Elementary Teachers Face Research Articles

Moderating Effect of Accessary Environment on Teachers’ Administrative Proficiency and Instructional Experiences in Talomo District, Davao City

Elementary teachers face multifaceted challenges daily, including the need to master content and pedagogy, address diverse student needs, and manage classroom climate and behavior. Additionally, they must keep pace with growing classroom diversity and adapt to various learning needs. Developing teachers' administrative proficiency, which involves strategic planning, problem-solving, and change management, is essential for improving instructional experiences. This study investigates the moderating effect of an accessary environment—an environment that promotes self-discovery and group connection—on the relationship between teachers' administrative proficiency and instructional experiences in Talomo District, Davao City. Using a non-experimental quantitative design and descriptive correlation technique, the study surveyed 175 elementary school teachers. Findings revealed that administrative proficiency significantly correlates with instructional experiences and the accessary environment. Furthermore, the accessary environment moderates the interaction between administrative proficiency and instructional experiences, accounting for an additional 8.40% variance in instructional experiences. The study underscores the need for supportive policies and effective communication between school administrators and teachers to enhance educational practices and teacher engagement.

Elementary teachers as collaborators: developing educative support materials for citizen science projects

ABSTRACT Science education is an important component of a full education beginning in primary grades. In recent decades, research has identified young learners’ rich knowledge of the natural world and their potential to connect with sophisticated science ideas. Elementary teachers face many challenges to implementing reform-based science instruction in their classrooms. Some teachers may choose to enhance their students’ science experiences by introducing them to citizen science (CS) projects. Unfortunately, few CS projects offer substantial guidance for teachers seeking to implement the projects for instructional purposes, placing a heavy burdenon teachers. To address these burdens, our research team collaborated with Teacher Advisory Group (TAG teachers) during the development and revision of educative support materials for two CS projects. We present data about how the TAG teachers informed our CS support materials’ revisions, how they implemented the two CS projects with and without educative support materials, and how they perceived their students’ classroom and outdoor experiences with the CS projects. These data demonstrate the importance of including teachers’ voices and experiences in reform efforts, particularly when trying to incorporate instructional elements that teachers may perceive as deviations from what they are expected to teach.

Issues in Online Teaching: Elementary Teachers' Perspectives

The purpose of this study was to identify the main problems elementary teachers face when teaching online. 13 elementary teachers were interviewed and asked to list the main problems they face when teaching online. Their answers were grouped into the following groups: Assessing students; Behaviour; Communication; Engaging students; Incorporating social-emotional learning; Instructions, modelling, demonstrating; Motivating students; Organisation; Parents over or under support; Planning and delivering lessons; Supporting students; and Technology issues. Then, 554 elementary teachers were surveyed using Microsoft Forms. The findings indicated that the four main problems teachers face when teaching online are related to assessing students, engaging students, parents over or under support and technology. When teacher votes were grouped by country, the findings correlated cross-culturally at .92 correlation, indicating a correlation of significance. A secondary aim of the study was to find whether teachers felt as competent in the online teaching environment as they do in the traditional classroom. The survey showed that 55% of teachers did not feel as competent.

Stuck in a box: Elementary teacher education students’ perspectives of the impact of edTPA on social studies instruction

The purpose of this study is to ascertain perspectives from pre-service and in-service elementary teachers on whether edTPA impacted their preparedness to teach social studies. Major findings show that while study participants found some benefits from edTPA for preparing to teach social studies, pre-service and in-service elementary teachers face significant challenges including time constraints, marginalized emphasis on teaching social studies, facilitating conversations about current events and contemporary issues, and accessing relevant professional development that can support their teaching of content-specific topics with inquiry-based pedagogies such as the National Council for the Social Studies (2013) College, Career, and Civic Life Framework. Recommendations for future studies include examining how partnerships between colleges of education, school districts, and local educational agencies can support pre-service and in-service elementary teachers’ ambitious social studies teaching by focusing on content that highlights contributions of underrepresented historical figures and events, implementing curriculum that promotes inquiry skills, and applying knowledge of the contexts in which they teach to meet the diverse needs of students.

Supporting Elementary Teachers' Collective Inquiry into the “E” in STEM

In the USA context of the Next Generation Science Standards, elementary teachers face challenges in implementing engineering practices in their teaching due their lack of experience and training in engineering design. The paper reports about a multiple case study that examined one professional development approach to improve teachers’ understanding and implementation of the STEM discipline of engineering. Two teams of elementary teachers analyzed their students’ written work and assessments during facilitated professional learning community sessions with a science/engineering education researcher after their first implementation of an engineering design unit. The results indicated that the teachers noticed students’ understandings and misconceptions about the work of engineers, the disciplinary language for a specific engineering unit, the operational mechanism of a design, and engineering epistemic practices (i.e., envisioning design proposals, making evidence-based decisions, evaluating solutions based on criteria). From this collaborative, focused analysis of student work for the engineering challenge, the teacher teams constructed their understanding of students’ thinking and generated recommendations for pedagogical changes in their own STEM teaching practice for engineering design. The findings from this study have implications for forms of professional development that sustain teacher learning about the STEM discipline of engineering design.

Developing Confidence in STEAM: Exploring the Challenges that Novice Elementary Teachers Face

Developing Confidence in STEAM: Exploring the Challenges that Novice Elementary Teachers Face

Developing a Reform-Minded Science Teaching Identity: The Role of Informal Science Environments

Recommendations for reform in science education around the world set high goals for beginning elementary teachers. Concurrently, existing literature indicates a number of challenges that beginning elementary teachers face. In this paper an argument is put forward about the integration of informal science environments in elementary teacher preparation, as a means for supporting beginning elementary teachers develop reform-minded science teaching identities. Essentially, the purpose of this paper is to explore the links between teacher identity, reform recommendations, and informal science environments. In doing so, a discussion of the theoretical construct of teacher identity in conjunction with reform recommendations is offered, followed by a summary of existing literature about the challenges that beginning elementary teachers face. Subsequently, the advantages and unique opportunities that informal science environments offer for teacher learning and development are discussed through a review of related literature. Following this review, a set of theoretical and methodological limitations of existing literature are identified. Based on these limitations, a research agenda is framed to address the theoretical, methodological and research implications that the idea of integrating informal science environments and approaches to elementary teacher preparation holds.

Factors Influencing Science Content Accuracy in Elementary Inquiry Science Lessons

Elementary teachers face increasing demands to engage children in authentic science process and argument while simultaneously preparing them with knowledge of science facts, vocabulary, and concepts. This reform is particularly challenging due to concerns that elementary teachers lack adequate science background to teach science accurately. This study examined 81 in-classroom inquiry science lessons for preservice education majors and their cooperating teachers to determine the accuracy of the science content delivered in elementary classrooms. Our results showed that 74 % of experienced teachers and 50 % of student teachers presented science lessons with greater than 90 % accuracy. Eleven of the 81 lessons (9 preservice, 2 cooperating teachers) failed to deliver accurate science content to the class. Science content accuracy was highly correlated with the use of kit-based resources supported with professional development, a preference for teaching science, and grade level. There was no correlation between the accuracy of science content and some common measures of teacher content knowledge (i.e., number of college science courses, science grades, or scores on a general science content test). Our study concluded that when provided with high quality curricular materials and targeted professional development, elementary teachers learn needed science content and present it accurately to their students.

Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Reflection on Narrative Images of Inquiry

Preservice elementary teachers face challenges in learning to teach science. Educative curriculum materials, designed to promote teacher learning, can provide support for overcoming these challenges. The educative curriculum materials used in this study provide narrative vignettes describing a teacher’s decision making with regard to lesson plans. As part of an elementary science methods course, 40 preservice teachers were asked to reflect on and respond to the narratives. Results suggest that descriptions of teaching situated in lesson plans can promote productive reflection for preservice teachers. This study informs the design of educative curriculum materials and elementary science teacher education experiences and helps improve the pedagogical content knowledge of elementary science teacher educators.

Developing preservice elementary teachers' knowledge and practices through modeling‐centered scientific inquiry

AbstractPreservice elementary teachers face many challenges in learning how to teach science effectively, such as engaging students in science, organizing instruction, and developing a productive learning community. This paper reports on several iterative cycles of design‐based research aimed at fostering preservice teachers' principled reasoning around these problems of practice through modeling‐centered scientific inquiry. The first design cycle introduced preservice teachers to modeling and simulation software tools in an effort to advance their understanding of science and technology; the second used an instructional framework embodying modeling‐centered inquiry to advance their views of effective science teaching and their lesson‐planning practices; the third engaged preservice teachers in analyzing and modifying curriculum materials using reform‐based criteria to foster effective curriculum materials use. Outcomes from these iterations indicate that the preservice teachers were most likely to advance their knowledge and practices within a coherent approach that focused on a core scientific practice such as modeling‐centered inquiry, provided opportunities to unpack and apply robust tools such as reform‐based instructional frameworks, and addressed their perceived problems of practice. The findings from this set of approaches are compared to others in an effort to point toward promising future directions for effective science teacher education. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 93:720–744, 2009

A View from the Top: Elementary Science and the Three R's

Research Article| March 01 1978 A View from the Top: Elementary Science and the Three R's Martha A. Carter Martha A. Carter Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar The American Biology Teacher (1978) 40 (3): 146–163. https://doi.org/10.2307/4446199 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Martha A. Carter; A View from the Top: Elementary Science and the Three R's. The American Biology Teacher 1 March 1978; 40 (3): 146–163. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/4446199 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter All ContentThe American Biology Teacher Search This content is only available via PDF. Copyright 1978 National Association of Biology Teachers Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.