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In this paper, we take a longitudinal case study approach to explore changes in two middle school teachers' beliefs and their self-reported changes in practice, as they implemented a cognitive apprenticeship intervention focused on teaching written scientific explanations. We collected interview data as the primary data source and triangulated it with the teachers' choices of tasks to explore how their beliefs about their students, their beliefs about writing, and their choices of instructional tasks changed over time. Findings suggest shifts in teachers' beliefs and changes in their instructional practices (i.e., choice of tasks) following implementation of the cognitive apprenticeship. Our study found that the utilization of cognitive apprenticeship influenced their beliefs and, consequently, their choice of writing tasks.

In this paper, we explore how candidates in a graduate-level science teacher preparation cohort attended to the substance of student thinking while watching classroom videos or reviewing students' written work. We shared eight case samples of secondary science classroom work with the teacher candidates (six videos and two collections of student work), and asked them to discuss what they noticed in students' ideas and reasoning. We transcribed these conversations and coded candidates' comments in terms of what the candidates were attending to (e.g., student thinking, teachers' actions, student engagement). Our findings show that the teacher candidates were able to attend to specific student ideas and reasoning from the beginning of their pre-service preparation, but their practices of attending become more sophisticated over time. We discuss differences in the ways individual candidates participated and the ways in which participation dynamics within the cohort developed over time as participants assumed different roles and began to regulate their own discussions. We discuss the implications of this work for science teacher education. (Contains 4 tables and 3 footnotes.)

"Vision and Change in Undergraduate Education: A Call to Action," published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2011, suggested cultivating biological literacy and practicing more student-centered learning in undergraduate life sciences education. We report here on the use of Group Active Engagement (GAE) exercises in an introductory biology course designed to incorporate the core concepts and competencies suggested by "Vision and Change" while focusing on collaborative, student-centered learning. Although current research provides evidence for the value of active learning pedagogies in supporting students' conceptual understanding, we argue that the GAE exercises may prove to be effective in supporting both students' conceptual understanding and their core scientific competencies. We describe our implementation of GAE exercises and analyze data from surveys, interviews, and in-class videos to explore students' perceptions of and participation in the GAE exercises. Through this analysis, we present the GAE exercises as curricular and instructional practices that meet the recommendations of "Vision and Change."

The effects of environmental pollutants on human and environmental health are a growing concern. Little science curriculum focuses specifically on environmental health, and little data exists on the extent to which environmental health is taught on a national level. Students have the right to access information that can enable them to make informed choices. In the political arena, legislators, lobbyists, environmental groups, and other stakeholders argue from vastly different perspectives issues of environmental health, such as the causes and consequences of global warming. Scientists, for their part, use argumentation to make progress in developing and supporting coherent theories. For several decades, education researchers have argued for the need to integrate scientific argumentation into the high school science classroom. Scientific argumentation involves making claims, supporting them with evidence, providing "warrants" or reasoning for how the evidence supports the claims, anticipating counterclaims, and preparing to respond to those counterclaims. This article describes a sequence of lessons surrounding a mock legislative hearing to help students learn about environmental health and participate in argumentation. The lessons, appropriate for biology, chemistry, or environmental science classes, use Tox Town, a free online resource developed by the National Library of Medicine, as the main source of information. (Contains 3 figures.)

We present a class discussion that took place in the second author's high school biology class. Working from video data that we transcribed, studied, and analyzed closely, we recount how the question "Is air matter?" posed at the beginning of a unit on photosynthesis led to student-driven inquiry and learning. This case study illustrates what we argue is important in effective science teaching and learning: attending and responding to the substance of student thinking. We use it to articulate two reasons for attentive and responsive teaching: to help students understand science concepts, and to help students learn how to learn.

The article describes an activity program titled "The Invented Cell" which aims to teach students about the structure of the cell and its functions.