The development of community competence in the teacher education curriculum

Teachers are expected to frequently collaborate within teacher communities in schools. This requires teacher education to prepare student teachers by developing the necessary community competence. The present study empirically investigates the extent to which teacher education programmes pay attention to and aim to stimulate the development of community competence in the intended curriculum, the implemented curriculum and the attained curriculum. Various types of data are gathered and analysed in respect of these three curriculum representations. It appears that community competence is weakly conceptualised in the intended curriculum. In the implemented, and especially the attained curriculum, this results in no systematic and explicit practice in terms of the development of community competence.     

Changing practice by changing practice: Toward more authentic science and science curriculum development

Recent policy documents from the Ontario Ministry of Education called for teachers to present a more authentic view of the nature of scientific practice at all levels of education. Sadly, this call for substantial curriculum change coincided with severe cuts in the education budget. The authors describe how two teachers collaborated with a university‐based researcher/teacher educator to design and implement more authentic science in a Grade 7 classroom. The ways in which the teachers changed their views about science and science teaching, the anxieties they experienced, and the institutional constraints that impacted on their practice are discussed, and some more general features of the action research experience are described. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 521–539, 1999     

Specifying a curriculum for biopolitical critical literacy in science teacher education: exploring roles for science fiction

In this essay I suggest some ways in which science teacher educators in Western neoliberal economies might facilitate learners’ development of a critical literacy concerning the social and cultural changes signified by the concept of biopolitics. I consider how such a biopolitically inflected critical literacy might find expression in a science teacher education curriculum and suggest a number of ways of materializing such a curriculum in specific literatures, media, procedures, and assessment tasks, with particular reference to the contributions of science fiction in popular media.     

幼儿园课程与教师的课程开发

对于幼儿园教育课程的理解,正如它的上位概念--课程一样,人们的看法很不一致.过去人们通常认为它指语言、常识、计算、体育、音乐、美术六大学科,近些年来,全国各地的幼儿园课程改革异常活跃,大多已改变了过去六科的分科课程结构而代之以健康、语言、科学、社会、艺术五大领域的领域(广域)课程(有些地方正在实行的综合课程也基本是这五大领域的简单组合).     

Constructing education for sustainable development: the secondary school geography curriculum and initial teacher training

If education is a solution in working toward a sustainable future then initial teacher training (ITT) provides a strategic opportunity for ensuring that all teachers are able to teach for sustainability when they begin their teaching careers. This paper reports on a study of how four Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) student teachers planned and taught education for sustainable development (ESD) through geography during a school placement. It was carried out to provide exemplification of the nature of student teachers' planning and teaching about ESD in secondary schools in England and to identify ways of improving their PGCE course. The findings are based on interviews with student teachers after the school placement, as well documentary evidence. Policy‐driven changes in the provision of both ITT and school curricula and pedagogy in England are an important context for the study. The paper concludes by arguing that ITT faces considerable challenges if it is to be reoriented towards sustainability.     

The development of teacher education

Even those who tend to see the present merely as the product of past thought and action are convinced that in the educational process we face new conditions and new tasks, the solutions of which are not mere modifications of traditional approaches. Attempts to identify the new social and educational situation have already had an international, multidisciplinary impact. Out of the great number of concepts, the classification and evaluation of which are a continuing task for the educationalists, the author has chosen two related ideas which have gradually gained acceptance in international pedagogical discussion. as well as Director of Research at the university's Institute for Studies in Teacher Education. In addition to serving as President of the Czechoslovak Pedagogical Society, he is general editor of the series calledCzech Pedagogical Thinking. He is a member of the group set up by the Czechoslovak Academy of Arts and Sciences to study the social consequences of the scientific-technological revolution. He is the author ofThe Methodology of Teaching and Learning Science in Secondary Schools, as well as of a number of university textbooks on didactics and several studies on adult education, leisure and teacher education. He has translated widely from Russian, German and English pedagogical literature.     

The role of dispositions in the development of pedagogical knowledge for pre-service science teacher education

ABSTRACT

Research on teacher education, especially on the development of teacher educators, is limited. This paper considers the role of dispositions in the development of pedagogical knowledge (PK) for science teacher educators (STEs), across stages of career. It argues that beliefs and perceptions shift and change along with, but not directly related to, what STEs pay attention to and when they pay attention to it. The eight participants were asked to identify the critical experiences (CEs) of their career that impacted on their development of PK. CEs were analyzed using Morine-Dershimer and Kent’s (1999) model of PK as a framework, but also to identify common emergent themes across participants and common emergent themes for individuals that led to identification of patterns of actions and finally, participant’s dispositions. The notion that beliefs, dispositions and PK are all developed for each individual at their own pace and in their own way is reinforced.     

Institutional racism and anti-racism in teacher education: perspectives of teacher educators

This paper focuses on the issue of institutional racism in the Irish education system. Drawing on insights from Critical Race Theory, the views of a sample of teacher educators in the Republic of Ireland were sought in relation to the existence of institutional racism in the Irish post-primary system and the extent to which anti-racism permeates teacher education programmes. Findings suggest the need for a form of deep engagement with anti-racism issues in the education of student teachers and the difficulties of doing so in the current structure of the Postgraduate Diploma in Education.     

Evaluation of a model science teacher education program

This study assessed the effectiveness of one science teacher education program designed to be a model program. The study provided evidence that preservice science teacher education can have a very positive effect on the development of preservice science teachers into effective practicing teachers. Thirty program graduates completed a pilot version of the 1985 National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education providing information on course objectives, teaching strategies, equipment use, time allocation, and textbook use. The responses of program graduates were compared to the responses of a select national sample of teachers. All teachers in the comparison group were from programs in the Search for Excellence in Science Education, Presidential Award winners, recognized as outstanding state science teachers, employed as department chairs, or actively involved in the development of science curriculum. Analysis of the responses indicated that both program graduates and comparison group teachers had similar course objectives and teaching strategies, used materials and equipment a similar amount of time, and allocated class time in similar ways. In another component of the study, students of 37 program graduates completed a questionnaire that assessed their attitudes toward science teachers, science classes, and the study of science. Analysis of attitudinal data from their 2871 students indicated that students of program graduates generally had positive attitudes. For instance, 89% of the students perceived their science teacher as asking questions and 80% perceived their science teacher as letting them ask questions. In general, the data are in stark contrast to the images obtained from National Assessment efforts.     

Reconstructing science teacher education within communities of learners

This article is based on a paper which received the “Innovation in Teaching Science Teachers” Award at the 1993 annual meeting of the Association for the Education of Teachers in Science.