An academic

Jan Dubinsky

Description

• expression écrite

An academic referencing guide to knowledge. Acknowledging

• 2.2 books
• huge variety of resources for research
• disagree disagree base
• specific page
• visual sources
• online databases
• electronic resources
• references
• full details
• w.w. norton
• w.w.norton
• w. w. norton

Sujets

• Snyder
• Russert
• Augustin
• Dietrich
• Sanderling
• Greenspan
• Friedland
• Swarovski
• Uchida

Informations

• Publié par: ziel
• Nombre de lectures: 16
• Langue: English

Extrait

A Culturally Relevant Case Study Alternative for Developing STEM Teachers

1M. H. Hoelscher

1STEM Education Center, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108





corresponding author:
Mary H. Hoelscher, M.Ed.
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
STEM Education Center
University of Minnesota
320T LES
1954 Buford Ave
St. Paul, MN 55108
fax [phone]
email [e-mail]









Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Science Teacher Education, Clear
Water Beach, Florida, January 4 – January 7, 2012
1 Abstract
Self-study of teaching and teacher education practice is used to explore the effectiveness
of using a new assignment type developed using principals of culturally relevant pedagogy as an
alternative to the static instructional case study in developing science teacher overall
reflectiveness and inquiry practice in a fully on-line science teacher induction course. Novice
STEM (Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology) teachers enrolled in a fully online
induction course engaged in a learning task which required that they analyze and share the
context of their teaching environment, state a goal relevant to their practice, explain their
previous efforts to achieve their goals, dialogue with their peers, construct an plan for action, and
share progress about their actions around their goal in their own classroom. The assignment,
analysis, and opportunities for future work in the area of applying culturally relevant, or
culturally responsive, teaching to the education of science teachers and its impact on science
classrooms are discussed.

Keywords: Culturally relevant pedagogy, professional development, induction, STEM teachers,
online instruction, S-STTEP
2 A Culturally Relevant Case Study Alternative for Developing Science (STEM) Teachers

Instructional case studies are detailed explorations of specific real-world scenarios or
events. Thaller (1994) compiled an extensive bibliography of the use of case studies in teacher
education with publications from as long ago as 1921. By virtue of their format, these cases are
static though technology has enabled them to become more engaging as the case study has
evolved to include web-based, case-based learning. Bronack, Kilbane, Herbert, and McNergney
(1999) report that CaseNET, a web-based, case-method online teacher professional development
community which participants perceived as providing an opportunity to engage in professional,
“exploration, reflection, collaboration, and hands-on interactions with authentic teaching tasks.”
Zeng and Blasi (2010) took the case method instructional approach one step further creating
multistoryline based case studies which permitted learners to explore difference storylines based
on their responses to questions embedded in the environment. Additionally, an animated subject
matter expert and a teacher mentor are available to learners to explain concepts related to the
cases. Results of his study indicated that the design improved learners’ knowledge acquisition in
an environment which the learners’ were interested in.
However interactive the discussion of case studies such as those provided by CaseNET
can be or however dynamic the web may be able to present storylines, the information in the case
study themselves are static, the storylines run out. As the candidate emerges into professional
practice as a novice, the case study may appear over simplified, lacking in depth, and/ or
seemingly unrelated to the real, complex, day-to-day challenges of the classroom. In essence, the
instructional case study method may become less culturally relevant to science teachers as they
progress in their development. Yet, the novice teacher still requires learning opportunities as they
3 develop the “comprehension and reasoning, transformation and reflection” necessary for
teaching (Shulman, 1987). As a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
teacher educator, I committed myself to creating culturally relevant learning opportunities for my
students, all first through third year practicing teachers. In particular, rather than using static case
studies, as had been used with mixed results in the past in this course, I developed an alternative
called the Venture Vexation Assignment (VVA) with the intent that it would be more culturally
relevant to STEM teachers.
Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP), “empowers students intellectually, socially,
emotionally, and politically by using cultural referents to impart knowledge, skills, and attitudes”
(Ladson-Billings, 1994). Ladson-Billings grounded theory research with teachers whom
embodied this concept in their practice indicated that the culturally relevant teacher, among other
things, saw themselves as a member of the community and viewed their work as an art, “always
in the process of becoming” (1995, p. 478). These teachers also develop a community of learners
in which they participate, developing connections with all of the students. All community
members are encouraged to collaborate and share responsibility for each other. Finally, Ladson-
Billings believes the culturally relevant teacher tends to view knowledge as perpetually
constructed and in need of critical analysis (1994).
This Self-Study of Teaching and Teacher Education Practice (S-STTEP) details efforts
to improve upon an element in a STEM teacher induction course. While all of the teachers in the
course were white, their students, like the instructor had been, were very diverse. Thus, this study
is in part an exploration of how CRP manifests for teachers of diverse students rather than, as in
the traditional sense, of diverse students themselves. CRP is perhaps more a state of mind and
identity on the part of the instructor than it is any particular teaching strategy. The intention of
4 the instructional strategy detailed here was to specifically provide a culturally relevant learning
opportunity within the larger framework of the professional development community of the
course. The questions guiding this study were thus: To what extent did the Venture Vexation
Assignment manifest elements of Critically Relevant Pedagogy? How did the Venture Vexation
Assignment support STEM induction teachers in their own Culturally Relevant Pedagogy?

Method
Ladson-Billings has argued that educational research must occur in “the naturalistic
setting of the classroom and from the lived experiences of teachers” (1994). This perspective
forms the fundamental basis of the methodology selected for this study. Throughout this study I
situate myself within the work through the choice of directly using the pronoun “I” throughout
following the example of Ladson-Billings (1994; 1995) and Zeichner (1990; 1995) and explicit
suggestion of Pinnager and Hamilton (2009).
I wish to make explicit the theoretical lens from which this research is based. As a
trained scientist and a former teacher, I am significantly pragmatic in the methodologies of my
work and research. I utilize whatever methodologies I judge to be most appropriate to effectively
digging in and getting the particular job at hand done. My goal as a teacher and now as a teacher
educator is to promote high quality learning for all of my students. Very early in my experiences
in the classroom, I was troubled by how poorly the education system served minority students,
poor students, second language speaking students, and queer students. My students were my best
teachers. Working directly with them, I developed a pedagogical style I later recognized as most
closely aligning with anti-oppressive pedagogy generally. As a researcher, I have adopted a
5 critical gaze from which I question and problematize the systemic barriers to socially just
learning in STEM. Thus, the questions I seek to answer align with the efforts of critical theorists.
Self-Study Of Teaching And Teacher Education Practice
S-STTEP is defined by Pinnegar and Hamilton (2009) as arising from the desire of
teachers and teacher educators to take ownership of their practice to contribute to teacher
education and teacher development. Within this framework, the reflective practitioner is drawn
to ask how theory is executed in practice and how practice, then, adds depth to the theory itself
(Hamilton, 2004; Pinnegar and Hamilton, 2009). Zeichner (2007) asserts that self-study be
situated in existing theoretical frameworks such that practice builds on the work of others.
Context
Mentoring and induction support is a critical component of the secondary science Initial
Licensure Program at the University of Minnesota. A fully online induction course was
developed to accommodate teachers practicing in increasingly distance locations titled
Improving Secondary Science Instruction: Surviving the First Two Years. Fully online courses
provide numerous affordances for learning well suited to induction STEM teachers including
spatial and temporal flexibility, the development of learner interdependence, and modeling of
best practices of technological integration (Zucker, 2009). The Science Teacher Induction
Network (TIN) uses a Moodle platform and a variety of online tools and strategies to pr