Best Practice in Middle-School Science Article

Oliveira, AW, Wilcox, KC, Angelis, J et al. (2013). Best Practice in Middle-School Science . Journal of Science Teacher Education, 24(2), 297-322. 10.1007/s10972-012-9293-0

cited authors

  • Oliveira, AW; Wilcox, KC; Angelis, J; Applebee, AN; Amodeo, V; Snyder, MA

abstract

  • Using socio-ecological theory, this study explores best practice (educational practices correlated with higher student performance) in middle-school science. Seven schools with consistently higher student performance were compared with three demographically similar, average-performing schools. Best practice included instructional approaches (relevance and engagement, inquiry, differentiated instruction, collaborative work, moderate amounts of homework, and integration of language literacy and science) and administrative practices (nurturing a climate of opportunity to succeed in science, offering professional development based on data and dialogue, engaging teachers in standards-based curriculum revision and alignment, and recruiting the right fit of teacher). It is argued that best practice entails multiple levels of teaching and administrative praxis that together form a school-wide socio-ecological system conducive to higher performance. © 2012 The Association for Science Teacher Education, USA.

authors

publication date

  • April 11, 2013

published in

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

start page

  • 297

end page

  • 322

volume

  • 24

issue

  • 2