Learning from Cases: Unraveling the Complexities of Elementary Science Teaching

This casebook is ideal for pre-service and in-service teachers to use as a problem-solving vehicle for science teaching and learning at the elementary school level. This book contextualizes the dilemmas and challenges of elementary science teaching through the narrative cases of prospective and practicing teachers, science teacher educators, informal science educators, and scientists. Each case is accompanied by questions to facilitate discussion and one or more responses which feature interesting and diverse perspectives on the challenges of the case. Every chapter contains three or four cases and are organized around such topics as assessment, language, inquiry-based instruction, diversity, conceptual understanding, and professional development. The book is an excellent resource for pre-service and in-service teachers interested in improving their understanding of science teaching and learning.