Current visions for science learning in K-12 classrooms advocate that students should engage with science in ways that mirror the work of scientists in order to develop proficiency in the discipline (National Research Council [NRC], 2012). From this lens, the goal of science education is not only to provide students with the conceptual knowledge of science, but also to give them opportunities to practice the doing of science and to gain epistemological insights about the discipline (Duschl, 2008; Engle & Conant, 2002; Ford, 2008; Hodson, 2014; Kelly, 2018).
Ideally, such learning will also move beyond simply learning content knowledge to include overturning assumptions about who is allowed access to the scientific community or viewed as capable in science (Chambers, 1983; Sharkawy, 2009) and complexifying the notion that science is straightforward and procedural in nature (Harwood et al., 2005; Stroupe, 2014). It should also include supporting students in coming to know and use the discursive practices of constructing explanations from evidence and evaluating claims through argumentation (Ford, 2008; Ryu & Sandoval, 2012; Zembal-Saul et al., 2013). Further, the development of science proficiency would help students in navigating the emotions and feelings they encounter as they participate in science work in the classroom (Jaber & Hammer, 2016a, b; Davidson et al., 2020).
Manufacturing Science 2 By K M Moeed Pdf 36
To be effective in supporting students in learning the conceptual knowledge of science and its disciplinary practices and epistemological underpinnings, teachers themselves must have opportunities to develop and reflect on their own understandings about science (Passmore, 2014; Reiser, 2013). Yet, few teachers have such opportunities, such as being involved in scientific research, to refine their disciplinary understandings. This unfamiliarity with doing science makes it difficult for teachers to translate the practices and epistemologies of the discipline into their classroom (Banilower et al., 2013; Capps et al., 2012; Hodson, 2014).
To our knowledge, no studies have explicitly examined what teachers themselves identify as particularly productive components in their research experiences and how certain events within their RET participation might shape their understandings about the discipline of science. This study begins to address this gap by exploring how one elementary teacher describes shifts in her understandings about science in light of personally relevant and meaningful events that occurred during her participation in scientific research.
While there was a newfound consideration for such aspects of science in science education, consensus as to what aspects should be included and how these should be taught were not originally addressed. Over time, some scholars suggested that disciplinary understandings about science should include specific tenets of the nature of science or of scientific inquiry as described by some philosophers of science (Lederman et al., 2002; Schwartz et al., 2008). Others have critiqued this view of disciplinary understanding as essentialist and have called instead for more practice-oriented and contextually relevant views of science (Hodson & Wong, 2017). Moreover, other views may extend on these tenets of science to include considerations of culture, language, historical and political contexts, economic aspects of science, and the personal relevance of science knowledge (Dagher & Erduran, 2016; Hodson & Wong, 2017; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Longino, 2002). Such views may acknowledge how particular political, cultural, and social structures influence the types of questions scientists are able to pursue. These views also recognize that it is the people in the disciplinary community of science that mutually decide and agree upon the norms and practices of the community.
This naturalistic case study takes a critical event narrative approach (Avraamidou, 2016; Webster & Mertova, 2007; Woods, 1993) to examine the experiences and shifting views of science of one elementary teacher, Ava (all names are pseudonyms) during her 6-week RET experience.
The RET professional development program (which began in 1999) is held at a national interdisciplinary laboratory (the Lab) with over 600 scientific faculty and staff from science-related fields that include engineering, physics, biochemistry, chemistry, and materials research. The Lab is made up of smaller lab groups composed of research scientists, technicians, postdocs, graduate students, and occasionally undergraduate students participating in internships or undergraduate research experiences. The RET hosted in the Lab is designed to provide K-12 teachers with an opportunity to participate in cutting-edge scientific research within these smaller lab groups with the hope that these experiences will influence their classroom instruction (Enderle et al., 2014; Southerland et al., 2016; Davidson & Hughes, 2018).
While the structure of the RET program is designed so that the majority of participant time is spent engaged in active research work within science laboratories, the aims and goals of that work and the specific practices, procedures, and discussions teachers will have around their work with their mentor scientists and others can vary greatly. The program director selects mentor scientists that are typically known in the Lab to be open, patient, knowledgeable, and have a willingness to include teachers in their lab groups as full participants. This careful selection on the part of the director also typically allows teachers to feel supported by their mentor scientists and to have a more positive experience in the program (Davidson & Hughes, 2018; Hughes et al., 2012).
This study draws on data from the 2017 cycle of the RET program. Ten teachers participated in the RET summer program, four of whom were elementary teachers. From the four elementary teachers, we selected Ava as the focal participant for this study because of her unusual tendency of conveying her epistemic insights about science. At the time of this study, Ava was a kindergarten teacher with an interest in science teaching and 18 years of teaching experience at the early elementary (K-3) level. She was working at a Title 1 school that predominantly served students from underrepresented populations who were also English language learners. Ava grew up in Puerto Rico where she attended university; she moved to the mainland of the USA after earning her degree in elementary education. She identified as a native Spanish speaker and described English as her second language. During this research experience, Ava was paired with another elementary teacher, Carrie, in a materials science laboratory, and both teachers worked with Dr. Ji, a mentor scientist who had been a scientist at the Lab for more than 10 years at the time of this study.
This move on the part of Dr. Ji to normalize and persevere through mistakes and trial-and-error was taken up by Ava in an impactful manner. This event shifted not only her understanding of science, but also the ways in which she began discussing science with her students in her own classroom:
In this comment, Ava reflects on the importance of diversity in science, not only from an equity lens, but also from an epistemological standpoint of strengthening knowledge construction through diverse ideas and approaches. She also notes that differences in personality.
A primary goal of the RET program at the center of this study is to support teachers to develop more robust understandings of science through immersive and collaborative research participation with the aim of influencing their classroom instruction in productive ways. To this end, we argue that taking a critical event analysis approach allowed us to see how aspects of this goal were met for Ava in ways that perhaps a more traditional methodological approach would not have captured. Related to each of the critical events described in the findings, Ava came to experience shifts in her understandings about science, shifts toward understandings that resonate with those held by the fields of history, philosophy, and sociology of science, as well as science education. While her insights are not new to these fields, they were new to Ava and held important implications for how she came to view aspects of the discipline and how she came to orient to her students as capable thinkers and doers of science as we discuss in this section.
Research suggests that opportunities to learn science are often overlooked in early childhood and elementary science classrooms, yet these contexts are also often the first opportunities students will have to cultivate positive attitudes toward science and to have their curiosities about the natural world piqued and affirmed (Banilower et al., 2013; Czerniak & Mentzer, 2013; Gopnik, 2012; Grinell & Rabin, 2017; Mantzicopoulos et al., 2008). From this view, it is no small thing that Ava has taken seriously the responsibility of teaching her students science every day and internalized this responsibility as a result of getting to know scientists at the Lab.
The ceremonial opening on December 8th, 2022 was covered by publications including Bloomberg, The Boston Globe, and CBS News which praised the building for being the largest carbon-neutral building in Boston and noted its unusual design.[77][78][79] A ribbon cutting ceremony was performed by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, President Robert A. Brown, the associate provost for computing and data sciences Azer Bestavros, dean of Arts & Sciences Stan Sclaroff, BU Board of Trustees chair Ahmass Fakahany, BU provost Jean Morrison, and Boston city councilor Kenzie Bok.[80]
Boston University offers bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and doctorates, and medical, dental, and law degrees through its 17 schools and colleges. The newest school at Boston University is the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies (established 2014). Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development was renamed in 2018 following the merger with Wheelock College. In 2019, BU created the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences, which is an interdisciplinary academic unit that will train students in computing and enable them to combine data science with their chosen field. In 2022, BU's medical school was renamed the Aram V. Chobanian & Edward Avedisian School of Medicine (following a $100 million gift from Edward Avedisian).[114][115] 2ff7e9595c