Building the Science Department: Stories of Success

by: Wayne Melville, Doug Jones, and Todd Campbell

$24.99 Member Price $31.99 Nonmember Price

How can your science department become a site for developing science teachers’ professional learning? Building the Science Department answers that question through stories from teachers who walk the sometimes rocky path of reforming science teaching and learning. Written by the authors of Reimagining the Science Department, this resource features vignettes from teachers at different career stages. Drawing from these stories, it highlights the common themes in their professional learning and the ways their learning needs have changed over time. The stories are illuminating for teachers as well as for school administrators and other education leaders.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part deals with scientific activity as represented in A Framework for K–12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards and its role in making the science department a place for building professional learning. The second part uses teacher vignettes to work through the components of a professional learning framework—context, content, activities, and processes. After each vignette is a commentary on the teachers’ key points and their implications. Also included are questions to challenge teachers to improve their instructional practices and align them with current reform initiatives.

As the authors write, “Our book gives teachers at different points in their careers a voice in describing their professional learning needs. By combining these voices with theory, we can make use of the department as a place to support all teachers in their reform efforts.”

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Grade Levels

High School Middle School

Topics

Careers General Science Instructional Materials Leadership New Science Teachers NGSS Postsecondary Preservice Science Education Professional Learning Teaching Strategies Technology

Details

Type NSTA Press BookPub Date 9/1/2017Pages 148ISBN 978-1-68140-274-1Stock # PB426X

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Patricia Leazier

Build Your Team...Stories of Success

As a science department chairperson during the onset and introduction of the Next Generation Science Standards, it was evident that I would need resources to assist in shaping a clear plan of action of how my department would approach and incorporate the NGSS into our teaching pedagogy. After attending a regional NSTA conference, it became apparent that the book “Building the Science Department Stories of Success” would be a valuable tool. This book offered several strategic and practical approaches for introducing NGSS to my department. It also recognized the value of building a strong collaborative science department. In addition, the book emphasized the importance of the science department’s role in visualizing how to represent the central ideas of the different science disciplines and how they are interconnected. The book explores how scientific activities should be used to develop a vision for each science department and how the concept should align with the understandings set forth by the NGSS framework. The book explains and addresses how the “traditional” science department image is need of reform to move in new direction. The book emphasizes student engagement and how, in this category, historical approaches are a bit obsolete. Additionally, it strongly encouraged departments to incorporate a variety of methods that enhance student engagement and development of advanced understandings as it applies to science practices. Practices should include teaching strategies that better expand students’ ability to make claims, explain phenomena, and solve problems. The book recognized how science instruction should be centered on NGSS to improve science instruction for all students. Working in a collaborative environment as a team is an underlying theme of the book. It discusses how the department should present itself as professional unit that strives to improve the teaching and learning that occurs in its school. The book openly discusses and provides examples of how a department should set aside time in which teachers plan and teach together. The book discusses how common planning will influence teachers to have more honest and productive discussions. The robust nature of discussions, among colleagues, will promote growth within the department. The book identifies the importance for teachers to evolve in their instructional delivery and be more accountable for their profession growth. The book placed great emphasizes on teachers “learning from colleagues” and how this fosters a constructive dialogue. The book offers many options of how this model “can be” or “should be” implemented. Although the book focused the transformation of traditional science teaching pedagogy and how the science department should embrace and implement change; I found the vignettes the most valuable component of the resource. The book is a rich source of extracts that demonstrate how successful departments have implemented change and the methods used to incite such change. It was refreshing to survey how other departments addressed content that was conducive to their professional development and how this allowed for those departments to expand their pedagogical knowledge. Furthermore, the vignettes made it purposely clear that supporting the changing needs of teachers is both the responsibility of the individual teacher and the department. This book endorsed the idea of team and the responsibility of its members to embrace a vision that all support and promote. I highly recommend this book as resource for department chairs of all experience levels. It provides clear “road maps” of how best to engage members of the department to become a collaborative unit. The message from this book would facilitate a “buy in” mentality and benefit a department leader as it would provide guidance on how to maneuver and avoid potential obstacles that could lead to division among team members. In my professional opinion, this book is an excellent guide for coaching team building and cohesion.