Dr. Amanda Benedict-Chambers

Biography

Dr. Mandy Benedict-Chambers is an associate professor of elementary education. She began her teaching career in 2000 in a 6th grade classroom in Charlottesville, Virginia, and she continues to teach science to local elementary students as much as possible.

Her research focuses on pre-service and in-service elementary teacher learning. Specifically, she examines teacher "noticing" –how teachers attend to what students are thinking and doing during instruction, how they reason about what they see, and how they use these ways of noticing to make informed choices about how to proceed with a lesson. She is especially interested in understanding how tools and practice-based teacher education, including peer-teaching rehearsals, can help pre-service teachers learn to engage in and notice rigorous and equitable science teaching.

Details

Education

• PhD, Educational Studies: Teaching and Teacher Education, 2014, University of Michigan
• MA, Educational Studies: Curriculum Development, 2005, University of Michigan
• BA, Elementary Education, 2000, Longwood University

Teaching

• ELE 725 The Emerging Master Teacher
• ELE 716 Advanced Theory and Practice in the Teaching of Science
• ELE 771 Proposal Development
• ELE 772 Research Seminar in Elementary Education
• ELE 510 The Reflective Practitioner
• ELE 434 Methods of Teaching Science in the Elementary School
• ELE 410 Teaching and Learning in the Elementary Classroom

Professional experience

Affiliations

• American Educational Research Association
• National Association for Research in Science Teaching
• National Science Teachers Association
• Teacher Education Accreditation Council
• Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

Research and professional interests

• Elementary teacher education
• Science teacher education

Articles

• Benedict-Chambers, A. (in press). Using tools for noticing and responding to student sensemaking in rehearsal and classroom lesson reflections. In E. A. Davis, C. Zembal-Saul, & S. Kademian (Eds.), Supporting Teacher Learning for Sensemaking in Elementary Science. New York, NY: Routledge.
• Benedict-Chambers, A., & Aram, R., (2017). Tools for Teacher Noticing: Helping Preservice Teachers Notice and Analyze Student Thinking and Scientific Practice Use. Journal of Science Teacher Education (3), 1-25.
• Benedict-Chambers, A., Kademian, S. M., Davis, E. A., & Palincsar, A. S. (2017). Guiding Students Towards Sensemaking: Teacher Questions Focused on Integrating Scientific Practices with Science Content. International Journal of Science Education, 39(15), 1977-2001.
• Benedict-Chambers, A. & Fortner, T., (in press). Asking Questions to Help Students Integrate Science Practices with Science Content Learning across a 5E Circuits Lesson. Science and Children.
• Benedict-Chambers, A. (2016). Using Tools to Promote Novice Teacher Noticing of Science Teaching Practices in Post-Rehearsal Discussions. Teaching and Teacher Education, 59, 28-44.
• Benedict-Chambers, A., Aram, R., & Wood, G. (2017). Implementing Tool-Supported Rehearsals for Ambitious Science Teaching in an Elementary Science Methods Classroom. Innovations in Science Teacher Education, 2 (1).

Awards and honors

Research grants

• Investigating and Enacting Culturally Sustaining, High-Leverage Practices across an Elementary Education Program: A Faculty Inquiry Group. 2017-present
• Preservice Teachers’ Tool Use to Prepare for and Respond to Student Sensemaking in a Science Methods Course, 2017-2018
• Collaborating Across Elementary Education Methods Courses to Use Video to Promote Teacher Candidates' Reflection of Instruction, Missouri State University, 2015-present
• Pre-service Teachers Noticing Student Thinking in Science Teaching Rehearsals, Missouri State University, 2014

Additional resources

• Practicing High-Leverage Strategies Before Your Classroom Teaching Using Video Rehearsals
• Ph.D. Dissertation - Developing Professional Vision for Practice

Areas of Expertise

Videos