Multidimensional Noticing for Teaching Science-as-Practice

Abstract

Taking the “practice turn” in K-12 science classrooms requires students to engage in processes of knowledge building, constructing explanatory accounts of natural phenomena. To support students in these sensemaking opportunities, a significant departure is needed from how science is typically taught in many classrooms. Teachers will need to be more intentional in attending to students' initial intuitions, pursuing their thinking, and figuring out how to respond in ways that will help students to work towards explanatory accounts of phenomena. Thus, cultivating teacher noticing in new ways is essential to supporting science-as-practice in K-12 classrooms. With an attempt to understand the nuances in science teachers' noticing, in this study, we analyzed interviews with two experienced science teachers, during which they examined a video clip from a middle school science classroom. Interview analyses that drew on multiple dimensions simultaneously showed notable distinctions in what teachers noticed within students' thinking and pedagogy, namely which dimensions of 3D learning they attended to, and how they framed students and their science learning occurring in the classroom video. These analyses supported the emergence of a framework for multidimensional noticing for teaching science-as-practice that brings together key dimensions for facilitating students in learning science-as-practice. Joining with other scholars to develop a more nuanced understanding of noticing that acknowledges its multidimensionality, our work contributes to the growing body of knowledge on what science teacher noticing entails for teaching science-as-practice.