I'm an Associate Professor of Science Education here at the University of Washington, and a former middle school science teacher. Currently, our research group is studying the tools and conditions necessary to develop expert-like pedagogy in early career teachers.
Our research group operates on the principle that every child has the right to learn rigorous science at every grade level, from a highly trained professional. We believe that skilled and caring teachers are the fulcrum of educational reform and that the research community (of which we are a part) must develop ways to systematically support these individuals across a career spectrum.
Current Projects
Tool Systems to Support Progress toward Expert-Like Teaching by Early Career Science Educators
Our research group (includes co-PI Dr. Jessica Thompson, Melissa Braaten) has recently received funding from NSF ($1,900,000) for a five-year project to develop and study a system of tools and tool-based practices for early career and pre-service secondary science teachers that support transitions from novice to expert-like pedagogical reasoning and practice. These tools include:
- a video-based learning progression for teaching Model-Based Inquiry,
- discourse guides for core conversations in classrooms,
- rapid assessment models to tap student thinking, and
- rubrics to evaluate students' abilities to construct evidence-based explanations in science.
Our proposed system of tools will serve as a model for making pre-service teacher training and induction clearly focused on student learning. This system of tools is designed to be responsive to all students in the classroom. Runs from 2008-2013.
Teachers' Learning Trajectories Project (TLT): Currently our research group (with Jessica Thompson and Melissa Braaten) is conducting a longitudinal study, funded by Carnegie, of how novice teachers develop pedagogical reasoning around sophisticated forms of inquiry for seconday students. We are tracing our participants' development across four contexts: their teacher education coursework, student teaching, sessions of analysis of their pupils' work, and their early years of professional work.
Noyce Teaching Scholars. This National Science Foundation project capitalizes on a recently introduced revision of the University of Washington's teacher preparation program, "Teachers for New Era", and benefits from existing collaborations among science and mathematics departments in the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and of Education, and three of the largest school districts in Washington: Seattle, Highline, and Renton. Thirty-six scholarships are being awarded, 9 each year over 4 years, balanced between mathematics and science majors. Awardees participate in systematic induction activities over the first two years of professional service.
Selected Publications
Windschitil, M., Thompson, J., & Braaten, M. (2008). How novice science teachers appropriate epistemic discourses around model-based inquiry for use in classrooms. Cognition and Instruction, 26(3), 310-378.
Windschitl, M., Thompson, J. & Braaten, M. (2008). Beyond The Scientific Method: Model-Based Inquiry As A New Paradigm of Preference for School Science Investigations. Science Education.
Windschitl, M. & Thompson, J. (2006) Transcending simple forms of school science investigations: Can pre-service instruction foster teachers' understandings of model-based inquiry? American Educational Research Journal, 43(4) ,783-835.
Windschitl, M. (January, 2006). Why we can’t talk to one another about science education reform. Phi Delta Kappan.
Windschitl, M. (to appear). Our challenge in disrupting popular folk theories
of “Doing Science”. Proceedings of NSF-sponsored
Inquiry Conference on Developing a Consensus Research Agenda
. Rutgers University , February, 2005.
Windschitl, M. (2005). The future of science teacher preparation in America
: Where is the evidence to inform program design and guide responsible
policy decisions? Science Education, 89 (4), 525-534.
Windschitl, M. (June, 2004, paper commissioned by the National
Academy of Sciences.) What types of knowledge do teachers
use to engage learners in “doing science”? Rethinking the
continuum of preparation and professional development for secondary science
educators. Committee on High School Science Laboratories: Role and vision.
Windschitl, M. (2004). Caught in the cycle of reproducing folk theories
of “Inquiry”: How pre-service teachers continue the discourse
and practices of an atheoretical scientific method. Journal
of Research in Science Teaching, 41(5), 481-512.
Windschitl, M. & Thompson, J. (2004). Inquiry in Pre-service Classrooms:
Epistemological and Methodological Aspects. Proceedings of
the National Association of Research in Science Teaching Conference,
Vancouver BC , April.
Thompson, J, & Windschitl, M. (2004). Seeing Beyond Science: How Underachieving
Girls Engage in Personal and Relational Spaces. Proceedings
of the National Association of Research in Science Teaching Conference,
Vancouver BC , April.
Windschitl M. (2003) Inquiry projects in science teacher education: What
can investigative experiences reveal about teacher thinking and eventual
classroom practice? Science Education, 87(1),
112-143.
Windschitl M. (2002) Framing Constructivism as the Negotiation of Dilemmas:
An Analysis of the Conceptual, Pedagogical, Cultural, and Political Challenges
Facing Teachers. Review of Educational Research,
72(2), 131-175.
(Won the AERA Presidential Award for Best Review of Research, 2002-2003.)
Mark Windschitl (2002). The reproduction of cultural models of inquiry
by pre-service teachers: An examination of thought and action. Proceedings
of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences,
2002.
Mark Windschitl (2001). The diffusion and appropriation of ideas: An investigation
of events occurring between groups of learners in science classrooms.
Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 38
(1), 17-42.
Other Recent Grants and Funding
Principal Investigator: Teacher’s Learning Trajectories. $165,000. Carnegie Foundation through Teachers for a New Era.
Senior researcher on NSF-funded Observing Evidence of Learning grant. Leroy Hood, Institute for Systems Biology, PI. $500,000. 2005-2009.
Co-principal investigator: Collaborations to enhance understanding of science and ethics, $956,000. National Institute of Health . Proposes to develop strategies for working with teachers to integrate ethics into science education at the high school level. 2003-2005.
Co-principal investigator, Teaching mathematics in the context of scientific inquiry, 2003-2004, Higher Education Board, State of Washington, $133,000.
Senior Researcher, REVEL Project with Oceanography, 2003-2006, National
Science Foundation, $300,000.
Education
• Ph. D. Curriculum and Instruction
Iowa State University 8/95
• Master of Science, Educational Research and Evaluation Iowa State University 8/92
• Teaching Certification, 1981
•Bachelor of Science, Zoology, Iowa State University , 1979
Recent
Courses Taught
1996-pres.Secondary Science Methods
1996-98 Using Technology in the Science Classroom
2004 Professional Development in for Science and Mathematics Teachers
2001-2002 Earth Science for Middle School Teachers (collaboratively taught
with Arts & Sciences faculty)
1998-pres. Research in Science Teaching
1997-pres. Science Education: Current Issues in a Historical Context
1997, 2000 Constructivism in Science Education
Other Recent Notes of Interest
• Editor for Teacher Education section of the journal Science Education.
Term began in 2004.
• External reviewer for Cornell University ’s evaluation of
their Teacher Education Program 2004.
• AERA Presidential Award for Best Review of Research, 2003.
• Reviewer for National Science Foundation: Learning and Development
Grant competition. 2004.
• Part of committee to re-design inquiry portion of National Standards
for Science Teacher Preparation, 2002-2003.
Reviewer for American Educational Research Journal
* Outstanding reviewer award for AERJ, 2003.
Reviewer for Review of Educational Research
Appointed to Review Board for Science Education (2002-2008).
Reviewer for Cognition and Instruction
Reviewer for Journal of the Learning Sciences
Reviewer for Journal of Teacher Education
Reviewer for Journal of Research in Science Teaching
Reviewer for Science Education
Reviewer for Journal of Curriculum Studies
Reviewer for Contemporary Educational Psychology
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