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The importance of early and developmentally appropriate science education is increasingly recognized. Consequently, creation of common guidelines and standards in early childhood science education has begun (National Research Council (NRC), 2012), and researchers, practitioners, and policy makers have shown great interest in aligning professional development with the new guidelines and standards. There are some important issues that need to be addressed in order to successfully implement guidelines and make progress toward accomplishing standards. Early childhood teachers have expressed a lack of confidence in teaching science and nature (Torquati, Cutler, Gilkerson, & Sarver, in press) and have limited science and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) (Appleton, 2008). These are critical issues because teachers’ subject-matter knowledge is a robust predictor of student learning outcomes (Enfield & Rogers, 2009; Kennedy, 1998; Wilson, Floden, & Ferrini-Mundy, 2002) and is seen as a critical step toward improving K-12 student achievement (National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century (NCMST), 2000; NRC, 2000). We argue that the same is true of preschool teachers.

This chapter discusses: (a) theories and practices in early childhood science education (i.e., preschool through 3rd grade) in relation to teaching for conceptual change, (b) research on methods of professional development in early childhood science education, and (c) innovative approaches to integrating scientific practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas with early childhood professional development.

This paper aims to broaden the conversation regarding STEAM by investigating the new form of education. The novelty of science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics (STEAM) instruction in K-12 classrooms means few cases of STEAM teaching are documented in depth.

As part of a larger multi-year study researching STEAM teaching practices in 14 middle school classrooms in the southeastern USA, the article first summarizes prior research findings and then presents ideas for higher education and K-12 researchers to consider when incorporating STEAM teaching in pre-service education, professional development and in classrooms. Then, the authors use a second-order narrative approach to describe three cases of teachers enacting STEAM practices in classrooms.

Drawing on the notion of “remixing” education in the context of STEAM, the authors show how each teacher alters existing practices, instead of offering entirely new instruction, as they implement STEAM teaching.

With few cases of STEAM teaching detailed in the depth, this paper advances the understanding of STEAM teaching practices in K-12 classrooms.

Digital libraries (DLs) are currently in place or being developed for a variety of educational applications. These resources offer support for instructional innovation, traditional curricula, and equitable access to learning resources. Yet, the carrot of instructional innovation is often overwhelmed by the stick of conflicting educational policy priorities. This chapter will define and situate the term “educational digital libraries,” and discuss the ways in which sustained use through school libraries and lessons learned from exemplary projects can transform the contemporary educational policy, reform, and learning landscape.

Policymakers have focused on improving STEM outcomes for US high school students for over 50 years. Much of this focus has centered on improving the quality of STEM teachers, particularly in poor and minority schools. Few, if any, of these efforts have considered the importance of the content knowledge of those providing instructional leadership in schools – namely, principals and assistant principals. This chapter examines the percentage of school leaders with teacher certification in mathematics or science and the degree to which teacher and school leader turnover interrupts the leadership–teacher relationships. The study concludes relatively few school leaders have the content knowledge to provide deep instructional leadership. Moreover, the study finds combined teacher and school leader turnover greatly diminishes the sustained relationships between instructional leaders and teachers, particularly in lower-performing schools.

This paper will describe the way in which the USMARC cataloging schema is used at the Eisenhower National Clearing‐house (ENC). Discussion will include how ENC MARC extensions were developed for cataloging mathematics and science curriculum resources, and how the ENC workflow is integrated into the cataloging interface. The discussion will conclude with a historical look at the in‐house data transfer from ENC MARC to the current production of IEEE LOM XML encoding for record sharing and OAI compliance, required under the NSDL project guidelines.

The state of Tennessee is part of the United States that houses a special set of school districts known as the Black Belt. Named for the black fertile land, utilized for the agricultural industry for hundreds of years in the south, these school districts have the lowest levels of achievement among the one hundred and thirty six school districts in Tennessee. The purpose of this study is to identify just how extensive these achievement discrepancies are between Black Belt school students and non-Black Belt school students by answering the following research question: are Black Belt school students disproportionately scoring lower on college admittance exams (ACT) than students in non-Black Belt school districts? The data for this study was gathered from the Tennessee Report Card for Education over a period of ten years. Pooled time series cross-sectional regression analysis was the datatesting device employed in the study. The findings suggest that Black Belt students are disproportionately scoring lower on college admittance exams compared to non-Black Belt students. Policymakers need to use caution when generalizing this study because it only represents those Black Belt school districts in Tennessee.

The purpose of this research is to explore the effect of internship experience on final-year pre-service teachers (PSTs) studying for a Bachelor of Education in Abu Dhabi. The UAE is undergoing a period of rapid education reform with a strong emphasis on use of student-centered learning strategies in the classroom. Teacher-training colleges, such as the one in which this research took place, have had to customize their programs to prepare and train teachers who can effectively implement this new approach.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten PSTs to explore the usefulness of the college science courses during their internship experience, and the challenges they faced during their internship. We also looked at how these experiences have influenced their confidence levels and the type of science teachers they want to be in the future.

Results have shown that PSTs have variable opinions on the usefulness of the college courses. A perceived lack of emphasis placed by mentor teachers upon science may have long-term effects on the PSTs’ eventual use of teaching strategies. It was also shown that some of the PSTs still lacked confidence in science teaching.

This research may provide national guidelines for teacher-training colleges in the UAE or in countries undergoing educational reform and moving towards student-centered approaches to learning.

Research studies on the effect of internship on PSTs have been conducted in different countries but such studies have great novelty in the UAE.