The Tufts STEM Education Lecture Series highlights innovative STEM education research in an effort to increase collaboration between universities and organizations dedicated to improving the way students learn. This new lecture series is a joint venture between the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO) and the Tufts Department of Education.
January 26, 3:00-4:00PM Dowling Hall, Rm 745A (location change!!)
Characterizing Teacher Attention to Student Thinking: A Model for Teacher Education Grounded in Epistemological Messages
Abstract: Research and policy indicate that mathematics and science teachers should attend to their student's thinking in the classroom. This study argues that "attending to student thinking" is a challenging target for teacher educators to systematically pursue with teachers because the field has inadequately defined it in relation to its goals. I argue for characterizing teacher attention based on the epistemological messages that attention sends students about the nature of knowledge and learning. Using a new video capture methodology, I provide evidence of substantial variability in the ways high school teachers attend to their students' thinking and infer a range of epistemological messages students might receive as a result of that variability. I demonstrate the feasibility of using these messages to distinguish the types of teacher attention our field wants to develop and encourage in teacher education.
Bio: Dr. Russ earned her Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Maryland, working with the Physics Education Research Group to explore K-16+ student science learning. Prior to her appointment in the School of Education, she spent 5 years in the Learning Sciences Program at Northwestern as a postdoctoral fellow and then Research Assistant Professor modeling teacher and student cognition in science and mathematics. In 2010 she was awarded the National Academy of Education/Spencer Post-doctoral fellowship for work examining the interplay between knowledge and discourse interactions.
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