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This paper argues that the plan and study phases of lesson study are productive in helping educators with varied expertise and experience to explore scientific practices like modeling with ties to disciplinary literacy. Points are illustrated with data from a lesson‐study cycle in science that two university‐based teacher educators, one in literacy education and one in science education, conducted with colleagues from a nearby school district. The paper describes lesson study; outlines the role of scientific practices, including modeling, in the Next Generation Science Standards; and describes the context for the work, including the unit explored by the team. Recommendations about how to leverage the plan and study phases of lesson study for disciplinary literacy are offered, along with suggestions for getting started with such work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching science can provide opportunities for young children to explore and learn about the world around them and, equally important, to support children's language development. Yet, recent research suggests that children's access to science education is limited, especially in early and elementary education. Since language is critical to children's success in learning to read, teachers need access to a variety of venues to develop these foundational literacy skills. This paper provides evidence of the importance of teaching science in an effort to teach science ideas and develop children's language. In addition, this paper describes a range of approaches teachers can use to facilitate inquiry‐based science education and oral language development simultaneously. When educators engage children in high‐quality science experiences, they present children with the opportunity to develop both science ideas and language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on interactions in a science professional development (PD) course in which participating teachers engaged in doing science. Whereas the PD design of this course aligned with research on effective PD practices, we found that these practices did not sufficiently account for the affective and relational dynamics that unfolded in the PD interactions. In this paper we explore how critical discourse analysis (CDA) can be used both to theorize and analyze the affective and relational work happening in PD, through the critical lenses of power and positioning. Our analysis surfaces tensions between participants and facilitators, as well as among participants, which often related to their notions of disciplinary expertise. More important, our analysis shows that attunement to affective and relational dynamics, including explicit attention to communication norms, is essential for engendering productive learning opportunities within PD spaces. We discuss the implications of this study for teacher educators and PD facilitators, and we end with directions for future research on affective and relational dynamics in teacher learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In theory, STEM (interdisciplinary science, technology, engineering and mathematics) is cross‐disciplinary and situated in real‐world problem‐solving contexts. In practice, STEM disciplines are often implemented separately using contrived contexts. This paper examines theoretical and empirical aspects of Montessori middle school science in the United States, and its alignment with the conceptual framework of integrated STEM. We selected Montessori adolescent environments because the Montessori philosophy involves interdisciplinary application contextualized in purposeful work and learning. Our research sought to investigate how Montessori middle schools have designed their science programs, and to situate these findings within the current landscape of STEM education and reform‐based science. Based on the results of our survey of 96 U.S. Montessori middle schools, we argue Montessori offers an integrated educational approach that meaningfully situates academic disciplines to mirror local and global challenges, well supported by theory and literature on STEM and situated learning theories. We assert that integrated STEM happens organically in many Montessori middle schools, and takes place through authentic work in communities of practice. Our research communicates the value of looking outside traditional school settings to examine alternative formal education spaces, like Montessori classrooms where integrated STEM happens organically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how features of teaching practice may foster appropriation: learning that involves both deep conceptual understanding and transforming scientific discourse in a way that is significant for oneself. Data were drawn from classroom discussions during a unit on thermodynamics that took place in a high school in Italy. We analyze a specific metaphor "tightening the reins and letting them loosen" used by the teacher to characterize her practice. By contrasting episodes of classroom discussion in terms of talk moves and participant frameworks, we discovered that behind the metaphor was a complex epistemological scaffolding that the teacher enacted across her lessons. This scaffolding was articulated across four moments of discussion, each with a different function and purpose: Sharing the construction of a collective disciplinary narrative, Elaborating the narrative in epistemological terms by articulating criteria for comparing different approaches to the disciplinary content, Analyzing the comparison criteria to test their robustness and consistency, and Situating oneself with respect to different approaches to the content informed by the refined criteria (SEAS). We argue that these functions provided the scaffolding for physics to be a context for both disciplinary learning and students' search for personal relevance and meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The Maker Movement has taken the educational field by storm due to its perceived potential as a driver of creativity, excitement, and innovation (Honey & Kanter, ; Martinez & Stager, ). Making is promoted as advancing entrepreneurship, developing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce, and supporting compelling inquiry-based learning experiences for young people. In this paper, we focus on making as an educative inquiry-based practice, and specifically tinkering as a branch of making that emphasizes creative, improvisational problem solving. STEM-rich tinkering activities are designed to support interdisciplinary investigations and creativity using a STEM-rich palette of tools, concepts, and phenomena. To date, the majority of research on making has focused on analysis of makerspaces, maker communities, and design and implementation of maker activities. In this paper, we describe a study that documented dimensions of learning in tinkering programs designed for museum visitors. The study, which was jointly negotiated among a team of researchers and practitioners, led to the development of a Tinkering Learning Dimensions Framework and a publicly available video library of tinkering exemplars, both of which are being actively used by tinkering practitioners in their direct service to the public and professional development work for the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]