Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2012

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

EdD

College

College of Education and Human Services

Department

Curriculum & Instruction/Literacy Studies

Committee Chair

James Rye.

Abstract

This qualitative study focused on identifying barriers and remedies to those barriers found when teaching elementary school science. The Elementary GLOBE Program (2006) was the curriculum selected when doing the 18 month study. The researcher asked what made Elementary GLOBE (EG) easy and/or difficult to use. The researcher also wished to ascertain what impact did the adoption of EG have on the delivery of science instruction in the K-4 grade classrooms participating in this study. Two professional developments schools (PDS), located in a Mid Atlantic state were the sites for the study. Both schools are in an urban setting and affiliated with a nearby land grant university.;The main purpose of this study was to investigate how elementary teachers integrate inquiry-based science in their classrooms. This was accomplished by providing an inservice workshop on an elementary science curriculum (EG) to six teachers. Then teachers were observed instructing with the newly learned curriculum. During the course of the study, teachers kept journals about their experiences teaching science. Later, they gave interviews about their classroom and school environments while teaching science.;To ascertain trustworthiness, a member check in the form of a questionnaire was given to the participating teachers to determine the reliability of the findings at the conclusion of the study. Seven out of seven teachers agreed that EG changed the way their students experienced science. Five out of seven participants felt EG increased their confidence to teach science. Time management was identified as the major barrier to teaching science with six out seven teachers agreeing with this finding. Although accommodation was identified as a barrier, four out of seven agreed to this finding even though there was a high prevalence of diversity in the studied schools and EG was not presented in the any language other than English. Five of the seven participants preferred teaching science with EG over the approved textbook used by the schools. There is a dearth of primary level earth system science materials, so the findings from this study provide evidence for an engaging curriculum promoting science and literacy.

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