop the skills needed to apply these concepts to improve everyday life. While onlya limited amount of nanoscale curricular materials are available for K-12 and undergraduate education many important unanswered questions exist, including: How do science teachers learn to teach nanoscale science?