Elizabeth A. Davis
Location
Room 4112
610 E. University Ave.
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1259
Elizabeth A. (Betsy) Davis is a science educator, teacher educator, and learning scientist. She is interested in beginning and experienced elementary teachers learning to engage in rigorous, consequential, equitable, and just science teaching, and the roles of curriculum materials and practice-based teacher education in promoting teacher learning. Davis recently chaired a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) consensus committee that developed the report Science and engineering in preschool through elementary grades: The brilliance of children and the strengths of educators, and helped write the subsequent practitioner volume, Rise and thrive with science: Teaching PK-5 science and engineering.
Davis heads the ASSETS project—Advancing, Supporting, and Sustaining Equity among Elementary Teachers of Science—which is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). ASSETS focuses on how teachers promote equity and justice in their science teaching and how teacher education can help them engage in this challenging work. The project follows novice teachers from their time in an elementary teacher education program into their early years of teaching. ASSETS builds on Davis’ earlier work with Annemarie Palincsar, in a project funded by the Spencer Foundation focused on how beginning elementary teachers bring together high-leverage science teaching practices and content knowledge for teaching science.
To better understand what facilitates the improvement of elementary science instruction, Davis also helped to lead an NSF-funded project focused on how educational systems support reforms in elementary science (with Don Peurach and Northwestern’s Jim Spillane). Previously, Davis led NSF-funded projects exploring elementary teachers' uptake of ideas and practices embedded in educative features in science curriculum materials.
Davis teaches graduate courses in Educational Studies and, in the Elementary Teacher Education programs, Elementary Science Methods and Teaching with Curriculum Materials. Davis helped to lead a substantial redesign of the Elementary Teacher Education program to have a more deliberate focus on practice. Davis received her doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley in 1998, and received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers at the White House in 2002. She was selected as an AERA Fellow in 2024. Her book (with Carla Zembal-Saul and Sylvie Kademian) Sensemaking in Elementary Science: Supporting Teacher Learning was published by Routledge in 2020.
Courses
| Number | Course Name | Location | Days | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EDUC 421 | Teaching PK-6 Science
This course explores objectives, methods, and content in PK-6 science instruction, emphasizing concept development in several areas of PK-6 science; refers to pertinent contributions from research; provides opportunity for engaging in core teaching practices around investigation-based science lessons. |
2241 SEB |
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| EDUC 528 | Teaching PK-6 Science
This course explores objectives, methods, and content in PK-6 school science instruction, emphasizing concept development in several areas of PK-6 science, refers to pertinent contributions from research; provides opportunity for engaging in core teaching practices around investigation-based science lessons. |
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| EDUC 416 | Teaching With Curriculum Materials in PK-6 Mathematics and Science
This course engages interns in the study of how PK-6 teachers use curriculum materials to support student learning goals. Interns will gain a familiarity with an array of curriculum materials and tools as well as how to modify and adapt these resources to meet the needs of their students. Additionally, interns will learn how to evaluate curriculum materials and identify their various strengths and weaknesses. |
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| EDUC 737 | Topics in Educational Studies
Prerequisites: Graduate standing. |
Selected Publications
Carlone, H., & Davis, E. A. (2023). In J. Clark (Ed.), STEM Education in Underserved Schools: Promoting Equity, Access, and Excellence. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
"Science and engineering in preschool through elementary grades: The brilliance of children and the strengths of educators."
National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine. (2022). Science and engineering in preschool through elementary grades: The brilliance of children and the strengths of educators. Committee on Enhancing Science and Engineering in PreK through 5th Grade Board on Science Education and Teacher Advisory Council Division of Behavioral and Social Science and Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. (Chair of the consensus committee; Davis, E.A. & Stephens, A., Eds.)
"Well-started beginners: Preparing elementary teachers for rigorous, consequential, just, and equitable science teaching."
Davis, E. A., & Haverly, C. (2022). Well-started beginners: Preparing elementary teachers for rigorous, consequential, just, and equitable science teaching. In J. Luft & G. Jones (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Science Teacher Education. New York: Routledge.
Davis, E. A., & Palincsar, A. S. (2023). Science Education, 107(2), 291-332.
Davis, E. A. (2022). Innovations in Science Teacher Education, 7(4).
"Science practice-readiness: Novice elementary teachers’ developing knowledge of science practices."
Bismack, A., Davis, E. A., & Palincsar, A. S. (2022). Science practice-readiness: Novice elementary teachers’ developing knowledge of science practices. Science Education, 106 (2), 364-384.
"Sensemaking in Elementary Science: Supporting Teacher Learning."
Davis, E. A., Zembal-Saul, C., & Kademian, S. M. (Eds.) (2020). Sensemaking in Elementary Science: Supporting Teacher Learning. Routledge.
"Educative curriculum materials: Uptake, impact, and implications for research and design."
Davis, E. A., Palincsar, A. S., Smith, P. S., Arias, A., & Kademian, S. (2017). Educational Researcher, 46(6), 293-304.
"Supporting children to construct evidence-based claims in science: Individual learning trajectories in a practice-based program."
Arias, A., & Davis, E. A. (2017). Teaching and Teacher Education, 66, 204-218.
Davis, E. A., Janssen, F., & Van Driel, J. (2016). 52(2), 127-160. (Authors are listed alphabetically.)
"Designing educative curriculum materials to promote teacher learning. Educational Researcher."
Davis, E. A., & Krajcik, J. (2005). 34(3), 3-14.