Mark Windschitl

Tracing Teachers’ Use of Technology in a Laptop Computer School: The Interplay of Teacher Beliefs, Social Dynamics, and Institutional Culture

Research on ubiquitous computing in schools has documented that teachers often change instructional practices over time when using technology with students and has further suggested that teachers’ use of technology may play a role in their shifting toward more constructivist pedagogy. Our two-year study takes an ethnographic perspective in examining how three middle school teachers learned to use technology in the context of a laptop computer program. The ways in which those teachers eventually integrated computers into classroom instruction were powerfully mediated by their interrelated belief systems about learners in their school, about what constituted “good teaching” in the context of the institutional culture, and about the role of technology in students’ lives. The condition of ubiquitous technology did not initiate teachers’ movement toward constructivist instruction. Rather, the laptops were a catalyst that enabled one participant, who had a pre-existing dissatisfaction with teacher-centered practices, to transform her classroom through collaborative student work and project-based learning.

Using Computer Simulations To Enhance Conceptual Change: The Roles of Constructivist Instruction and Student Epistemological Beliefs.

Learners enter the classroom with informal ideas (alternative conceptions) about scientific phenomena; these ideas affect how the corresponding scientific explanations are learned. In addition, studentsO epistemological beliefs concerning learning influence achievement. This study investigated the effects of a constructivist versus objectivist learning environment on college studentsO conceptual change, using a computer simulation of the human cardiovascular system as an instructional tool. This study also investigated the interaction between constructivist versus objectivist learning situations and the studentsO epistemological beliefs. The constructivist approach resulted in significantly greater conceptual change than the objectivist approach for 2 of 6 commonly held alternative conceptions; the other 4 of 6 areas showed no significant differences for treatment group. More important, however, the treatment interacted significantly with epistemological beliefs. Individuals with more advanced epistemological beliefs learned more with a constructivist treatment; individuals with less developmentally advanced beliefs learned more with an objectivist treatment.

Transcending Simple Forms of School Science Investigation:The Impact of Preservice Instruction on Teachers’ Understandings of Model-Based Inquiry

This study examined 21 preservice secondary teachers as they engaged in activities aimed at fostering an understanding of the epistemic roles that models, theory, and argument play in scientific inquiry. Findings indicate that instruction can help preservice teachers develop more sophisticated understandings of scientific models and promote incorporation of model-based lessons in their classrooms. However, even with scaffolding, the majority of these preservice teachers were unable to use theoretical models to ground their own empirical investigations. Two factors shaped participants’ thinking about these inquiries. One was previous school-related research experience, which influenced not only what they recognized as models but also the way they believed models could be incorporated into inquiry. The other was a widely held simplistic view of “the scientific method” that constrained the procedures and epistemic frameworks they used for investigations. On the basis of these findings, the authors offer a more focused, evidence-based design for instruction around model-based inquiry.

Developing a Theory of Ambitious Early-Career Teacher Practice:

Current theories of novice teacher learning have not accounted for the varied influences of pedagogical training, subject matter knowledge, tools, identity, and institutional context(s) on the development of classroom practice. We examined how 26 beginning secondary science teachers developed instructional repertoires as they participated in two types of communities, one infused with discourses and tools supportive of ambitious teaching and another that reinforced traditional practices. We found three trajectories of practice—each with distinctive signatures for how novices engaged students intellectually. Differences were explained by: the communities with which teachers most closely identified, the degree to which teachers’ discourses about student thinking were developed within these communities, and how teachers used tools from the communities to shape their practice.

Practice Makes Practice: Learning to Teach in Teacher Education

In this article, we argue that teaching is and should be a central element to learning to teach, particularly as teacher education once again turns toward practice. From this perspective, we must elaborate how such a shift addresses the need to bridge the gap between knowledge for teaching and knowledge from teaching, between theory and practice, and among university courses and fieldwork. If the intent of such a shift is to fundamentally change the preparation of teachers, we argue that it requires teacher education programs to do more than increase the amount of time candidates spend in clinical field placements. It requires, we argue, that teacher educators engage in simultaneous innovation in three related, but distinct aspects of program design and implementation: organizational structures and policies, content and curriculum, and teacher education pedagogy. Without such dynamic engagement, the practice-turn will go the way of many past reforms in teacher education—it will be symbolic but not significant or meaningful.

What Should the Inquiry Experience Be for the Learner

As an instructional technique, inquiry learning is not new. Biological Sciences Curriculum Study provided excellent guidance in its ‘‘Invitation to Enquiry’’ materials in the 1960s, and recent reform efforts [National Science Education Standards (NRC 1996), Benchmarks for Scientific Literacy (AAAS 1993)] have reminded us once again of the pivotal role that inquiry plays in science education. In this article, we describe a model of inquiry learning that is basic, but that ties together the fundamental processes of seeking, identifying and substantiating knowledge by learners. The model has three phases: developing a question, answering the question, and arguing the answer. Each of the phases is important, but perhaps none more so than that of arguing the answer, for it is here that students reconstruct their thinking, marshal the evidence they have gathered, and make logical connections between an existing body of knowledge and the conclusions they have drawn. Following the description of the model are two examples of how inquiry learning can be fostered by a close student-teacher relationship.

Learning Progressions To Support Ambitious Teaching Practices

One challenge faced by teachers, especially novice teachers, is navigating the messy and confusing landscape of science teaching reforms. In reform-based classrooms, students may be moving around and talking as they share ideas. Part of developing expertise as a teacher is learning which aspects of the classroom environment can be ignored and which ones can be pursued to fruitful ends. Teachers must learn to separate the signal from the noise, so to speak, during the act of teaching. Goodwin (1994) identified this ability as professional vision; namely, the ability to survey a complex landscape, identify important elements in that landscape, and connect those elements to a larger framework of understanding that is shared by a profession. The field of science education is only beginning to develop effective supports for helping teachers develop professional vision (McDonald, 2008).

The diffusion and appropriation of ideas in the science classroom: Developing a taxonomy of events occurring between groups of learners

Abstract: While research on group learning has focused almost exclusively on interactions among individuals within groups, there has been little research on phenomena occurring between groups of learners in classrooms. This exploratory study identifies, describes, and categorizes events occurring between members of different learning groups in three ninth-grade physical science classrooms. Analysis of interaction data from a collaborative activity involving the construction of complex electrical circuits was used to create a working taxonomy of inter-group events. This taxonomy was then tested for generalizability with four other collaborative student projects and was found to account for all inter-group events during these activities. Evidence gathered from videotape, interview, and observational data further indicated that many types of inter-group interactions are qualitatively different from intra-group interactions, and that inter-group interactions contribute significantly to learning within a design-based classroom context. Students in these classrooms effectively used the special expertise of others outside of their assigned groups and exploited features of the material environment in specific ways with others outside of their assigned groups to create complex products. Examples are included of how concepts, ideas, tools, tool-related practices, and materials diffused throughout the classroom environment and were appropriated by learners in various ways to contribute to the construction of the design artifacts.

Using the WWW for Teaching and Learning in K-12 Classrooms: What Are the Interesting Research Questions?.

This article proposes three criteria for developing research questions that have the potential to illuminate our understanding of Web-supported learning in K-12 classrooms. These criteria are then applied to a range of existing Web-supported projects that fairly represent how this technology is being used in classrooms today.

Instructional Animations: The In-House Production of Biology Software.

STUDENTS OFTEN have trouble conceptualizing certain phenomena in science. Traditional instructional media such as static illustrations, text, or video can be supplemented with computer animations in order to illuminate the concept for the learner. Some concepts must, by necessity, be depicted in this way in order to show processes or abstractions. The growing power of microcomputers and more user-friendly animation software have made in-house production of such animations a reality for the Iowa State University Biology program. Thirty scientific animations have been produced to date. This article explains how animations are developed from the conceptual drawing board to actual use in lecture halls and computer labs. Recommendations for the design, creation, and implementation of animations are outlined. Production is guided by practical technical considerations as well as instructional theory.