Successes and Setbacks in Collaboration for Science Instruction: Connecting Teacher Practices to Contextual Pressures and Student Learning Outcomes - Softcover

Fulmer, Gavin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3639012518 ISBN 13: 9783639012514

Publisher: VDM Verlag, 2008

Synopsis

Efforts to promote conceptual, student-centered instruction rely on teachers' capacity and readiness to adopt reformed teaching practices. Yet it is not clear how teachers understand and implement such practices. This book describes my collaboration with one fifth-grade teacher to use concept-oriented instruction in a revised unit on force and motion. I qualitatively explored changes in the teacher's content knowledge, teaching beliefs, and classroom practices, and changes in students' science knowledge. The teacher's colleagues also chose to participate in the revised unit, with strong influence on the enacted lessons. The results show relationships between specific practices and student learning. In addition, I describe personal and contextual factors--some promoting change, others resisting it--that affected instruction during the unit. I discuss possible implications for professional development and future research. This book is appropriate for educators and school administrators concerned with resistance to change, as well as researchers interested in educational reform.

About this title

About the Author

Gavin Fulmer's educational research and evaluation addresses issues of science teacher professional development and alignment among curriculum, instruction, and assessment. He uses qualitative and quantitative methods for a variety of research programs. He is currently a research analyst at Westat, an employee-owned research firm, in Rockville, MD.

Edition details

• Publisher: VDM Verlag
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3639012518
• ISBN 13: 9783639012514
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 120