Dr. Grace Carroll was selected to receive the NARST 2024 Outstanding Doctoral Research Award (ODRA) for her dissertation titled “Toward Reformation in Science Teaching through Scientific Modeling: Investigating How Science Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge and Epistemic Beliefs Impact Adoption and Implementation of Multidimensional, Meaningful, and Equitable Model-Based Teaching.”

This honor recognizes that Dr. Carroll’s dissertation was judged by her NARST colleagues on the ODRA Selection Subcommittee to have the greatest merit and significance in the field of Science Education from among all dissertations nominated for the award this year. Dr. Carroll completed her dissertation at North Carolina State University on June 7, 2023, under the direction of Dr. Soonhye Park of North Carolina State University.

Dr. Carroll’s dissertation presents two separate but interrelated studies. The first study explores the characteristics of effective, meaningful, and equitable science instruction through modeling. Using a systematic literature review, Dr. Carroll found progress in the ways teachers and researchers conceive of modeling pedagogies, but that tensions continue to exist between consensus-making pedagogies and heterogeneity-seeking pedagogies. In the second study, Dr. Carroll used a mixed methods study to investigate the epistemological beliefs that influence teachers’ implementation of model-based instruction. Dr. Carroll found the two teachers she observed were more likely to enact their orientations to teaching science when supporting students’ modeling, but pressure to cover science content inhibited their integration of PCK components. Dr. Carroll’s findings suggest that research focused on the mere presence or absence of PCK components is insufficient; rather, research should seek to conceptualize quality PCK in congruence with reform.