Carla Zembal-Saul, Professor of Science Education
Kahn Endowed Professor of STEM Education
Penn State University
Building Capacity for State Science Education
Council of State Science Supervisors
Denver, 2014
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Board on Science Education (BOSE) and NRC’s
Teacher Advisory Council
Committee charge
• Identify teachers’ learning needs and current
opportunities for learning
• Develop guidance for providing opportunities to
support teachers’ learning
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Funded by the Merck Corporation Foundation
See the website for more information
http://sites.nationalacademies.org/DBASSE/BO
SE/CurrentProjects/
Coming soon!
 Expert review in Summer 2014
 Anticipated release in Fall 2014
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K-6 teacher learning and development for
engaging students in scientific discourse and
practices
Across career stages
Commitment to school–university
partnerships
Affordances of technology
 Science learning
 Learning to teach science
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Revisit next generation science education
What do we know?
What are we working on?
What are the persistent questions?
Questions and conversation
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Career stage – preservice, induction, career
System level – elementary, middle, high school
Level
Levers
Limits
Elementary School
Understanding of children
and development
Opportunities to integrate
across subject area
Limited knowledge of science
content and practices
Generalists
Frequent grade level changes
Middle School
Focus of much attention
and funding
Ambitious content
Preparation varies greatly (K-6,
7-12, other)
High School
More depth of content
knowledge
Often assigned to teach
outside of discipline
Verification labs v. practices
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Developmental process
Dynamic
Context dependent
Responsive to problems of practice
Attentive to equity and ethics
Continuum as essential expertise that teachers
and groups of teachers develop across careers
to meet the demands of the new vision
New vision for science education revisited
Gap with current practices
Demands of new vision
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Articulated in the Framework and NGSS
Based on decades of research about how
people learn
Expressed as learning performances that
weave together practices and crosscutting
concepts in the context of content (DCIs)
Coherent building of ideas over time
Integrated across Mathematics and ELA
Gap between vision and current instruction,
curriculum, and assessment
 Teachers are responsible for creating learning
experiences for their students
 However, it is likely that teachers…
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 Have not experienced this kind of science learning
 Have not been prepared to teach in ways that reflect
the new vision (SM and PCK)
 Teach in districts that focus on and support subjects
other than science
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Integration of core ideas, practices and
crosscutting concepts
Skillful teaching and assessment practices,
with emphasis on classroom discourse
Technology tools aligned with scientific and
engineering practices
Support for a range of diverse learners
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Teachers, schools and districts will need
considerable support moving forward
True for ALL (or at least most)
 Novice and experienced teachers
 Teachers at all levels of the system, K-12
 Schools/districts where science has been
neglected and those known for their excellent
science programs
 Teacher educators and professional development
providers
Science teaching workforce
Opportunities for teachers to learn
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Characterized by substantial variability
 Background and preparation
 Professional learning opportunities
 Contexts in which they work
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Available data on workforce
 Fragmented across surveys
 Difficult to track for elementary teachers
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2012 National Survey of Science and
Mathematics Education
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SASS 2007-08 (NCES Schools and Staffing
Survey)
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Commissioned reports – administrative
databases in Florida and New York
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Science background – no science cert
 40% of middle level science teachers
 14% high school science teachers
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Science teaching career
 40% middle school and ~50% high school science
teachers have >10 years experience
 More than half of new science teachers leave
before 5th year
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National trend toward inexperience and
undeveloped expertise
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Uneven distribution of knowledgeable and
experienced teachers
 Teachers without science degrees more common
in high poverty schools
 Greater numbers of less experienced science
teachers found in higher poverty schools
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Focus on new science knowledge and
teaching practices
Over time, range of dimensions, various
contexts, uneven supports and constraints
Profound role of context
Other influences
 High stakes testing
 Rapidly changing demographics
 Nature of workforce
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Driven by individual interest v. building
capacity at the school or district level
Episodic and lack coherence
No intentional relationship between
opportunities
Not informed by articulated theory of
learning
Shared vision for science teaching
Features of effective PLOs
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Far less clear than vision of learning
Pockets of innovation
Core sets of instructional practices needed
Practitioners and researchers implement and
study over time
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Instructional practices that have a positive
influence on students’ science learning
 High leverage practices (Ball and colleagues)
 Ambitious teaching (Windschitl and Calabrese-
Barton)
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Categories of characteristics across studies
 Ways teachers frame students’ intellectual work
 Use of conceptual anchors for collective work
 How teachers mediate student reasoning and activity
Consensus view emerging
 Based on research across multiple subject areas
 Empirical evidence for features is limited and
mixed
 “Connect the dots” studies rare
 Useful as a starting point for providers and
researchers
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Active engagement with time for interactions
with peers
Analysis of teaching practices and samples of
student work
Attention to content intertwined with
pedagogy
Connected to curriculum
Coherent with school policies and practice
Sustained over time
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Integrate three dimensions of NGSS –
disciplinary ideas, practices, crosscutting
concepts
Engage with scientific and engineering
practices
Attend to meaningful assessment practices
Experience ≠ expertise. What counts as expertise, where does it
reside, and how do we harness it?
Context is king. How do we leverage it as an asset while remaining
sensitive to it?
Who should provide teacher learning opportunities and what are
the appropriate qualifications/expertise?
How do we leverage the affordances of technology to support
teacher learning?
How do we build capacity within and across systems and across
career stages?
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Cannot ignore teacher learning
Complex and nuanced problem made more
challenging by new vision
Constellation of supports
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All levels of system and across career spans
Coherent and aligned with vision
Networks of expertise
Focus on capacity building
Sensitive to context