Culturally Responsive Science Teaching

1. Culturally Responsive Science Teaching Jessica Thompson

2. Dimensions of CRST • Recognizing our own and others’ worlds Teacher Science Students • Developing relationships and forming an inclusive community • Providing access to the culture of science and school through curriculum and instruction • Critiquing, challenging, and changing the culture of science

3. Culturally responsive principles to draw on when designing curriculum • Student knowledge • Student experience • Shared experiences • Windows & mirrors • Reversing knowledge authority • Social justice

4. Lunchtime Science • I. Prenatal health care & embryologic development (2 weeks) • What advice should we give a friend who is drinking during pregnancy? • II. Asthma & inner-cities (2 weeks) • Why is asthma on the rise across the nation, including our Central district?

5. Pitfalls • Essentialism • Portraying negative cases • Basing lessons just on few students’ interests • Only using culture/student’s identities as a “hook” upfront • Curriculum in and of itself can not be culturally responsive

6. Forming an inclusive community • Group work & status differences • Position all students with knowledge authority • Set up structures for all students to participate • Involve students in evaluating group work

7. Resources • http://courses.washington.edu/edtep586/

8. from Phelan, Davidson, & Cao (1991)

9. Which typology best characterized you in science class? (Costa article) • What insights do we bring to culturally responsive science teaching? • What limitations do we have? • What do we need to pay particular attention to in our classrooms and in designing lessons?