Faculty Directory
Katherine McNeill
Program Director, Curriculum and Instruction, M.Ed.
Professor
Bryk Faculty Fellow
Katherine McNeill
Ph.D.
Contact
Campion Hall Room 122
Telephone: 617-552-4229
Email: katherine.mcneill@bc.edu
ORCID 0000-0003-3673-6637
Education
- Ph.D., University of Michigan
- M.S., University of Michigan
- B.A., Brown University
Courses
Teaching About the Natural World
Dissertation Seminar in Curriculum and Instruction
Design of Learning Environments in the Learning Sciences
Research Interests
Science education; science practices, argumentation; explanation; design of learning environment for students, teachers and instructional leaders
Expertise
- Design of Learning Experiences and Technologies
- STEM Teaching and Learning
- Teaching & Teacher Education
Department
Profile
Kate McNeill knows that science is so much more than facts—it’s also about constructing arguments and examining explanations for what happens around us. She has dedicated her career to helping students from diverse backgrounds learn such vital scientific skills. Her areas of expertise and research include the development of the claim, evidence, and reasoning framework, social aspects of science, and strategies to support student and teacher learning.
McNeill has been a Lynch School faculty member since 2006. She earned a doctoral and two master’s degrees from the University of Michigan, and she completed bachelor’s degrees at Brown University.
Her projects have been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and Hewlett-Packard. She has published extensively, including authoring or co-authoring four books and more than 50 journal articles and book chapters. She also leads workshops for the National Science Teachers Association and public school districts.
McNeill advises Boston public schools on how to integrate and support science practices. She currently sits on the National Association for Research in Science Teaching board of directors and serves on the editorial board for the journal, Science Education.
Select Refereed Journal Articles
- McNeill, K. L. Lowenhaupt. R., Cherbow, K. & Lowell, B. R. (in press). Professional development to support principals’ vision of science instruction: Building from their prior experiences to support the science practices. Journal of Research in Science Teaching.
- McNeill, K. L., Affolter, R., & Clinchot, M. (in press). Shifting from learning about to figuring out: PD resources to support classroom change. Science Scope.
- Cherbow, K., McKinley, M.T, McNeill, K. L. & Lowenhaupt, R. (2020). Current k-8 science instruction: A systems analysis of the similarities and differences with the science practices. Science Education, 104(3), 446-478.
- González-Howard, M., & McNeill, K.L. (2019). Teachers’ framing of argumentation goals: Working together to develop individual versus communal understanding. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 56(6), 821-844.
- McNeill, K.L., Marco-Bujosa, L. M., González-Howard, M., Loper, S. (2018). Teachers’ enactments of curriculum: Fidelity to procedure versus fidelity to goal for scientific argumentation. International Journal of Science Education, 40(12), 1455-1475.
- McNeill, K. L. & Reiser, B. J. (2018). Open source for opening minds: New OpenSciEd materials support science standards. The Learning Professional, 39 (6), 44-48.
- McNeill, K.L., Lowenhaupt, R., & Katsh-Singer, R. (2018). Instructional leadership and the implementation of the NGSS: Principals’ understandings of science practices. Science Education, 102(3), 452-473.
- McNeill, K. L., González-Howard, M., Katsh-Singer, R. & Loper, S. (2017). Moving beyond pseudoargumentation: Teachers’ enactments of an educative science curriculum focused on argumentation. Science Education, 101(3), 426-457.
- McNeill, K. L. & Berland, L. (2017). What is (or should be) scientific evidence use in K-12 classrooms? Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 54(5), 672-689.
- McNeill, K. L., González-Howard, M., Katsh-Singer, R. & Loper, S. (2016). Pedagogical content knowledge of argumentation: Using classroom contexts to assess high quality PCK rather than pseudoargumentation. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 53(2), 261-290.
- McNeill, K. L. & Knight, A. M. (2013). Teachers' pedagogical content knowledge of scientific argumentation: The impact of professional development on k-12 teachers. Science Education, 97, 936-972.
- McNeill, K. L. & Pimentel, D. S. (2010). Scientific discourse in three urban classrooms: The role of the teacher in engaging high school students in argumentation. Science Education, 94(2), 203-229.
- McNeill, K. L. & Krajcik, J. (2009). Synergy between teacher practices and curricular scaffolds to support students in using domain specific and domain general knowledge in writing arguments to explain phenomena. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 18(3), 416-460.
- McNeill, K. L., Lizotte, D. J, Krajcik, J., & Marx, R. W. (2006). Supporting students’ construction of scientific explanations by fading scaffolds in instructional materials. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 15(2), 153-191.
Select Book Chapters
- McNeill, K. L. (2020). Integrating and supporting science practices in elementary classrooms. In Davis, E. A., Zembal-Saul, C. & Kademian, S. (Eds.). Sensemaking in elementary science: Supporting teacher learning. (pp. 87-94) New York, NY: Routledge.
- González-Howard, M., & McNeill, K.L. (2019). Supporting linguistically diverse students in scientific argumentation across writing and talking. In Spycher, P. & Haynes, E. (Eds.). Culturally and linguistically diverse learners and STEAM: Teachers and researchers working in partnership to build a better path forward. (pp. 77-94). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
- Loper, S., McNeill, K. L. & Goss, M. (2018). Developing multimedia educative curriculum materials to support middle school science teachers' PCK for argumentation. In Uzzo, S. M., Graves, S., Shay, E., Harford, M, & Thompson, R. (Eds.). Pedagogical Content Knowledge in STEM. (pp. 241-264) New York, NY: Springer.
- McNeill, K. L., Berland, L. K. & Pelletier, P. (2017). Constructing explanations. In Schwarz, C., Passmore, C., Reiser, B.J. (Eds.). Helping students make sense of the world using next generation science and engineering practices. (pp. 205-228) Arlington, VA: National Science Teachers Association Press.
- Berland, L. K., McNeill, K. L., Pelletier, P. & Krajcik, J. (2017). Engaging in scientific argumentation. In Schwarz, C., Passmore, C., Reiser, B.J. (Eds.). Helping students make sense of the world using next generation science and engineering practices. (pp. 229-258) Arlington, VA: National Science Teachers Association Press.