The use of kits in elementary science classes is a growing trend in some countries. Kits provide materials and inquiry lessons in a ready-to-teach format for teachers to use in their science instruction. This study examined elementary teachers' instructional strategies, classroom practices, and assessment types in relation to the frequency of science kit use. A total of 503 elementary teachers from an urban school district received professional development, implemented kits in their classrooms for a year, and then completed a survey about science kit use and teaching practices. Despite similarities in demographic characteristics (gender, ethnicity, certification/educational level), there were significant differences in teachers' use of inquiry-based teaching and assessment practices by kit use. Teachers who reported using kits the most often were significantly more likely to report that their students designed and implemented laboratory investigations as well recorded, represented, and analyzed data. In addition, the high kit users indicated that they were more likely to use student groups, require students to use evidence to support claims, and use alternative assessments of student work including portfolios, notebooks, and long-term projects than those teachers who used kits less frequently. Those teachers who reported using kits the least often were significantly more likely to report having students practice for standardized tests. The role of kits in promoting reform-based teaching practices is discussed.

Literacy proficiency is critical for success both in and out of school; yet adolescent English language learners (ELLs) are not performing at the level of their English-speaking peers. This qualitative study focused on ways in which one successful high-school teacher facilitated literacy events as a way to provide language and literacy support for these students. The findings describe the actions of the teacher, the affordances made by these actions, and how the students took up those affordances. Teacher actions included creating a safe and comfortable atmosphere, following a routine, and participating in sharing activities. Affordances included opportunities for using vocabulary and language structures, developing and expressing ideas, and reflecting on meaning of texts. Student actions included various forms of engagement in the activities and content such as speaking up during sharing activities, showing interest in what other students had to say, and not wanting the activities to end. This study helps to inform educators of the potential of literacy events to support both language and literacy development for adolescent ELLs.

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) are frequently being used as a vehicle to transform science education. This study explored elementary teachers' perceptions about the impact of participating in a science PLC on their own professional development. With the use of The Science Professional Learning Communities Survey and a semi-structured interview protocol, elementary teachers' perceptions of the goals of science PLCs, the constraints and benefits of participation in PLCs, and reported differences in the impact of PLC participation on novice and experienced teachers were examined. Sixty-five elementary teachers who participated in a science PLC were surveyed about their experiences, and a subsample of 16 teachers was interviewed. Results showed that most of the teachers reported their science PLC emphasized sharing ideas with other teachers as well as working to improve students' science standardized test scores. Teachers noted that the PLCs had impacted their science assessment practices as well as their lesson planning. However, a majority of the participants reported a differential impact of PLCs depending on a teacher's level of experience. PLCs were reported as being more beneficial to new teachers than experienced teachers. The interview results demonstrated that there were often competing goals and in some cases a loss of autonomy in planning science lessons. A significant concern was the impact of problematic interpersonal relationships and communication styles on the group functioning. The role of the PLC in addressing issues related to obtaining science resources and enhancing science content knowledge for elementary science teachers is discussed.

A la croisée des chemins entre la didactique des langues étrangères et les sciences de l’éducation, cette thèse porte principalement sur la prise de décision située de l’enseignant face à la survenue de l’erreur à l’oral, ainsi que ses enjeux didactiques et psychoaffectifs. Elle vise à démontrer que la correction n’est pas émotionnellement neutre. Corriger ou ne pas corriger, la question s’attachera à la dimension socio-humaine de l’inter-agir maître- élève envisagé sous l’angle de la « face » goffmanienne. Entre désir pédagogique d’enrôler le public à la performance langagière et objectif didactique d’évaluer cette prestation orale, les fonctions d’animateur et d’évaluateur du praticien rivaliseront autour de fluctuations émotionnelles diverses. L’ancrage théorique de l’étude se situant dans les domaines du feedback correctif, de la cognition enseignante, de l’agir professoral et de la théorie des émotions permet d’accorder une place de choix à la particularité de l’action enseignante dans les mécanismes linguistiques de transmission/apprentissage. D’un point de vue méthodologique, une démarche phénoménologique et ethnographique d’enquête-terrain permet le repérage et l’extraction de catégories qui font sens de part et d’autre de la recherche et de la pratique. Une stratégie de verbalisation négociée via un rappel stimulé donne à l’enquêteur l’opportunité de co-construire les sens de l’expérience avec l’acteur convié à commenter ses actions, entre situation et typicalité. Les résultats montrent que deux participants sur cinq confirment la théorie damasienne d’intervention de la variable affective dans le raisonnement, tandis que trois autres rejettent son rôle dans les processus décisionnels. L’étude ouvre une perspective de recherche - en Didactique Des Langues Etrangères - visant à repenser la place des affects dans l’agir et la formation des enseignants, afin de remédier à l’erreur de Descartes à travers d’autres contextes et d’autres populations. / At the cross-roads of foreign language teacher-learner practices and teacher education, the present study seeks to address, from an emic perspective, the role of emotions in contextual decision-making when faced with a learner error. It highlights the human and social dimension of the pedagogical relationship between teachers and learners. The theoretical framework is based upon research into teacher cognition, corrective feedback, teacher practices, and emotions. A careful consideration is given to the importance of teacher actions within classroom interaction and negotiation of meaning. Learner error within the construction of knowledge is highlighted in relation to the notion of face developed by Goffman. A comprehensive-phenomenological approach mainly using transcribed classroom video footage followed by a simulated recall technique allows the researcher to negotiate with 3 practitioners the meaning lying behind their in situ actions. Another dataset - sent to the 3 teachers mentioned above and two secondary ones - is comprised of a questionnaire and a short teacher-written biography underlying their practice histories and teaching philosophies, mostly concerning error treatment. The findings indicate that teachers’ contextual decision-making in relation to corrective feedback can be emotion- free, which fails to support the Damasian theory underpinning an intervention of the affective variable into reasoning processes and decision-making. The study suggests directions for further inquiry into the field of foreign language teaching and learning throughout other contexts and other populations, in order to rectify the Cartesian error.

Denna studie ämnar belysa vilken påverkan konflikter mellan lärare och elev har på lärarens emotioner och därmed praktik i klassrummet. Semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med 4 grundskolelärare som arbetar med klasser från årskurs 4 till årskurs 8. En abduktiv tematisk analys gjordes med hjälp av Hakvoorts (2020) emergenta konflikter. Resultatet visade att lärare upplever en stor variation av negativa emotioner men med hjälp av bland annat kognitiv återtolkning lägger lärarna fokus på relations- och trygghetsskapande handlingar under och efter konflikter.