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Making Science Teaching and Learning Visible Through Web-Based “Snapshots of Practice”

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Journal of Science Teacher Education

Documentary websites known as “snapshots of practice” provide vivid examples of teachers’ inquiries into issues they have formulated in the context of their own teaching practices and students’ learning. Designed with assistance from Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, snapshots of practice can be accessed in the K–12 section of the Gallery of Teaching and Learning (http://gallery.carnegiefoundation.org). Analysis of prospective teachers’ reflections on science-related snapshots of practice indicate that this use of technology enhanced their understanding of inquiry-based approaches to instruction. The paper also illustrates how prospective teachers used an electronic toolkit, http://www.cfkeep.org, to construct their own snapshots of practice in order to represent what they had learned in a course on methods of teaching science in elementary school.

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Acknowledgement

Preparation of this paper was supported in part by Pew National Fellowships to participate in the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the funding agency.

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van Zee, E.H., Roberts, D. Making Science Teaching and Learning Visible Through Web-Based “Snapshots of Practice”. J Sci Teacher Educ 17, 367–388 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10972-006-9027-2

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