An Examination of Black Science Teacher Educators’ Experiences with Multicultural Education, Equity, and Social Justice

Diversity, multicultural education, equity, and social justice are dominant themes in cultural studies (Hall in Cultural dialogues in cultural studies. Routledge, New York, pp 261–274, 1996; Wallace 1994). Zeichner (Studying teacher education: The report of the AERA panel on research and teacher education. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, pp 737–759, 2005) called for research studies of teacher educators because little research exists on teacher educators since the late 1980s. Thomson et al. (2001) identified essential elements needed in order for critical multiculturalism to be infused in teacher education programs. However, little is known about the commitment and experiences of science teacher educators infusing multicultural education, equity, and social justice into science teacher education programs. This paper examines twenty (20) Black science teacher educators’ teaching experiences as a result of their Blackness and the inclusion of multicultural education, equity, and social justice in their teaching. This qualitative case study of 20 Black science teacher educators found that some of them have attempted and stopped due to student evaluations and the need to gain promotion and tenure. Other participants were able to integrate diversity, multicultural education, equity and social justice in their courses because their colleagues were supportive. Still others continue to struggle with this infusion without the support of their colleagues, and others have stopped The investigators suggest that if science teacher educators are going to prepare science teachers for the twenty first century, then teacher candidates must be challenged to grapple with racial, ethnic, cultural, instructional, and curricular issues and what that must mean to teach science to US students in rural, urban, and suburban school contexts.     

How Has Reform in Science Teacher Education Programs Changed Preservice Teachers’ Views About Science?

Reforms are typically criticized for failing to bridge the gap between practitioners and researchers and for the lack of research support provided prior to implementation. Research has indicated that preservice teachers’ understandings of high-quality science teaching are formed by teacher training programs. The purposes of this study are to investigate views about science in preservice teachers in old and new teacher training programs and to determine whether and how these two programs shape teacher trainees’ views of science. A total of 459 students from a 4-year elementary science teacher training program participated in the study. A 41-item instrument was used to collect data. Four factors were extracted from the data, explaining 41.58% of the variance, and the reliability was found to be .86. There were significant differences for both males and females between the old and new programs. However, no difference was found between males’ and females’ total scores. In addition, students from the two programs had significantly different scores on the sub-scales of “Anxiety” and “Uncertainty”. For example, males in the new program had significantly higher scores on the “Anxiety” and “Uncertainty” sub-scales. The overall increase in science course hours and decrease in science method course hours in the new program may account for these findings.     

Students’ Views of Nature of Science

Science & Education - Nature of science (NOS) is considered an important aspect of scientific literacy. Despite efforts in guiding school students to develop more adequate NOS views, little is...     

Exploring Natural and Social Scientists’ Views of Nature of Science

Science education researchers recently turned their attention to exploring views about nature of science (NOS). A large body of research indicates that both students and teachers have many naïve views about the NOS. Unfortunately, less attention has been directed at the issue of exploring the views of the scientists. Also, the little research in the literature generally took into consideration NOS views of only natural scientists. This study primarily proposes to explore the views of scientists in both the natural and social sciences regarding the seven target aspects of NOS. The second aim of the study is to find out the similarities and dissimilarities between the views of scientists who majored in social sciences and those who majored in natural sciences in terms of the target aspects of NOS. The sample was 69 scientists representing 5 scientific disciplines from natural and social sciences. Interviews were employed for obtaining data. The data were analyzed by means of cognitive maps. This study revealed that the scientists in the sample have neither completely informed views nor completely naïve views according to contemporary scientific understanding. Their views were a blend of the two in terms of almost all the target aspects of NOS. The views of the scientists in natural science and in social science were not substantially different. The scientists from both groups generally had similar viewpoints. This situation suggested that the scientists' views about NOS are not related to their scientific disciplines.     

Pre-Service Teachers’ Views of School-Based Approaches to Pre-Service Primary Science Teacher Education

Primary pre-service teachers (PSTs) in Australia often have low confidence and negative experiences in relation to science and teaching science. This paper reports on pre-post survey data produced by four institutions involved in a multi-institutional project exploring the use of university-school partnerships for primary science teacher education. The findings show that the experience of engagement in school-based science teaching contributed to the development PST classroom readiness particularly with respect to statistically significant increases in confidence. We argue that moving tutorials from university into schools supports PSTs’ engagement with the teaching profession and teaching science.     

Challenges and Changes: Developing Teachers’ and Initial Teacher Education Students’ Understandings of the Nature of Science

Teachers need an understanding of the nature of science (NOS) to enable them to incorporate NOS into their teaching of science. The current study examines the usefulness of a strategy for challenging or changing teachers’ understandings of NOS. The teachers who participated in this study were 10 initial teacher education chemistry students and six experienced teachers from secondary and primary schools who were introduced to an explicit and reflective activity, a dramatic reading about a historical scientific development. Concept maps were used before and after the activity to assess teachers’ knowledge of NOS. The participants also took part in a focus group interview to establish whether they perceived the activity as useful in developing their own understanding of NOS. Initial analysis led us to ask another group, comprising seven initial teacher education chemistry students, to take part in a modified study. These participants not only completed the same tasks as the previous participants but also completed a written reflection commenting on whether the activity and focus group discussion enhanced their understanding of NOS. Both Lederman et al.’s (Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 39(6), 497–521, 2002) concepts of NOS and notions of “naive” and “informed” understandings of NOS and Hay’s (Studies in Higher Education, 32(1), 39–57, 2007) notions of “surface” and “deep” learning were used as frameworks to examine the participants’ specific understandings of NOS and the depth of their learning. The ways in which participants’ understandings of NOS were broadened or changed by taking part in the dramatic reading are presented. The impact of the data-gathering tools on the participants’ professional learning is also discussed.     

Finding Common Ground: A Synthesis of Science and Mathematics Teacher Educators’ Experiences with Professional Growth

The seven articles that comprise this Special Issue examine the professional growth of mathematics and science teacher educators across different contexts and different foci of who is the teacher educator being studied. Despite these differences, a common thread running throughout these seven articles is the need for learning to be situated in collaboration with others. In this final article, we examine the contribution of these articles through two perspectives: that of the collaborative contexts supporting the professional growth of mathematics and science teacher educators, and the role of disciplinary knowledge as part of the purpose for teacher educators’ professional growth. We notice that collaboration can take on very different structures in supporting teacher educators’ professional learning due to the different purposes and roles of the teacher educators in the studies. We also notice that while collaboration figures as an important component in all of the studies, the disciplinary specific aspects of collaboration, i.e., how collaboration might be negotiated differently by teacher educators in mathematics and science, is still not well understood. Overall, these articles provide important insights that help to shed new light on the complex and multifaceted nature of teacher educators’ learning and growth and provide productive avenues for future research.

     

Teaching Nature of Science to Preservice Science Teachers: A Phenomenographic Study of Chinese Teacher Educators’ Conceptions

Drawing from the phenomenographic perspective, this study investigated Chinese science teacher educators’ conceptions of teaching nature of science (NOS) to preservice science teachers through two semi-structured interviews. The subjects were twenty-four science teacher educators in the developed regions in China. Five key dimensions emerged from the data on the conceptions of teaching NOS, including value of teaching NOS, NOS content to be taught, incorporation of NOS instruction in courses, learning of NOS, and role of the teacher. While some of these dimensions share much similarity with those reported in the studies of conceptions of teaching in general, some are distinctively different, which is embedded in some unique features of teaching NOS to preservice science teachers. These key dimensions can constitute the valuable components of the module or course to train science teachers or teacher educators to teach NOS, provide a framework to interpret the practice of teaching NOS, as well as lay a foundation for probing the conceptions of teaching NOS of other groups of subjects (e.g., school teachers’ conceptions of teaching NOS) or in other contexts (e.g., teaching NOS to in-service teacher).     

The Relationship between Students’ Views of the Nature of Science and their Views of the Nature of Scientific Measurement

The present study explores the relationship between students’ views of the nature of science (NOS) and their views of the nature of scientific measurement. A questionnaire with two‐tier diagnostic multiple‐choice items on both the NOS and measurement was administered to 179 first‐year physics students with diverse school experiences. Students’ views on the NOS were classified into four NOS ‘profiles’, and views on measurement were classified according to either the point or set paradigms. The findings show that students with a NOS profile dominated by a belief that the laws of nature are to be discovered by scientists are more likely to have a view of the nature of scientific measurement characterised by a belief in ‘true’ values. On the other hand, students who believe that scientific theories are inventions of scientists, constructed from observations that are then validated through further experimentation, are more likely to have a view of the nature of scientific measurement that is underpinned by the uncertain nature of scientific evidence. The implications for teaching scientific measurement at tertiary level are discussed.     

Educational Background,Teaching Experience and Teachers’ Views on the Inclusion of Nature of Science in the Science Curriculum

The aim of this research is to ascertain teachers’ opinions on what elements of nature of science (NOS) and science–technology–society relationships (STS) should be taught in school science. To this end an adapted version of the questionnaire developed by Osborne et al. is used. Our results show that experts consulted by Osborne et al. and Spanish teachers confer similar importance on the provisional, experimental, and predictive nature of scientific knowledge based on some of the procedures used such as the drawing up of hypotheses and the analysis and interpretation of data. We also look into the relationship between the teachers’ views and their educational background. ¹ 1. In this article, Educational Background means the scientific training gained by teachers at university. Results suggest that philosophy teachers are more concerned with the inclusion of NOS and STS topics in science curricula than science teachers, although further studies will be necessary. Some suggestions concerning the university training of science teachers are also discussed.     

Quantitatively Investigating Inservice Elementary Teachers’ Nature of Science Views

Research in Science Education - Many nature of science (NOS) studies have demonstrated that teachers can improve their understandings of NOS with explicit and reflective instruction; however, the...     

Teacher Educators’ Activity Aiming to Support Inquiry Through Mathematics and Science Teacher Collaboration

This study explores teacher educators’ (TEs’) activity as they support mathematics and science teacher collaboration in co-designing and jointly implementing tasks. We view TEs’ activity through the lens of Activity Theory and expansive learning and draw evidence from data generated within the mascil project that linked mathematics and science teaching with workplace situations through inquiry-based teaching. We focus on five TEs’ actions and goals, use data from their professional development sessions with teachers and from the TEs’ interactions during their own meetings, and highlight the illuminating case of one teacher educator. We trace evidence indicating paths of actions followed by each Teacher Educator and look for indications of their professional learning. Our analysis reveals generic and content-focused actions. All TEs faced different kinds of contradictions and had difficulties handling them. In terms of professional learning, all TEs adapted their prior teacher education practices and appreciated the critical role of epistemological differences between the two disciplines.

     

High School Biology Teachers’ Views on Teaching Evolution: Implications for Science Teacher Educators

In the US, there may be few scientific concepts that students maintain preconceived ideas about as strongly and passionately as they do with regard to evolution. At the confluence of a multitude of social, religious, political, and scientific factors lies the biology teacher. This phenomenological study provides insight into the salient aspects of teaching evolution as viewed by public high school biology teachers. Transcribed interviews were coded, and data were sorted resulting in key themes regarding teachers’ views of evolution education. These themes are presented against the backdrop of extant literature on the teaching and learning of evolution. Suggestions for science teacher educators are presented such that we can modify teacher preparation programs to better prepare science teachers to meet the challenges of teaching evolution.     

‘What Are We Talking About?’ Plural Education and Teacher Education

In this article some basic concepts in the field of education in a plural society are discussed and defined. A distinction is made between various forms of plural education, which is the generic concept for all educational reactions to the plurality of a society. This distinction is based on the target group, purpose and general orientation of these reactions. The ensuing discussion of the various forms of plural education results, among other things, in a critique of multi‐ and intercultural education and the proposal of a pluralist education. The third and last section deals with some perspectives for teacher education.

     

Impact of Chinese Culture on Pre-service Science Teachers’ Views of the Nature of Science

This study examines Chinese pre-service teachers’ (N?=?30) views on the nature of science (NOS) and how Chinese culture influences their views. Participants were from two teachers’ universities in eastern China. As an exploratory and interpretive study, a scenario-based interview approach was adopted. The results indicated that the participants held unique views about the five key aspects of NOS. Many participants have alternative and contemporary views of NOS, but few possess classical views. In fact, teachers adopted features of the Confucian Doctrine of the Mean either consciously or unconsciously to account for their views of NOS. This research reflects that the Doctrine of the Mean affected Chinese teachers’ views of NOS, making them rather deficient in their understandings of classical NOS. Based on empirical data, it is argued that science teacher training in China should focus on the content and objectives of classical NOS, rather than just teaching contemporary views of NOS. Taking Chinese culture into consideration, science teacher education in China cannot entirely import the strategies of teaching the classical views of NOS from the developed world, but should develop, design and contextualize local strategies that are suitable for the training of Chinese science teachers. Some issues for further investigation of learners’ views of NOS in non-Western contexts are suggested as implications from this study.     

Crossing the Border from Science Student to Science Teacher: Preservice Teachers’ Views and Experiences Learning to Teach Inquiry

Preservice science teachers face numerous challenges in understanding and teaching science as inquiry. Over the course of their teacher education program, they are expected to move from veteran science students with little experience learning their discipline through inquiry instruction to beginning science teachers adept at implementing inquiry in their own classrooms. In this study, we used Aikenhead’s (Sci Educ 81: 217–238, 1997, Science Educ 85:180–188, 2001) notion of border crossing to describe this transition preservice teachers must make from science student to science teacher. We examined what one cohort of eight preservice secondary science teachers said, did, and wrote as they both conducted a two-part inquiry investigation and designed an inquiry lesson plan. We conducted two types of qualitative analyses. One, we drew from Costa (Sci Educ 79: 313–333, 1995) to group our preservice teacher participants into one of four types of potential science teachers. Two, we identified successes and struggles in preservice teachers’ attempts to negotiate the cultural border between veteran student and beginning teacher. In our implications, we argue that preservice teachers could benefit from explicit opportunities to navigate the border between learning and teaching science; such opportunities could deepen their conceptions of inquiry beyond those exclusively fashioned as either student or teacher.     

Students’ Views of Learning in Vocational Education

The aim of this study was to investigate students’ conceptions of learning and approaches to learning within vocational education. A group of car‐mechanic students (n = 30) were interviewed at the end of their programme. The phenomenographic approach was used as the point of departure, and, as a result of the analysis, qualitative similarities and differences in students’ conceptions and approaches were found. The distribution of conceptions and approaches showed that half of students were classified as representing a quantitative view of learning and as favouring a surface approach. However, in order to encourage students to develop a qualitative view of learning and to use deep approaches, more attention must be paid to the ways in which students conceive learning within the school context and how they actually do in order to meet the demands they experience within their education.     

Complexity Science and Education: Reconceptualizing the Teacher’s Role in Learning

This writing is structured around the question, "What is teaching?" Drawing on complexity science, we first seek to demonstrate the tremendously conflicted character of contemporary discussions of teaching. Then we offer two examples of teaching that we use to illustrate the assertion that what teaching is can never be reduced to or understood in terms of what the teacher does or intends. Rather, teaching must be understood in terms of its complex contributions to new, as-yet-unimaginable collective possibilities.