1st Edition
Teaching Science in Diverse Classrooms Real Science for Real Students
As a distinctive voice in science education writing, Douglas Larkin provides a fresh perspective for science teachers who work to make real science accessible to all K-12 students. Through compelling anecdotes and vignettes, this book draws deeply on research to present a vision of successful and inspiring science teaching that builds upon the prior knowledge, experiences, and interests of students. With empathy for the challenges faced by contemporary science teachers, Teaching Science in Diverse Classrooms encourages teachers to embrace the intellectual task of engaging their students in learning science, and offers an abundance of examples of what high-quality science teaching for all students looks like.
Divided into three sections, this book is a connected set of chapters around the central idea that the decisions made by good science teachers help light the way for their students along both familiar and unfamiliar pathways to understanding. The book addresses topics and issues that occur in the daily lives and career arcs of science teachers such as:
• Aiming for culturally relevant science teaching
• Eliciting and working with students’ ideas
• Introducing discussion and debate
• Reshaping school science with scientific practices
• Viewing science teachers as science learners
Grounded in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), this is a perfect supplementary resource for both preservice and inservice teachers and teacher educators that addresses the intellectual challenges of teaching science in contemporary classrooms and models how to enact effective, reform
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Teaching real science to real students
Section I: Student ideas are the raw material of our work
- Aiming for culturally relevant science teaching
An argument for meeting our students where they are - Eliciting students’ ideas
Student ideas as the raw material of science teachers’ work - Every misconception is a shiny pebble
Glimpsing beautiful and productive extensions of prior knowledge - Responses to student questions without answers
- HeLa cells, high-speed chases, and other essential questions
Because science class should not be a trivia game - Reconsidering labs & demonstrations for doing model-based inquiry
Do not throw away those owl pellets just yet - On the use of models and simulations as tools for thinking
What if the stork carried 20-sided dice? - Eyes like a scientist
Framing safety as part of scientific practice for students - Field trips and guest speakers
Bringing the inside-out and the outside-in for science learning - Before today I was afraid of trees
Rethinking nature deficit disorder in diverse classrooms - Observing candles and classrooms
Learning from other teachers by withholding judgment - Mentoring new science teachers
Novices get better when we support them with good feedback - The black belt science teacher
Differentiation and a speculative learning progression for science teachers - Teaching at the edge of our knowledge
The power of pursing the scientific knowledge we think we need to know - Playing school vs. doing real science
Providing all students with access to the means of knowledge generation
"Maybe it will just have to remain a mystery forever"
Section II: Real Science, Real Students
Section III: Science teacher learning
Afterword: Good reasons for becoming a science teacher References
Biography
Douglas B. Larkin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Montclair State University. He has worked as a high school science teacher and educator in New Jersey, Wisconsin, Kenya, and Papua New Guinea. His research examines science teacher preparation and retention, as well as issues of equity and justice in teacher education.
"This book speaks to all types of science teachers and their different contexts—Doug Larkin is writing to a diverse science teacher audience. The way he integrates and weaves together stories from his teaching and his work as a teacher educator with those of other teachers makes the whole book feel connected, an authentic learning experience. The book is written the same way he envisions science teaching—it is meant to be intriguing and real not just a series of facts forced onto the reader."
Dr. Anna Monteiro, Program Officer, Knowles Teacher Initiative
"I love the tempo and approach to this book. It is accessible and clearly connects the 'bigger issues' of science education to the actual practices of teaching."
Dr. David Meshoulam, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Speak for the Trees and High-School and College Science Instructor.
"As a (former) science teacher I felt both validated and challenged by the book. It is a wonderfully realistic portrayal of teaching science in real classrooms and recognition of all that science teaching entails. I like that Larkin encourages teachers to forge stronger connections to science practices and deeper learning, and he communicates these important messages as a nudge towards more collaborative sense-making. It’s positive and encouraging and offers teachers ways to reorient what they already do towards more robust science teaching. "
Jennifer Wilfrid, Senior Outreach Specialist, WIDA at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research
