Testing Predictors of Instructional Practice in Elementary Science Education: The Significant Role of Accountability

Abstract

Many resources have been committed to research on science teaching pedagogies, resulting in a robust understanding of best instructional practices. Yet, exposure to excellent science instruction in elementary school is haphazard at best and often inequitable. Although the research community has attended to the role of teacher traits, such as attitude and preparation, very little research examines the role of policy and context in constraining or supporting such best practices at the elementary level. This study attempts to fill this need through a multilevel model of how teacher traits, socioeconomic context (SE context), and accountability pressures predict students’ opportunity to engage in hands‐on and laboratory science education. Results indicate accountability pressure eclipsed all other predictors, including SE context, in accounting for variance in the model. Final analysis indicates that teachers at high accountability pressure schools spent about 60% less time using hands‐on and laboratory teaching methods than teachers at lower accountability pressure schools, an equity issue given the distribution of underrepresented students. Teacher traits including professional development, experience, attitude, and degree were insignificant in the model. This has implications for efforts to improve elementary science education in the United States, as research and national priorities have been focused primarily on teacher development.

Developing and supporting the Next Generation Science Standards: The role of policy entrepreneurs

“…Additionally, though Kingdon's data relate to the United States context, the implications are relevant beyond the United States, particularly in federalist countries in which federal and state relations exist in tension. The findings also resonate with nascent science education research that has documented the angst that can emerge when federal and state accountability policies loom large (e.g., Anderson, 2012; Hayes & Trexler, 2016).…”

What are critical features of science curriculum materials that impact student and teacher outcomes?

“…Specifically, research suggests that curriculum materials may play a key role in supporting the development of teachers’ science content knowledge (Donna & Hick, ; Ellins et al., ) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK; Beyer & Davis, ; Marco‐Bujosa, McNeill, González‐Howard, & Loper, ; Schneider & Krajcik, ), which is the knowledge that teachers use in transforming subject matter knowledge into forms that are comprehensible for students (Shulman, ), such as knowledge of science‐specific instructional strategies and of students’ thinking about science ideas (Park, Jang, Chen, & Jung, ; Schneider & Krajcik, ). In addition, curriculum materials may also shape teachers’ instructional practices (Beyer & Davis, ; Beyer, Delgado, Davis, & Krajcik, ; Wyner, ), defined as the pedagogical approaches used by teachers to support student learning (Hayes & Trexler, ). Finally, curriculum materials may have an influence on teachers’ beliefs about science teaching and learning, the nature of science, or about themselves as knowers of science (Dias, Eick, & Brantley‐Dias, ; Wyner, ), as well as on their self‐efficacy (Ellins et al., ; Sinha et al., ).…”

Income-Based Disparities in Early Elementary School Science Achievement

“…Next, specific policy and practice shifts related to both formal and informal science learning may also mitigate income-based science achievement gaps. For example, attention might be given to the time spent on science (Bassok et al, 2016;Blank, 2013;Marx & Harris, 2006;Phillips, Gormley, & Lowenstein, 2009;Sackes, Trundle, & Bell, 2013;Sackes, Trundle, Bell, & O'Connell, 2011;Tu, 2006), the capacity of teachers and school leaders to teach science (Bianchini, Dwyer, Brenner, & Wearly, 2015), and the ways in which science is taught and integrated with other subjects (Hayes & Trexler, 2016). The recently developed Next Generation Science Standards and the National Research Council's corresponding framework on K-12 science instruction provide some grounding for such shifts in instructional practice around science.…”