The aim of this study is to develop more understanding about strategies to support teachers' professional development in curriculum innovations, in which pedagogy and content change simultaneously compared to the conventional curriculum. A pre-existing framework, including strategies for professional development, was adapted, implemented, and…

Using findings from a 4-year research and development effort, we propose an updated model of sheltered instruction for science classrooms that leverages the opportunities provided by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) to better support multilingual learners in middle and high school science. Using data from teacher implementation logs…

Drawing upon interviews with key actors involved in the development of and support for the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in the United States, this article shows how a potentially controversial reform came to be actively supported by senior educators. We utilize Kingdon's (2003, "Agendas, alternatives, and public policies,"…

In recent years, there have been programs aimed at increasing the number of science and math teachers in high-need areas by offering scholarships to candidates in exchange for their agreement to teach in a high-need school for a period of time. However, there has been concern that recipients might fulfill the terms of their agreement, then leave…

Through a randomized controlled trial, this mixed-methods study evaluated changes in elementary science teachers' understandings, confidence, and classroom implementation of problem-based learning (PBL), inquiry, and nature of science (NOS) instruction following participation in a professional development (PD) as well as the components of the PD…

Nature of science (NOS) has increasingly been emphasized as an important element in science education. This paper engages in the question of how teachers negotiate different approaches to and contexts for NOS teaching. This exploratory study is part of a three-year longitudinal project where six in-service teachers developed and negotiated their…

In this article we studied how community educators' designed for equity in an after school science program. Building from discussions of equity in out-of-school-time (OST) science, this case study offers insight into the role of pedagogy in organizing for dignity and belonging in an after school program. This case study focused on the practices of…

Responsive teaching--or teaching that builds from the "seeds of science" in student thinking--is depicted in STEM education literature as both important and challenging. U.S. science education reform has been calling for teachers to enact instruction that attends to and takes up the substance of students' STEM ideas; however, responsive…

Most science curricular reform efforts are designed by administrators or science education experts. It is less common for teachers to work collaboratively across disciplines to create, implement, and disseminate an integrated STEM curriculum developed for noncollege-bound students that ended up being popular across student populations at the…

Whereas science teachers often express initial enthusiasm about the student-centered, reform-oriented instructional strategies they encounter in professional development (PD), they rarely adopt them in practice. One possible obstacle is a mismatch between these strategies and teachers' beliefs about what is possible and desirable in their…

The present study seeks to identify teachers' perceptions regarding STEM teaching professional development and to identify the factors that facilitate or hinder the success of teachers' professional development. The participants of the study were 35 teachers. A qualitative approach was used for data collection by conducting semi-structured…

Educators' work is a key element in museums' learning experience, yet knowledge about their professional development is still limited. In this study, we followed three science museum educators' professional growth during collaboration with researchers, with special focus on the introduction of research-based frameworks in their practice. To…

This paper focuses on interactions in a science professional development (PD) course in which participating teachers engaged in doing science. Whereas the PD design of this course aligned with research on effective PD practices, we found that these practices did not sufficiently account for the affective and relational dynamics that unfolded in…

To organize for the improvement of science instruction teachers need opportunities to collaboratively learn from practice, in practice, and to engage in the revision of classroom tools. In this paper, we examine how a professional learning community (PLC), comprised of middle school teachers and researchers, worked on the improvement of Ambitious…

Students' religious beliefs and religious cultures have been shown to be the main factors predicting whether they will accept evolution, yet college biology instructors teaching evolution at public institutions often have religious beliefs and cultures that are different from their religious students. This difference in religious beliefs and…