Rose M. Pringle’s research while affiliated with University of Florida and other places

Chief among the challenges faced by science teachers is issues related to student learning. The teachers engaged in the PD program were being prepared to teach the 3-dimensional approach to science consistent with the current reforms. This chapter describes the formal graduate level science education course in which teachers were introduced to practitioner inquiry as a systematic study of their professional practice with the intent of improving students’ science learning. The course allowed them insights into practitioner inquiry as educational research and afforded them an understanding of the principles and procedures in the cycle of inquiring into their practice. Through a blend of online and in-person one-day per month face-to-face sessions, the teachers were guided through the completion of a formal cycle of practitioner inquiry. Engaging in the practitioner inquiry during the course allowed them to teach and raise questions about their problems of practice, observe and reflect, and make thoughtful adjustments to better facilitate their students learning while generating new questions.

If K-12 teachers are to teach reform-based science as envisioned in the document, A framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas (National Research Council, A framework for K-12 science education: practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas. National Academies Press, Washington, DC, 2012) and translated into learning expectations in the national science education standards, teachers will need to develop meaningful and appropriate levels of disciplinary content knowledge. Teachers will also need to be prepared to enact teaching practices consistent with current research about science and learning science. This chapter describes the structure and theoretical framework that guided the research-based comprehensive PD program designed to transform science teaching in the middle grades. The model included some of the general research-based elements of high-quality PD identified in the literature along with discipline-specific features recommended by science educators. The PD program, University of Florida Unites Teachers to Reform Education in Science (U-FUTuRES), was developed as a partnership in response to the need for quality science teaching in partnering school districts in this state.

Reforms in science teaching and learning in the United States (U.S.) have often emerged in response to major socio-political occurrences. The launching of Sputnik by the Soviet Union in the 1950s was viewed as a challenge to the scientific and technological prowess and signaled the beginning of a new age in geopolitics. The launch prompted a number of national responses and also raised the concerns of scientists spurring their input into science education. Science education in the immediate post-Sputnik era, saw an emphasis on the learning of science process skills and signaled the goal of developing a scientifically literate society. Later, the National Science Education Standards calling for a commitment of equitable learning experiences for all learners as a moral imperative were introduced. Even today, the standards are embraced as an important document in setting the ideals for teaching and learning science. However, the lingering challenges from each past century have remained and today have ushered in another wave of reforms in science education. This newest reform efforts were initiated by the document, A Framework for K-12 Science Education which was commissioned in direct response to the decline in science education and the lack of fundamental knowledge among the workforce.

The ability to do science and engage in literacy practices – listening, talking, reading, and writing either individually or in combinations – is important for science learning and for developing scientific literacy. Scientists examine phenomena, propose explanations based on evidence, construct theoretical explanations, engage in scientific argumentation, and communicate scientific knowledge, principles, and procedures. Teaching in a manner consistent with how scientists conduct their practices, engages students in a mix of inquiry steeped in the development and use of literacy practices. The teachers were faced with the disconcerting low levels of language literacy among some of their students. Their narratives revealed the status of literacy skills among their struggling learners and the challenges and impact on science teaching and learning. The teachers made some progress but evident in their experiences was the need for guidance and support in the development of the requisite knowledge to teach literacy skills within the context of their science lessons.

A pressing challenge facing the education system is the persistent under achievement that exists along racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines. This underachievement is existing even amidst the current reform efforts that address how science is learned, standards-based education movements, increased testing, and an unprecedented surge in charter schools across the country. While not every student will select careers in science, the knowledge is required for making informed decisions and as citizens, be able to secure economic independence. One of the factors identified by researchers that have contributed to the marginalization of populations of learners, is the lack of cultural competence existing in the schools. Experiences in the PD program challenged the teachers to attend to their cultural competences which included purposefully valuing the diverse cultural experiences of their learners and understanding the impact of cultural interactions on students’ learning. Thus, in selecting their practitioner inquiry, some teachers studied their practices in relation to minority populations of students in their classrooms. The three teachers in this chapter described how they examined their practices and the strategies they adapted to provide culturally responsive learning experiences.

Professional development (PD) is about teachers’ learning and improving their teaching practices to facilitate an increase in student achievement. The teachers in U-FUTuRES PD program, were being prepared to respond to the current reform efforts in science education. Practitioner inquiry was introduced to them as a tool to purposefully examine and make shifts in their teaching practices to accommodate the learning of the range of learners in their classrooms. In this chapter, I present an analysis of the teachers’ responses to practitioner inquiry one year after completing their initial inquiry. Data was garnered from interviews and teachers’ formal reflection on their learning and the ways their practices were impacted by the knowledge constructed during the practitioner inquiry. From the analysis, I posit that practitioner inquiry should be added as one of the elements of effective PD.

Proponents of inquiry-based science teaching laud its potential to develop science content knowledge and science and engineering practices in addition to skills such as reasoning and critical thinking. The teachers in the PD were teaching a middle school science curriculum that had all the hallmarks of the current reform in science education. However, all students were not learning in a manner consistent with the expectations of the curriculum. The teachers expressed concerns about students’ abilities to be metacognitive in the context of their science learning – displaying the habits of mind necessary to think about their own thinking and in the process, develop an awareness of their learning. In this chapter, the teachers have embraced the importance of metacognition in science learning. They questioned the extent to which their practices were effective and consciously explored strategies to facilitate the development of metacognitive skills. The teachers have approached the inclusion and development of metacognitive skills from three different strategic aspects. Collectively, they share images of their classrooms, the students’ responses, and the efforts to adjust their practices. Their stories provide possibilities that can be adapted or at least, will provide a framework for other middle school science teachers.

The purpose of this study was to compare the 5E method of inquiry-based instruction (IBI) and the four-stage model of direct instruction (DI) on students' content knowledge achievement. The population for this study was all secondary high school students enrolled in the CASE® Natural Resources and Ecology course and whose teachers completed the CASE® Institute for Natural Resources and Ecology certification between the years 2013 and 2017. This study was quasi-experimental and used a nonequivalent control group, pretest-posttest design. A convenient sample of 13 teachers and 222 students was collected. Each teacher was randomly assigned to deliver a set of 16 lesson plans that utilized either the IBI or DI approach. Lesson plans were grouped into four modules, each lasting approximately two weeks. Prior to the delivery of each module, teachers administered content knowledge pretests. Posttests were administered at the completion of each 2-week module. Students in both groups demonstrated significant gains in content knowledge achievement. ANCOVA statistical procedures were used to compare student achievement for both instructional methods. Results of the ANCOVA indicated that the 5E method of IBI and the four-stage model of DI are equally effective on students' content knowledge achievement.

Preparing teachers to teach science consistent with current reforms in science education is a daunting enterprise given a lack of high-quality science professional development (PD) adaptable across various contexts (Wilson 2013). This study examines the impact of a comprehensive professional development program on middle school teachers’ disciplinary content knowledge and instructional practices. In this mixed methods investigation, data sources included classroom observations, content knowledge assessments, surveys, and a range of interviews. The teachers in the program showed significant improvements in their disciplinary content knowledge and demonstrated through their enactment of a reform-based curriculum, a range of ability levels to translate their knowledge into instructional practices consistent with the principles espoused in the PD. We conclude that programs that attend to elements of effective PD identified in the literature can positively impact middle school science teachers’ enactment of reform-based science teaching. Our findings extend these elements to include the strategic engagement of school and district leadership and the provision of a safe learning space for teachers to collectively engage in reciprocal learning and critical practice. This study has worldwide implications for designing PD for science teachers and for extending our understanding of the impact of each element.

This book presents the authentic voices of science teachers engaged in practitioner inquiry as one component of a comprehensive professional development program. Practitioner inquiry as a genre of educational research, allows teachers to intentionally study their practices thus generating practical solutions to problems in their teaching and students’ learning. The teachers’ voices allowed us to enter their science classrooms to observe their posture and practices as reflective practitioners. They encountered issues such as culturally responsive teaching and low literacy proficiency and metacognitive skills among their struggling science learners. Their firsthand accounts provide new insights about practitioner inquiry as a tool to support teachers continuous learning, regardless of the disciplinary content areas. The book therefore provides a blueprint that can inform inservice teacher educators and support school and district administrators as they seek to nurture teachers’ professional growth.