The highly competitive Spencer Dissertation Fellowship Program seeks to encourage young scholars from a wide range of disciplines to undertake research relevant to the improvement of education. Awarding 20 fellowships from approximately 600 applications, the program aims to identify the most talented researchers conducting dissertation research related to education. The $25,000 fellowships support young scholars whose dissertations show promise for bringing original perspectives to the history, theory or practice of education, according to the Spencer Foundation.
For Luna, the award will support work on her dissertation entitled "Supporting Elementary Teachers in Noticing and Responding to Students' Ideas in Science." Luna says, "The science education community agrees that teachers need to notice and respond to students' ideas in the science classroom and that this is difficult to do because it essentially requires teachers to approach science instruction differently than in the past."
"In my dissertation work I first examine what student ideas teachers notice and respond to in the science classroom, and second, I design and study a professional development experience for elementary teachers focusing on their students' ideas in science." With a wearable camera, Luna brings teachers' in-the-moment noticing into a video club setting where they can reflect after the fact "so that both contexts (classroom and video club) can contribute to how they make sense of students' ideas."
"This work will contribute to our knowledge about the way teachers think and learn about science teaching. Specifically, the goal is to support teachers in shifting the way they think about teaching science from an emphasis on scientific facts and basic concepts to an emphasis on noticing, valuing and responding to the substance of students' ideas in the science classroom. Practically, this study will inform the work of those who support teachers in learning to notice and respond to ideas in science by providing a new model of science teacher professional development," says Luna, who earned a master's degree in environmental education from Lesley University and a bachelor's degree in elementary education from Valparaiso University.
"This research is interesting because school systems are increasingly experimenting with school choice programs generally and voucher programs structured like Florida's specifically. Since these programs are becoming more prevalent, we want to get a good sense of how those reforms are likely to impact kids in public schools, how effectively they will expand options for kids who want to use the programs to attend private schools, and how families make decisions about applying to and enrolling in schools using the vouchers," Hart says.
"My research will examine all of these actors and try to get a better sense of what happens on the ground when large-scale choice programs are implemented. I hope it will add some valuable new information to the literature on school choice."