Engagement in high-leverage science teaching practices among novice elementary teachers

Abstract

As part of learning to teach, teachers must learn to use a range of teaching practices. In this longitudinal study the authors explore how novice elementary teachers learn to engage in a set of high-leverage science teaching practices, such as leading a science sensemaking discussion and setting up and managing small-group investigations. Drawing primarily on videorecords from 33 lesson enactments, supplemented by transcripts of interviews with the participants, the authors follow five participants from their second year of a teacher education program through their first year of teaching. Findings suggest that high-leverage science teaching practices can be untangled from one another and that teachers mostly demonstrated some important strengths in the dimensions of the practices. Furthermore, the teachers were able to use the practices synergistically, though in different ways, toward their goal of supporting students' sensemaking. The findings also suggest that teachers' engagement in the practices varied considerably as a function of lesson and school context. The findings have implications for the design of practice-based teacher education experiences and for scholarship on teacher development.