Ambitious Science Teaching outlines a powerful framework for science teaching to ensure that instruction is rigorous and equitable for students from all backgrounds.
Ambitious Science Teaching outlines a powerful framework for science teaching to ensure that instruction is rigorous and equitable for students from all backgrounds. The practices presented in the book are being used in schools and districts that seek to improve science teaching at scale, and a wide range of science subjects and grade levels are represented.
The book is organized around four sets of core teaching practices: planning for engagement with big ideas; eliciting student thinking; supporting changes in students’ thinking; and drawing together evidence-based explanations. Discussion of each practice includes tools and routines that teachers can use to support students’ participation, transcripts of actual student-teacher dialogue and descriptions of teachers’ thinking as it unfolds, and examples of student work. The book also provides explicit guidance for “opportunity to learn” strategies that can help scaffold the participation of diverse students.
Since the success of these practices depends so heavily on discourse among students, Ambitious Science Teaching includes chapters on productive classroom talk. Science-specific skills such as modeling and scientific argument are also covered.
Drawing on the emerging research on core teaching practices and their extensive work with preservice and in-service teachers, Ambitious Science Teaching presents a coherent and aligned set of resources for educators striving to meet the considerable challenges that have been set for them.
Preface |
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One A Vision of Ambitious Science Teaching |
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1 | (18) |
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Two Planning for Engagement with Big Science Ideas |
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19 | (20) |
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Three Talk as a Tool for Learning |
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39 | (26) |
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Productive Discourse, Part 1 |
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Four Encouraging More Students to Participate in Talk |
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65 | (20) |
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Productive Discourse, Part 2 |
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Five Eliciting Students' Ideas |
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85 | (26) |
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Six Making Thinking Visible Through Models |
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111 | (20) |
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Seven Allowing Students to Show What They Know |
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131 | (20) |
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Eight Supporting Ongoing Changes in Thinking: Introducing New Ideas |
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151 | (18) |
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Nine Supporting Ongoing Changes in Thinking: Activity and Sense Making |
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169 | (18) |
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Ten Supporting Ongoing Changes in Thinking: Collective Thinking |
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187 | (12) |
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Eleven Making and Justifying Claims in a Science Community |
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199 | (16) |
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Twelve Drawing Together Evidence-Based Explanations |
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215 | (22) |
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Thirteen Organizing with Colleagues to Improve Teaching |
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237 | (20) |
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Fourteen Can We Be Ambitious Every Day? |
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257 | (8) |
Appendix A Coherence Between AST and Professional Standards for Practice |
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265 | (4) |
Appendix B Reminding Ourselves of the Bigger Picture of Instruction |
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269 | (6) |
Appendix C Taxonomy of Tools |
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275 | (2) |
Appendix D How to Help Students Understand the "What-How-Why" Levels of Explanation |
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277 | (4) |
Appendix E Rapid Survey of Student Thinking (RSST) Tool |
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281 | (2) |
Appendix F Supports for Students in Making Sense of Experimental Design and Purpose |
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283 | (2) |
Appendix G Supporting Explanation Writing |
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285 | (6) |
Notes |
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291 | (6) |
About the Authors |
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297 | (2) |
Index |
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299 | |
Mark Windschitl is a professor of science teaching and learning at the University of Washington and a former secondary science teacher.
Jessica Thompson is an associate professor in teaching, learning, and curriculum at the University of Washington and a former secondary science teacher.
Melissa Braaten is an assistant professor of science education at the University of Colorado Boulder and a former elementary, middle, and high school science teacher.