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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.

This qualitative study examined how three teachers of upper elementary students used science vocabulary in their lessons. The data revealed that teachers used vocabulary to label science phenomena and interpret scientific concepts for students. The practice of labeling was used more extensively than interpreting. Teachers did not help their students understand why scientists use language in these two ways or how one informs the other. Implications for science educators include using inquiry to explicitly teach the purposes of scientific language in order to enhance elementary teachers' knowledge of how vocabulary can aid student understanding of science. (Contains 3 tables.)

Background: Because a fundamental understanding of rate and accumulation principles is important for engineering students across all subdisciplines, a method is needed to assess their understanding of these principles. Purpose/Hypothesis: This article discusses the development of the Rate and Accumulation Concept Inventory (RACI) instrument and provides an analysis of its validity and reliability. The RACI is designed to test students' (1) overall mastery of rate and accumulation concepts and (2) mastery of specific rate and accumulation concepts (e.g., mathematics, mass flow, and heat flow). Design/Methods: Exploratory findings of students' conceptual understanding prompted the development of a preliminary RACI instrument. Two pilot studies were conducted, with adjustments made to the instrument between each. Data from the second pilot were used to assess evidence of validity and reliability through classical test theory, item response theory, and structural equation modeling. Results: Validity and reliability evidence indicates that the RACI can be used to measure students' overall understanding of the concepts identified, though several items require revision or removal. Issues of potential construct underrepresentation were found in two of the conceptual categories. Conclusions: The evidence of reliability and validity indicates the appropriateness of the RACI for assessing engineering students' overall understanding of rate and accumulation principles. Additional research is needed to further enhance the validity and reliability of the RACI as a diagnostic tool, particularly in measuring students' understanding of rate and accumulation concepts in particular physical contexts.

Teachers and students struggle with the complexities surrounding the evolution of species and the process of natural selection. This article examines how science teacher candidates (STCs) engage in a clinical simulation that foregrounds two common challenges associated with natural selection--students' understanding of "survival of the fittest" and the variation of species over time. We outline the medical education pedagogy of clinical simulations and its recent diffusion to teacher education. Then, we outline the study that situates each STC in a one-to-one interaction with a standardized student who is struggling to accurately interpret natural selection concepts. In simulation with the standardized student, each STC is challenged to recognize content misconceptions and respond with appropriate instructional strategies and accurate explanations. Findings and implications center on the STCs' instructional practices in the simulation and the use of clinical learning environments to foster science teacher learning.

This article reports on a multiyear formative experiment of a summer enrichment program that served as literacy enrichment for middle-school students, a field experience for preservice teacher candidates, and a professional development and leadership opportunity for practicing teachers. The analysis focuses on how the design team conceptualized, implemented, and researched inquiry-based, literacy-infused curriculum within the program, which was embedded in a broader university-school partnership. Findings report curriculum-related decisions and adjustments made over two iterations of the program before detailing the data-driven adjustments planned for the program's third iteration in 2017. Findings reveal that literacy supports were richer when the curriculum with which preservice teacher candidates worked was explicit about the content they must address and well sequenced. Such explicitness left more bandwidth for candidates to focus on literacy and reduced the chances it would get lost in candidates' other concerns. Implications are discussed for others designing clinical experiences intended to interrupt the status quo in both literacy teacher education and K-12 schooling, with the goal of promoting more equitable outcomes for all.

Teacher learning, as well as the development and testing of curriculum materials, are key for teaching lessons that bring the goals of the Next Generation Science Standards to life in classrooms. Lesson study is a process that links standards, teacher learning, curriculum materials, and instructional enactment together to facilitate student learning. This article has two goals: (1) describe the essential features of lesson study and, (2) discuss the challenges in facilitating and researching both teachers' and students' learning through this process. Lesson study's adoption is relatively new in the United States, thus it is important to develop shared understanding of its features and how to study its impact.

This case study introduces the notion of an operative system to describe elementary teachers' knowledge and practice. Drawing from complex systems theory, the operative system is defined as the network of knowledge and practices that constituted teachers' work within a lesson study cycle. Data were gathered throughout a lesson study cycle in which teachers designed and implemented an inquiry-based science lesson that integrated science notebook writing. The lesson occurred in a second-grade classroom with general and special education students. The findings describe a network of nodes--teachers' knowledge and practices for science, writing, and working with their students--and the specific connections among these nodes in order to identify their operative system. The implications are discussed in terms of theoretical tools for the knowledge needed for teaching and teacher professional development, as well as the application of complex systems theory.

This qualitative study examined the connections between elementary teachers' conceptions of how scientists use writing and how the teachers used writing during science lessons. Data collected included lesson observations, interviews, handouts to students, and curriculum resources. The findings revealed that teachers in this study thought scientists write for several purposes: the presentation of data, observations, experiences, procedures, and facts. The teachers used writing tasks that mirrored this with their students. The teachers also had a limited definition of creativity in writing, and when they had students write creatively in science it was to add in fictional elements. Implications of this study include providing teachers with better models for how and why scientists write, including these models in more inquiry-based science lessons, and directly relating concepts of nature of science to elementary science writing.

Existing research on the development of graduate students' teaching competency focuses on the need for their learning opportunities to be contextualized to their specific content area and course structure. A group of graduate teaching assistants collaborated with a biology professor and a science educator in a Japanese Lesson Study to directly address this need for contextualized learning. During this lesson study collaboration, the participants designed a new laboratory focused on Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. This article overviews our application of lesson study and data we gathered about participants' learning. We found that the participants were able to articulate two types of rationales for their teaching: rationales for lesson design and rationales for the importance of including Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in undergraduate biology. We conclude with implications of lesson study for graduate teaching assistant development.

Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) teach many undergraduates in introductory science courses in the USA. Previous literature suggests that GTAs would prefer more context-dependent opportunities to learn to teach more effectively. This study explores the impact of participation in a lesson study cycle with GTAs responsible for an undergraduate introductory course in Earth Science. Data were analyzed via a theoretical perspective of situated cognition and lesson study. Findings indicate GTAs felt limited by current contexts in the degree to which they could change the laboratory, their talk about teaching largely focused on logistical issues, yet via the lesson study process they began to discuss the learner in their seminars. Implications are presented that explore the applicability of lesson study in this context, the role of a science educator as a facilitator for reform in college science teaching, and the potential impact of this process on GTAs' relationships with other faculty. (Contains 1 table.)

Abstinence sexuality education (sex ed) is the only federally funded sex ed in the United States. The strict curriculum of this education does not educate American adolescents about safer sex practices and leaves a knowledge gap in these adolescents that follows them into college. The Problem: This project aimed to identify sex knowledge differences between freshmen and senior undergraduate students at a northeast private university. Methods: The Acquisition of Sexual Information Test was taken anonymously online (MonkeySurvey.com) by freshmen and seniors at the selected university. The test covered the four areas of human sexuality: 1) venereal disease; 2) birth control, sexual relations, and reproduction; 3) male biological aspects of sexuality; and 4) female biological aspects of sexuality. Results: The freshmen (n = 52) and senior (n = 40) groups were similar in gender, ethnicity, college attended within the university and type of sex ed received in high school. Overall, the senior students scored significantly higher (p = 0.01) on the test compared to the freshman. More specifically, the seniors scored significantly higher in the sections on "birth control," "sexual relations" and reproduction" (p less than 0.05) and in "male biological aspects of sexuality" (p = 0.05). Conclusions: These data suggest that the seniors may have learned more about sexuality during their time at the university, thus helping to bridge the assumed knowledge gap from high school. (Contains 1 table and 5 figures.)

One of the largest challenges of teaching astronomy is bringing the infinite scale of the universe into the four walls of a classroom. However, concepts of astronomy are often the most interesting to students. This article focuses on an alternative method for learning about stars by exploring visible characteristics of the constellation Orion and applying these observations to an inquiry-based modeling project. (Contains 7 figures and 1 resource.)

Medical education institutions frequently simulate interactions between future health professionals and standardized patients. This manuscript describes a partnership between a teacher preparation institution and a nearby medical institution, outlining specific procedures associated with the use of standardized parents, students, and paraprofessionals in helping future teachers and school leaders navigate common problems of practice. Implications center on the potential of this pedagogy to help bridge the gap between teacher preparation and practice as well as the applicability of this pedagogical approach to other higher education professional preparation programs.

Discussing the teaching of evolution with concerned parents is a challenge to any science teacher. Using the medical education pedagogy of standardized individuals within the field of teacher education, this article addresses how preservice science teachers elected to verbally interact with standardized parents who questioned the teaching of evolution and proposed alternative curricula. Analysis of video recordings of the simulated interactions yielded three primary themes connected to teachers' understandings of what "counts" as science, teachers' justifications for teaching evolution, and teachers' explanations of the impact of teaching evolution. (Contains 1 table and 1 footnote.)

Differentiation can begin with a single lesson, expand to a unit, and finally grow to be a natural part of a teacher's daily practice. The Think-Tac-Toe, described in this article, can evaluate students' learning during and at the conclusion of a unit. Prior to its creation, teachers should preassess students to be certain that the content of the Think-Tac-Toe will capture the array of readiness and skills present in the classroom. As with any new teaching skill, implementation is best achieved when teachers tackle a differentiation project of manageable size. (Contains 2 figures.)

Eight Earth science graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) participated in a semester-long seminar designed to facilitate change in their practice. The seminar used lesson-study methodology to facilitate discussion of GTAs' beliefs about teaching while planning a research lesson for implementation in their laboratory. This article reports the results regarding GTAs' consensus perspectives about interactions with faculty in the context of laboratory teaching and discusses eight themes that emerged from the consensus-establishing process. The article concludes with implications for faculty teaching large lecture classes and their interactions with GTAs teaching the associated laboratories.

Students' difficulties with accurately conceptualizing the relationships among the Earth, Moon, and Sun are well documented. Any teacher who has seen the film "A Private Universe" (Schneps and Sadler 1988) will remember the challenge the interviewees experienced when trying to explain their understanding of this phenomenon. This paper describes a strategy to help students develop a model of the Earth/Moon relationship that is correct both in terms of the scale sizes and the distances between them and extends previous work present in "Science Scope" (see Wallace, Dickerson, and Hopkins 2007: Riddle 2006a). (Contains 4 figures.)

What would your students say if you told them they could lift you off the ground using a block and a board? Using a simple machine, they'll find out they can, and they'll learn about work, energy, and motion in the process! In addition, this integrated lesson gives students the opportunity to investigate variables while practicing measurement skills, using technology, and communicating their ideas. As with the other simple machines, studying levers provides students with an opportunity to apply their developing mathematical skills to problems with real-world application. (Contains 8 figures.)

Training preservice teachers to develop a predisposition toward constructivist instruction is a major goal for many faculty in teacher education. One critical attribute of a constructivist teacher is a strong hold on pedagogical content knowledge. This study examined the prior knowledge of preservice science teachers and how that knowledge aligned with INTASC Standard I and the NSTA Core Knowledge Standards for science teachers. Basic content knowledge of twenty-four preservice teachers in an introductory science education course was assessed through released items from the grade 8 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests. Kruskal-Wallis analysis showed no significant differences in content knowledge across 3 content domains.