"This book is a field guide to the science classroom with authentic examples presented in written and video form. The authors offer six in-depth case studies of class discussion from grades 1 through 8, each keyed to clips of minimally edited in-the-classroom footage on the companion DVD-ROM."--BOOK JACKET.

A collection in which the contributors draw on diverse areas of cognitive science to examine the difference between actual and presumed visual cognition.

Karen Gallas provides us with a window into children’s thinking about the world, enabling us to see how students build complex theories, identify important questions, and begin to enter the world of science, all within the naturalistic setting of the classroom. As the title suggests, this book treats classroom science as a particular type of discourse, with its own set of language and thinking practices. Gallas describes the content, structure, and practice of her child-centered approach, explains how the teacher’s role in Science Talks develops and changes over time, and discusses how the use of Science Talks could transform science instruction as a whole. The full transcripts of two such talks included in the appendix, in addition to many smaller quoted interchanges throughout the text, will fascinate readers.

This eye-opening book pieces together three parts of a story: understanding media, creating ethonographies with digital video, and describing children's thinking. Readers can become participants by using the website to engage with and add to the stories being told.

What is science for a child? How do children learn about science and how to do science? Drawing on a vast array of work from neuroscience to classroom observation, Taking Science to School provides a comprehensive picture of what we know about teaching and learning science from kindergarten through eighth grade. By looking at a broad range of questions, this book provides a basic foundation for guiding science teaching and supporting students in their learning. Taking Science to School answers such questions as: When do children begin to learn about science? Are there critical stages in a child's development of such scientific concepts as mass or animate objects? What role does nonschool learning play in children's knowledge of science? How can science education capitalize on children's natural curiosity? What are the best tasks for books, lectures, and hands-on learning? How can teachers be taught to teach science? The book also provides a detailed examination of how we know what we know about children's learning of scienceâ€"about the role of research and evidence. This book will be an essential resource for everyone involved in K-8 science educationâ€"teachers, principals, boards of education, teacher education providers and accreditors, education researchers, federal education agencies, and state and federal policy makers. It will also be a useful guide for parents and others interested in how children learn.

Learn how to connect your curriculum planning to children's interests and thinking. With this book, educators will discover a systematic way for using documentation to design curriculum that emerges from children's inquiries, what they wonder, and what they want to understand. Get strategies for designing a classroom environment at the start of the year to facilitate emergent inquiry curriculum. Each chapter guides teachers to document and reflect on their thinking through each of the five phases of a cycle of inquiry process, including observing, interpreting the meaning of the play they see, and developing questions to engage children.

This book is about learning and ethnography in the context of technologies. Simultaneously, it portrays young people's "thinking attitudes" in computer-based learning environments, and it describes how the practice of ethnography is changing in a digital world. The author likens this form of interaction to "the double helix," where learning and ethnography are intertwined to tell an emergent story about partnerships with technology. Two school computer cultures were videotaped for this study. Separated not only by geography -- one school is on the east coast of New England and the other on the west coast of British Columbia on Vancouver Island -- they are also separated in other ways: ethnic make-up and inner-city vs. rural settings to name only two. Yet these two schools are joined by a strong thread: a change in their respective cultures with the advent of intensive computer-use on the part of the students. Both school communities have watched their young people gain literacy and competence, and their tools have changed from pen to computer, video camera, multimedia and the Internet. Perhaps most striking is that the way they think of themselves as learners has also changed: they see themselves as an active participant, in the pilot's seat or director's chair, as they chart new connections between diverse and often unpredictable worlds of knowledge.

A companion to Aspects of Teaching Secondary Science, the first section of this reader provides an overview of the key issues, discussing the nature of science and its role in the school curriculum. The second section goes on to examine critically the ways in which science is reflected in the school curriculum, while the third section discusses recent curriculum initiatives and developments. Turning the focus from what is taught on to who is taught, section four shows that students are very much active learners in the classroom, making sense of their experiences and constructing their own meanings. The final section covers the role of research in science education, giving examples of research papers and considering how productive collaboration between teachers and researchers can impact upon the effectiveness of classroom practice.

This ambitious text is the first of its kind to summarize the theory, research, and practice related to pedagogical content knowledge. The audience is provided with a functional understanding of the basic tenets of the construct as well as its applications to research on science teacher education and the development of science teacher education programs.

This book provides an exceptional insight into how children learn science, as well as which teaching approaches have been found to be most successful. Drawing on the significant body of research carried out over the past 35 years, the book provides valuable evidence about which tried-and–tested approaches enhance learning and help children actually learn science. The book:• supports you in becoming more effective in teaching primary science• offers a reliable evidential base, founded on significant research findings• helps you make informed choices about which approaches to use in your teaching repertoire• provides support for completing your written assignments Overall the text helps you develop your knowledge and understanding of primary science, as well as how best to plan for teaching this important subject. Insights into how children best learn science, together with practical teaching ideas that have been tested in a systematic way, makes this an essential book for primary teachers in training and an invaluable guide for primary teachers teaching science in Key Stages One and Two. “This book makes a major, evidence-based contribution to teaching science in the primary school. It provides a solid grounding for busy teachers to access and use research findings to enhance their professional development and practice. Each chapter provides comprehensive coverage of a science topic, including: revision of subject knowledge; research findings on children's ideas; learning progression; suggested ways to teach, and research exemplars and lesson outlines. This book is a valuable resource for student teachers and for teachers with many years of experience. It is an indispensable addition to every primary teacher’s bookshelf and every university education department.” Rob Toplis, recently Senior Lecturer in Science Education, Brunel University, UK “This is a great ‘why to…’ and ‘how to…’ book. Michael Allen’s use of progressive understanding underscores both the unfolding stories of primary science alongside children’s developing grasp of the key ideas involved. His work is based on a wealth of research that provides the basis for the ‘why to…’ in curriculum organisation and planning. This is then brought to bear on considerable professional experience and classroom practice to provide the ‘how to…’ for teachers, covering a range of important topics in primary science. An excellent compendium of rationales and resources.” Mike Watts, Professor of Education, Brunel University, UK