English learners are faced with the dual challenge of acquiring English while learning academic content through the medium of the new language (Lee et al. in "J Res Sci Teach" 45(6):726-747, 2008; Stoddart et al. in "J Res Sci Teach" 39(8):664-687, 2002) and therefore need specific accommodations to achieve in both English and the content areas.…

This study examined the effectiveness of introducing elementary teachers to the scholarly literature on personal pronouns and hedges in classroom discourse, a professional development strategy adopted during a summer institute to enhance teachers' social understanding (i.e., their understanding of the social functions of language in science…

Elementary teachers are typically hesitant to teach science. While a limited knowledge of science content is a reason for this, limited science pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) has emerged as another reason in recent research. This study constitutes two case studies of a professional development program for elementary teachers involving…

Distance education is a significant topic of discussion among faculty at all levels of education. This study produced evidence regarding the attitudes toward three distance education delivery modes for science professional development. The study involved 94 elementary school teachers who were participating in a professional development project.…

This study assessed the influence of guided inquiry and explicit reflective instruction on K-6 teachers' views of nature of science (NOS). Using the Views of Nature of Science Elementary School Version 2 (VNOS-D2), and associated interviews we tracked the changes in NOS views of teacher participants prior to and following a summer professional…

To provide meaningful science experiences for students, educators need quality science experiences themselves from which to draw. Informal learning contexts, such as museums, are well positioned to provide educators with these professional development experiences. We investigated the impact museum-created professional development experiences had…