CKT Science - Instructional Materials

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CKT Instructional Materials

Use the drop-down menus below to learn more about the development of and to access the CKT Matter Instructional Materials produced by our project team.

CKT Instructional Materials

In this project, we have created educative curriculum materials for teacher educators that are intended to provide them with support for developing elementary preservice teachers’ CKT. Educative curriculum materials (ECM) are designed to help “increase teachers’ knowledge in specific instances of instructional decision making but also help them develop more general knowledge that they can apply flexibly in new situations” (Davis & Krajcik, 2005, p. 3).

We followed an empirically and theoretically grounded design process (Davis et al, 2014) and generated a set of design heuristics to guide our work (see below). The design of our "CKT packets" was inspired in part by Page Keeley’s Uncovering Student Ideas series. We also drew inspiration (with authors' permission) from the ‘mini-cases’ in mathematics education (Nabors, Oláh, Howell, Lai, & Delucia, 2018; 2020). Each CKT Packet is built around a particular task. These tasks are flexibly designed for use in a variety of course contexts (e.g., content courses or methods courses) and professional development settings.

Educative features of the CKT packets (see below) are intended to support teacher educators in engaging elementary teachers and teacher candidates in the task in ways that support the development of their CKT. Specific supports are provided to help teacher educators anticipate, elicit, and understand elementary teachers’ thinking in regard to the focus CKT learning goals.

Design Heuristics

In creating CKT Packets, our team utilized content-specific research studies, existing educative curriculum materials, resources for science teacher educators, and practitioner perspectives and literature to develop a theoretically and empirically based set of design principles.

Heuristic #1: Supporting Teacher Educators in Engaging Preservice Elementary Teachers in the Work of Teaching Science

Materials should provide teacher educators with productive experiences that make the work of teaching science visible to preservice teachers, and provide rationales for why this work is important. Instructional modules should help teacher educators adapt and use resources with their preservice teachers in pedagogically appropriate ways, for example by making explicit how specific science teaching practices correspond to different concepts and ideas and providing recommendations for how those might be introduced to preservice teachers in different contexts and courses.

Heuristic #2: Supporting Teacher Educators in Anticipating, Understanding, and Addressing Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Ideas about Science and Science Teaching

Materials should help teacher educators understand how preservice teachers develop CKT for science. Modules should support teacher educators in anticipating, eliciting, and interpreting preservice teachers’ ideas, and provide insight into how teachers educators might address those ideas in their teaching, for example by giving suggestions of assessment probes, discussion questions, and activities likely to confront preservice teachers’ initial thinking about teaching science in productive ways.

Heuristic #3: Support Teacher Educators in the Development of Preservice Teachers’ Content Knowledge

Materials should provide teacher educators with tools for helping preservice teachers develop a deep conceptual understanding of science content as a foundation for building CKT. Modules should help teacher educators support preservice teachers in assessing their own understanding, confronting gaps in their understanding or misconceptions, making connections across concepts, and understanding why strong content knowledge is important for teaching. Modules should emphasize key differences between the understanding required of preservice teachers and their students.

Educative Features

We embedded multiple types of educative features within the curriculum materials to support teacher educators', as well as preservice teachers', learning:

About the Packet

Describes key concepts aligned with the targeted content focus and work of teaching science emphasized in the task and module. Identifies connections to the NGSS Performance Expectations, DCIs, SEPs, and/or CCCs as well as assessment boundaries and connections across elementary grades.

CKT Task and Elaborated Answer Key

Provides an elicitation task to assess preservice teachers’ CKT, including expected incorrect/correct responses and possible reasoning.

Single-Session Implementation Plan

Provides a suggested route for teacher educators to engage preservice teachers with the CKT tasks in ways that are consistent with their intended use.

Expanded Lesson Plan

A detailed lesson plan is provided that includes rationales for suggested activities and teaching moves, expected student responses, and suggestions for modifications.

Reading Pages

Provides information for preservice teachers about the science ideas elementary students are intended to develop, why these are important, their developmental appropriateness (e.g., introducing the small particle model rather than atoms in the elementary grades) and what they find difficult.

Additional Resources

Options for Going Further are included to allow instructors to flexibly adapt instruction to their students and context.
A list of Relevant Research is included to help teacher educators expand their own understanding of the CKT ideas represented in the packet.
Practitioner Articles are included that could address particular challenges and help preservice teachers deepen their CKT.
Web Resources provide supplemental or alternative options for exploring CKT with preservice teachers.

CKT Packets

The packets below are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. We welcome you to share any suggestions or adaptations!

4.-Explanations-for-Changes-in-Matter-v2.pdf

Scientific Explanations of Changes in Matter (Fizzy Antacid Task)

What is a scientific explanation and how can we support students in explaining changes in matter? The Fizzy Antacid task is intended to elicit and develop preservice teachers’ CKT related to students’ scientific explanations of changes in matter. The first part of the task asks preservice teachers to develop their own explanations and engage in scientific argumentation, while considering how elementary students might explain the Fizzy Antacid phenomenon. Student Explanations: Fizzy Antacid and Evaluating Explanations: Fizzy Antacid are included to help preservice teachers analyze student scientific explanations and strategize ways to help them strengthen their arguments. The packet contains tasks, an elaborated answer key, lesson plans, reading pages, and other resources to support preservice teachers in helping elementary students develop explanations of changes in matter.

6.-CKT-Asking-Q-about-Matter-v2.pdf

Asking Questions about Matter (Questions to Investigate Task)

What kinds of questions should guide investigations of matter? The Questions to Investigate task is intended to elicit preservice teachers’ CKT related to asking questions to frame investigations of changes in matter. The task presents a variety of student-posed questions for preservice teachers to evaluate in terms of their quality and appropriateness. The CKT tasks are intended as a complement to your existing instructional activities in order to elicit and probe preservice teachers’ CKT. For example, the Questions to Investigate task might be a useful exercise prior to engaging preservice teachers in selecting or adapting questions in curriculum materials for students to investigate, as it helps them consider what kinds of questions are appropriate. Alternately, it could be used in a content-focused course to help students contextualize their own investigations and draw parallels with their role as future teachers- helping them understand ways in which scientific questions are posed. The associated resources and activities in this packet are designed to support teacher educators in developing preservice teachers’ CKT through building an understanding of scientific questions in the context of investigating changes in matter. This packet contains not only the task, but lessons, readings, and other resources and information to support teacher educators.

5.-CKT-Materials-and-Matter-v2.pdf

Instructional Goals and Big Ideas for Teaching about Materials (Building a Tower)

How can we align activities with instructional goals to support student understanding of matter and materials? The Building a Tower Task is intended to elicit preservice teachers’ CKT about descriptions and appropriate uses of materials based on their properties. This task asks preservice teachers to identify the activities that align with the NGSS Performance Expectation that asks elementary students to determine which materials have the properties that are best suited for an intended purpose.The associated resources and activities in this packet, including reading pages, lesson plans, and task, are designed to support teacher educators in in developing preservice teachers’ CKT for teaching about matter and materials by purposefully selecting activities and topics that are organized to build toward the scientific idea described by the Performance Expectation.

2.-CKT-Scientific-Models-SPM-v2-1.pdf

Scientific Modeling and the Structure of Matter (Mystery Bubble Task)

What does it mean to help students develop a small particle model of matter? The Mystery Bubble task is intended to elicit preservice teachers’ CKT related to students’ ideas about the small particle model (SPM) for matter, particularly the idea of empty space between the particles. The task presents a phenomenon in which combining ethanol and water results in a mixture that occupies less space than the combined volume of each. The Modeling the Mystery Bubble task asks preservice teachers to consider teaching moves apprioriate to engaging students in the practice of modeling to explain the phenomena. The full packet contains tasks, an elaborated answer key, lesson plans, and other resources to support teacher educators in helping preservice elementary teachers develop CKT for engaging students in modeling and using representations of the small particle model of matter.

3.-Investigating-Conservation-of-Matter-V2.pdf

Investigating Conservation of Matter (Selecting Investigations Task)

What investigations can help students best understand conservation of matter? The Investigating Matter tasks are intended to elicit preservice teachers’ CKT related to the conservation of matter. The open-ended task asks preservice teachers to identify an investigation that would provide students with evidence to support this idea, while the multiple-choice version, Selecting Investigation of Matter, provides them several alternatives to consider. The packet contains tasks, an elaborated answer key, lesson plans, reading pages, and other resources to support preservice teachers in selecting appropriate investigations and demonstrations to help students understand the conservation of matter.

1.-CKT-Student-Ideas-SPM-v2.pdf

Student Ideas about the Small Particle Model (Two Cups of Liquid Task)

What ideas do students have about small particles of matter? The Two Cups of Liquid task is intended to elicit preservice teachers’ CKT related to students’ ideas about the small particle model (SPM) for matter. The first part of the task asks preservice teachers to articulate their own understanding about why two cups containing different volumes of liquid might have the same mass, while the second examines how elementary students might respond. Preservice teachers engage in anticipating and understanding students’ ideas, including building an awareness of common student conceptions, as well as evaluating the scientific accuracy of students’ ideas. The associated resources and activities in this packet, including a set of sample teacher responses, are designed to support teacher educators in developing preservice teachers’ CKT through understanding and interpreting a range of possible student ideas about the small particle model (SPM) of matter. This packet contains tasks, lessons, and resources for supporting preservice teachers.

Packet8_EvalPOM.pdf

Evaluating Instructional Materials for Teaching Properties of Matter (Which Activity Works? Task)

How can teachers evaluate the quality of instructional materials for use in their science teaching? What questions are important for them to consider? In this task, teachers are presented with a choice of three activity worksheets and must evaluate them for use with 2nd graders to help them develop an understanding of properties of matter. The full packet contains tasks, an elaborated answer key, lesson plans, and other resources to support teacher educators in helping preservice elementary teachers develop CKT for evaluating instructional materials for the purpose of teaching about properties of matter in grade 2.

References

Davis, E. A., & Krajcik, J. S. (2005). Designing educative curriculum materials to promote teacher learning. Educational Researcher, 34(3), 3-14.

Davis, E., Palincsar, A. S., Arias, A. M., Bismack, A. S., Marulis, L., & Iwashyna, S. (2014). Designing educative curriculum materials: A theoretically and empirically driven process. Harvard Educational Review, 84(1), 24-52.

Nabors Oláh, L., Howell, H., Lai, Y., DeLucia, M., Kim, E. (2020). Mr. Lee’s Dilemma: An Instructional Mini-Case on Evaluating Student Approaches to Comparing Fractions. (ETS Research Memorandum Series). Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.

Oláh, L.N., Howell, H., Lai, Y., & DeLucia, M. (2018, February). Using mini-cases to support pre-service teachers’ Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching. Paper presented at the meeting of the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (AMTE), Houston, TX.

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