Mark
Enfield
Elementary Science Teacher Educator |
School of Education Peabody Hall
|
|
Education
|
|
Research
|
| Teacher
Education MSU - Elementary Methods UNC - Elementary Methods Science for Elementary Teachers
|
|
Service
|
Emergent
Science Literacy
I
consider my research, teaching, and my scholarship to be about defining
Emergent Science Literacy. I feel
that science education research in elementary schools needs to
systematically
consider the development of science literacy as being similar to the
development
of language knowledge, skills, and abilities. Thus I draw on the notion
of Emergent Literacy to articulate a
related notion in Science Literacy. The
notion of Emergent Science Literacy raises many questions for research
and
teaching in elementary science.
What
are starting skills and abilities that will productively support
students as
they learn science?
What
kinds of knowledge and experiences in science will build on students'
intuitive
sense-making and develop abilities to engage in more canonical kinds of
sense-making?
How
do
we prepare future teachers to develop students' sense-making in science
based
on limited science subject matter knowledge?
I
am most interested in the ways
students make meaning of experiences and observations; individually and
through
collaboration with peers. My
dissertation specifically considered the sense-making that supported
collaboration of early elementary students in whole group
discussions.
My research continues to focus on
students’ sense-making in science. Through
the Center
for Curriculum Materials in Science,
my research
considers this as part of students’ development of representational
systems and sense-making strategies. I have continued this
research and scholarship in my new position at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill.