Truth, success, and faith

Novice teachers’ perceptions of what's at risk in responsive teaching in science

Bibliographic Data

ID21392921
AuthorsAmy D Robertson (0000-0002-9307-2681, Department of Physics Seattle Pacific University Seattle Washington, corresponding author), Leslie J Atkins Elliott (0000-0003-4535-7348, Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Boise State University Boise Idaho)
Year2020
Volume104
Issue4
Pages736-761
Publication date2020-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0036-8326 • E-ISSN: 1098-237X
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/sce.21568
OpenAlexW3004793543
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited62

Responsive teaching—or teaching that builds from the “seeds of science” in student thinking—is depicted in STEM education literature as both important and challenging. U.S. science education reform has been calling for teachers to enact instruction that attends to and takes up the substance of students’ STEM ideas; however, responsive teaching represents a substantial shift from the current state of affairs in most U.S. classrooms, where content is often presented authoritatively as facts, definitions, and algorithms, with little consideration of student thinking. Drawing on language from literature about sense‐making, this paper identifies some of the “vexation points” that novice science teachers face as they consider implementing responsive teaching practices in science—that is, what doesn't make sense, to teachers, about this instructional approach. In particular, we show that novice teachers express moral concerns about responsive teaching; themes in their written reflections suggest that they perceive responsive teaching to put truth, success, and faith at risk. We argue that though these concerns originally seem distinct from the institutional constraints to responsive teaching posed by the literature, teachers’ concerns about truth, success, and faith are in fact mutually reinforced by and reinforcing of external constraints. We use this connection to pose implications for research and teacher education

Epistemology · Face (sociological concept) · Faith · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Perception · Social science · Sociology · Teaching method · Education and Critical Thinking Development · Educational Strategies and Epistemologies · Innovative Teaching Methods · Philosophy · Psychology