Preservice Teachers’ Uptake and Understanding of Funds of Knowledge in Elementary Science

Abstract

In this manuscript, we use a “learning to notice” framework to suggest that preservice elementary teachers bring a range of interpretations and responses to their students’ funds of knowledge and science teaching and learning. By examining data from three sections of an elementary methods course, we find that preservice teachers recognized students’ funds of knowledge, assigned value to them, and took account of these resources for science learning in their planning. While preservice teachers most often described funds of knowledge as a “hook” to gain and sustain students’ interest in the science classroom, they also interpreted and utilized funds of knowledge in other ways, including as substantive contributions to meaning making and positioning students as having expert knowledge.