Abstract
We describe how using a collaborative professional development (PD) design supports teachers as they co-design and implement SSI curricula. We share our theoretical framework and the following commitments to SSI teaching: (1) Instruction should begin with the SSI and subsequent learning experiences should continually connect back to the issue; (2) Students should have opportunities to engage with scientific practices, content, and evidence as they make sense of the issue; (3) Students should use current media to access information about issues; (4) Students should have opportunities to explore the social dimensions of SSI; and, (5) Issue-based learning experiences should conclude with a culminating exercise so that learners can synthesize their personal positions on the issue. In Design Case 1, we found that the antibiotic resistance and climate change curricular units produced desired student learning outcomes, and we developed a tool – a modeling packet – to support students’ modeling practices. In Design Case 2, we developed curricular planning tools and our research resulted in a grounded theory of how teachers engage in co-designing SSI curricula. In Design Case 3, we found elementary teachers perceived SSI as a means for promoting social responsibility and making real world issues relevant to their students. Overall implications include the need to work with teams of teachers from the same school and the need to focus on one scientific practice— scientific modeling as a sense-making tool.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the critical contributions of Kerri Graham, our collaborator who teaches high school biology. Without Kerri’s involvement, this project would not have moved from the drawing board to the classroom. As researchers, we have learned a tremendous amount from collaborating with Kerri. We would also like to thank the many teachers and graduate students who worked on this project; in particular, we would like to acknowledge the contributions of the following graduate students: Jaimie Foulk, Tamara Hancock, Eric Hayes, Andrew Kinslow, Hai Nguyen, and Amanda Peel.
This work was funded, in part, by the National Science Foundation under Award Number IIA-1355406. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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Friedrichsen, P.J., Sadler, T.D., Zangori, L. (2020). Supporting Teachers in the Design and Enactment of Socio-Scientific Issue-Based Teaching in the USA. In: Evagorou, M., Nielsen, J.A., Dillon, J. (eds) Science Teacher Education for Responsible Citizenship. Contemporary Trends and Issues in Science Education, vol 52. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40229-7_6
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