Research Projects
Physics Movies Academy Awards; Students celebrate their own understanding about physics concepts.
Teachers collaborate and share pedagogical strategies.
Thesis
This dissertation uses a design-based to examine two important mechanisms for teacher knowledge development: reflection and peer exchange. Nine science teachers participated in online and face-to-face scaffolded reflections and exchanges that were designed to connect directly to their relevant professional practices (i.e., lesson planning and lesson enactment) and to promote collaboration. The impact of these scaffolded reflections was examined during three stages: (1) teacher lesson planning, (2) enactment, and (3) revision of lesson. A coding schema was designed specifically for lesson planning and enactment utilizing a particular formalism of Activity Theory, drawn from Cultural Historical Activity Theory (Engöstrom, 1987). This thesis provides a rich description of how individual teachers developed understandings within the context of lesson planning and contributes to our understanding not only of situated collaborative learning, but also offers insight to models of teacher professional development. This research argued that teachers developed knowledge as direct result of these experiences.
Wallcology
Teachers require critical skills in the orchestration of complex inquiry-based activities, and the supports offered by technology scaffolds help them acquire these skills. This paper examines teacher practice within the Wallcology project, following two master teachers as they worked closely with researchers and technologists to co-design, enact, and revise (often in real time) the inquiry-based activity patterns for their grade 5-6 classes. What are the ‘adaptive practices’ that teachers engage in within orchestrated patterns and how are these practices prompted? Teachers acknowledged from the outset that they would need substantial leeway to interpret the situation and respond accordingly. Such “adaptive practice” can be viewed as “orchestration” of an inquiry design.
Apple Watch
Wearable technology offers teachers the opportunity to adjust to the complex nature of orchestrated-inquiry lessons. This paper presents an exploratory study of master elementary science teachers, as they use wearable orchestration-supports for student activities, lesson scripts and photo captures. The Apple Watch was used in three designs for wearable orchestration supports. Results demonstrated that the Apple Watch designs had a positive impact on teachers’ patterns of activity and reflection.
Teacher Professional Development
Planning science lessons offers a professional development opportunity for teachers. This paper presents a three-year study of teacher lesson planning and enactment that seeks to understand the impact of reflection and peer-exchange on the development of pedagogical content knowledge. This study employed a design-based methodology to understand how two interventions, namely reflection and peer exchange fostered teachers’ knowledge of project-based science learning within their science discipline. Nine secondary science teachers designed, enacted and revised a project-based science lesson, with structured peer exchange and revisions throughout the process. The findings presented in this paper focus on the impact of the interventions on lesson planning. Results demonstrate a positive impact of reflection and peer-exchange on the quality of teachers’ lesson designs and enactments of science lessons.