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Cultivating Primary Students’ Scientific Thinking Through Sustained Teacher Professional Development

Early Childhood Education Journal volume 43, pages 317–326 (2015)Cite this article

Abstract

While the United States’ National Research Council (NRC 2012) and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS 2013) advocate children’s engagement in active science learning, elementary school teachers in the US indicate lack of time to teach science regularly because of (1) school and district pressure to focus on English language arts and mathematics assessment scores in response to the country’s No Child Left Behind (2001) mandates; (2) a lack of preparation in teacher science content knowledge; and (3) a lack of science professional development opportunities. In response to these needs and focusing on the primary (Kindergarten–first–second) grade levels, the Project SMART professional development program was created and implemented over three school years in one high-poverty California school district comprised of diverse students, including 62 % English language learners. This qualitative report explores primary grades teachers’ experiences in the professional development program, providing teacher descriptions of impact on student learning and motivation as well as collegial trust gained through on-going collaboration with university faculty, district professional development facilitators, and among their school/district peers.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the Improving Teacher Quality State Grants Program (Award 07-412) of the California Postsecondary Education Commission.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA

    Roxanne Greitz Miller, Margaret Sauceda Curwen & Kimberly A. White-Smith

  2. Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Robert C. Calfee

Authors
  1. Roxanne Greitz Miller
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  2. Margaret Sauceda Curwen
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  3. Kimberly A. White-Smith
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  4. Robert C. Calfee
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Roxanne Greitz Miller.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 2.

Table 2 Sample kindergarten unit
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Miller, R.G., Curwen, M.S., White-Smith, K.A. et al. Cultivating Primary Students’ Scientific Thinking Through Sustained Teacher Professional Development. Early Childhood Educ J 43, 317–326 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-014-0656-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-014-0656-3

Keywords

  • Professional development
  • Primary grades
  • Science
  • Curriculum integration