Teaching Science in Diverse Classrooms: Real Science for Real Students

As a distinctive voice in science education writing, Douglas B. Larkin provides a fresh perspective for science teachers working to make real science accessible to all K-12 students. Through compelling anecdotes and vignettes, this book draws on research to present a vision of successful and inspiring science teaching that builds upon the prior knowledge, experiences, and interests of students. With empathy for the challenges faced by contemporary science teachers, Teaching Science in Diverse Classrooms encourages teachers to embrace the intellectual task of engaging their students in learning science and offers an abundance of examples of what high-quality science teaching for all students can look like. This updated and expanded second edition includes more attention to teaching and learning science in a world changed by the pandemic and reaffirms the importance of attending to equity and justice in science classrooms.

Divided into four sections, this book centers around the idea that the decisions made by good science teachers help light the way for their students along both familiar and unfamiliar pathways to understanding. The book addresses topics and issues that occur in the daily lives and career arcs of science teachers, such as:

• Aiming for culturally relevant science teaching
• Eliciting and working with students’ ideas
• Reshaping school science with scientific practices
• Viewing science teachers as science learners
• Teaching science in turbulent times

Grounded in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), this is a perfect resource for both pre-service and in-service teachers and teacher educators that addresses the intellectual challenges of teaching science in contemporary classrooms and models how to enact effective, reform-based science teaching practices for all students.

Douglas B. Larkin is Professor of Teaching and Learning at Montclair State University, USA. He has worked as a high school science teacher and educator in New Jersey, Wisconsin, Kenya, and Papua New Guinea. His research examines science teacher preparation and retention, as well as issues of equity and justice in teacher education.