APS March Meeting 2013
Volume 58, Number 1
Monday–Friday, March 18–22, 2013;
Baltimore, Maryland
Session A9: Invited Session: Teaching Physics and Other STEM Subjects in an Urban Environment
8:00 AM–11:00 AM,
Monday, March 18, 2013
Room: 308
Sponsoring
Unit:
FEd
Chair: Mel Sabella, Chicago State University
Abstract ID: BAPS.2013.MAR.A9.5
Abstract: A9.00005 : Preparing teachers for ambitious \textit{and} culturally responsive science teaching
10:24 AM–11:00 AM
Preview Abstract
Abstract
Author:
Gale Seiler
(McGill University)
Communities, schools
and classrooms across North America are becoming more ethnically, racially,
and linguistically diverse, particularly in urban areas. Against this
backdrop, underrepresentation of certain groups in science continues. Much
attention has been devoted to multicultural education and the preparation of
teachers for student diversity. In science education, much research has
focused on classrooms as cultural spaces and the need for teachers to value
and build upon students' everyday science knowledge and ways of
sense-making. However it remains unclear how best to prepare science
teachers for this kind of culturally responsive teaching. In attempting to envision how to prepare science teachers
with cross-cultural competency, we can draw from a parallel line of research
on preparing teachers for \textit{ambitious science instruction}. In ambitious science instruction, students solve
authentic problems and generate evidence and models to develop explanations
of scientific phenomenon, an approach that necessitates great attention to
students' thinking and sense-making, thus making it applicable to cultural
relevance aims. In addition, this line of research on teacher preparation
has developed specific tools and engages teachers in cycles of reflection
and rehearsal as they develop instructional skills. While not addressing
cross-cultural teaching specifically, this research provides insights into
specific ways through which to prepare teachers for culturally responsive
practices. In my presentation, I will report on efforts to join these two
areas of research, that is, to combine ideas about multicultural science
teacher preparation with what has been learned about how to develop
ambitious science instruction. This research suggests a new model for urban
science teacher preparation---one that focuses on developing specific
teaching practices that elicit and build on student thinking, and doing so
through cycles of individual and collective planning, rehearsal, review, and
reflection. In this way, a defined set of science-specific, ambitious \textit{and} culturally
responsive instructional practices can be articulated and taught during
science teacher preparation.
To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2013.MAR.A9.5