Tamara Holmlund Nelson

Research

For information on the STRIDE project, please visit our website at http://research.vancouver.wsu.edu/stride.

My research agenda focuses on the transformation of science teacher knowledge and beliefs through professional development (including preservice education) and how teachers translate their new understandings into practice. I am especially interested in how teachers think about teaching and learning in relation to students from populations underrepresented in science achievement. I am interested in both preservice and inservice science teacher development.

My research agenda encompasses two strands:

·      secondary science teacher development through dialogic, collaborative inquiry in professional learning communities;

·      relationships between science methods courses and preservice teachers’ understandings and beliefs about science teaching and learning.

Each strand supports my overarching interest in what Fouts (2003) calls “powerful teaching” that provides opportunities for all children to learn. Since 2005 my scholarly work has focused on the first strand.