The Subject Matter Knowledge in Physics Related Topics of Hong Kong Junior Secondary Science Teachers

The subject matter competence in physics related topics of 147 inservice junior secondary science teachers in Hong Kong was identified using a true-or-false instrument based on a framework conceptualized by the authors. The findings of this study showed that teachers are weak both in factual knowledge and conceptions in these topics. Although physics majors outperform nonphysics majors significantly in the test, their own performance is by no means satisfactory on criterion referenced terms. Items incorrectly answered by over 40% of the teachers are listed with corrections given. The sources of conceptual mistakes and specific remedial measures were elaborated for items incorrectly answered by more than 60% of the teachers. General implications and possibilities for improvement in tertiary education, science teaching, and teacher education were discussed.     

Knowledge Integration in Science Teaching: Analysing Teachers' Knowledge Development

This paper tests the utility of a new sociocognitive frame for analysing the development of teachers' knowledge – the knowledge integration perspective (Linn, Eylon, & Davis, in press; Linn & Hsi, 2000). In doing so, the paper describes one prospective elementary teacher's developing knowledge and highlights its complexity. The prospective teacher demonstrates relatively well-integrated science subject matter knowledge, but she makes some problematic links to lessons and develops some instructional representations that show where she needs to distinguish between different scientific ideas. She also, however, links science concepts to appropriate real-world experiences, indicating that she has nascent useful pedagogical content knowledge. The paper discusses what teacher educators can learn about their learners from this analysis, argues for the utility of the knowledge integration perspective for conducting similar analyses, provides ideas to help science teacher educators apply the perspective easily as they teach their students, and points to areas ripe for future research.     

小学数学教师的学科知识：专家与非专家教师的对比分析

经采用问卷测查法,考察了32名小学数学专家与非专家教师。的学科知识。结果表明,两类教师在数学知识与数学学科本质的理解方面表现出明显的差异。与非专家教师相比,专家教师对数学知识具有深刻的理解,包括深层的概念理解与结构化的知识组织。专家教师倾向于用“问题解决”的观点看待数学学科与学生的数学学习,而非专家教师则更倾向于“掌握知识”的观点。     

US and Turkish preschoolers’ observational knowledge of astronomy

The purpose of this cross-cultural study was to describe and compare US and Turkish children's observational knowledge of the day and night cycle and to identify similarities predicted by framework theory. Fifty-six (27 US and 29 Turkish) young children (ages 48–60 months) participated in the study. Semi-structured interviews were individually conducted, digitally recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using the constant comparative method. The results demonstrate that preschoolers from the two cultures are able to make comparable informal observations of the sky, and their observational knowledge includes many similarities, with one exception, as predicted by framework theory. US children were more likely to perform better than the Turkish children on the question about the time of observation for the moon. Although science concepts and skills are better represented in US early childhood education programs than the Turkish program, the results suggest that this advantage did not translate into performance differences between US and Turkish children.     

Secondary school learners’ contextualized knowledge about reflection and refraction: a case study from South Africa

Background: The development of context-based science curricula has been identified as one of the most effective curricular innovations to develop interest and better conceptual understanding of many areas in science. However, such a curriculum can be more fruitful if it starts with the assessment of learners’ contextualized knowledge about the science topic in hand.

Purpose: The focus of this paper is to investigate secondary school learners’ knowledge of the optical phenomena of reflection and refraction in relation to certain contexts.

Sample: The sample for the study consisted of two Grade-11 intact groups of 70 learners in total at a selected senior secondary school in the Mthatha District of the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa.

Design and methods: The study focused on exploring the learners’ conceptions about the optical phenomena of reflection and refraction. The data were collected from three two-tier questions, which exposed the learners to certain contexts which could be explained using optics principles. The first tier of each question was a context-based multiple-choice question and in the second tier, the participants were asked to justify their answers to the first tier.

Results: Majority of the participants failed to correctly interpret the given contexts using optics principles. Moreover, only a few learners could justify their scientifically acceptable answers with scientifically acceptable explanations.

Conclusions: The participants experienced serious conceptual difficulties when they were required to apply the optics concepts in the real-world contexts presented to them. Moreover, the participants’ conceptual difficulties about reflection and refraction were also found to be associated with their inability to understand correctly the optical processes involved in vision.     

Effects of subject-area degree and classroom experience on new chemistry teachers’ subject matter knowledge

Science teachers need to understand the subject matter they teach. While subject matter knowledge (SMK) can improve with classroom teaching experience, it is problematic that many secondary science teachers leave the profession before garnering extensive classroom experience. Furthermore, many new science teachers are assigned to teach science subjects for which they do not hold a degree. This study investigates the SMK of new secondary science teachers assigned to teach chemistry in their first three years of teaching. These new teachers do not have the advantage of years of experience to develop their SMK and half hold a degree in biology rather than chemistry. This qualitative study explores the effects of holding a degree in the subject area one teaches as well as classroom teaching experience on teachers’ SMK for two chemistry topics, conservation of mass and chemical equilibrium. Qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews indicated that the SMK of teachers who had a chemistry degree and more extensive classroom experience was more coherent, chemistry-focused, and sophisticated than that of teachers who lacked this preparation and experience. This study provides evidence that new science teachers’ SMK is influenced by both holding a degree in the subject area and having classroom experience.     

Developing Self-Efficacy in Teaching Mathematics: Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceptions of the Role of Subject Knowledge

ABSTRACT

Two major concerns in mathematics teacher education are the role of subject matter knowledge and the development of self-efficacy in pre-service teachers. This article brings these issues together in an exploration of the interaction between pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their subject matter knowledge and their accounts of university and placement experiences as potential sources of self-efficacy. Reporting on a group of ten pre-service teachers in Norway, we explore variations in the ways in which they perceived the role of subject knowledge in relation to experience, particularly “mastery experiences”, over a period of nearly two years. We suggest that recognition of the role of “understanding why” in mathematics is crucial in the experience of mastery, and that there is a need to focus more on the role of subject matter knowledge in all sources of self-efficacy in teaching mathematics.     

小学数学教师的学科教学知识：表现特点及其关系的研究

采用问卷测查法,本研究考察了32名小学数学专家与非专家教师①的学科教学知识。结果表明,除了教学设计思想这一维度外,两类教师在理解学生思维、诊断学生错误想法与所采用教学策略方面表现出明显差异。与非专家教师相比,专家教师更了解学生的错误想法与难点,所采用的策略倾向于从学生错误概念的本质入手,而非专家教师则直接引导学生掌握运算规则。本研究也就教师的学科教学知识与学科知识的关系进行了考察。     

Knowing the subject matter of a secondary‐school science subject

This paper examines the fundamental yet largely neglected distinction between school subjects and academic disciplines in the discourse on teachers’ specialized subject‐matter knowledge. It analyses and critiques the curricular positions embedded in that discourse in the light of five possible relationships between school subjects and academic disciplines. Invoking Dewey’s logical‐psychological distinction and research findings, the paper argues that the subject matter of a secondary‐school science subject instead of the subject matter of its parent academic discipline lies at the heart of secondary‐school science teachers’ specialized subject‐matter knowledge. Knowing such subject matter entails knowing five intersecting dimensions: the logical, the psychological, the pedagogical, the epistemological, and the sociocultural. Implications are drawn concerning theorizing about what secondary‐school science teachers need to know about the subject matter they are expected to teach, subject‐matter preparation for teaching, and the development of secondary‐school science curriculum materials.     

The zones framework for both teaching and learning: application to graduate student teaching assistants

The zones framework conceived for the examination of thinking about teaching, is validated, and extended to the examination of thinking about learning. This is done by extending the framework to examine thinking about teaching and learning in a population of science graduate student teaching assistants. Semi‐structured interviews explore these students’ teaching and learning experiences, how their experiences relate to their knowledge of educational theory, and how they have formed their ideas about what constitutes good teaching. The article demonstrates that the zones framework can be extended to thinking about learning, and that it is appropriate for examining the thinking of students as well as teachers. Recommendations for further research are made, including the exploration of discipline‐specific thinking.     

论农村教师的地方性知识

农村教师除了学科知识、教育类知识、实践性知识之外,还应拥有生产生活的地方性知识、历史文化的地方性知识、传统民俗的地方性知识、民间艺术的地方性知识、地理景观的地方性知识、思想观念的地方性知识。农村教师掌握地方性知识,可以促进农村地方性知识的保护与发展,可以提高农村教学质量,还有利于促进其专业发展。使农村教师掌握地方性知识的策略主要是,将地方性知识纳入职前教师教育课程体系,教师职后继续教育中增加地方性知识的培训。     

教师的教学观念与教学行为研究——以综合科学课教师为例

观念是行动的灵魂,教育观念对教学起着指导和统率的作用。一切教学改革的困难都来自旧的教育观念的束缚。综合科学课程的设置与实施是一项复杂的课程改革,要求教师的观念与行为方式发生转变,即教师的知识观、课程观、教学观、学习观等必须转变。但是传统的观念与行为方式是长期形成的,要改变需要时间,是一个自觉的有意识的改变过程。因此,使教师明确应当具有的教育教学观念与教学行为表现,有助于教师转变旧的观念,进而促进综合科学课程的有效实施。     

学科教师的困惑:在知识教学与品德教育之间

在知识教学与品德教育之间,学科教师面临着艰难的困惑与抉择,这也是新旧教育观念冲突下的必然产物。在旧有的教育观念下,学科教师的核心任务就是传授本学科的知识,由此而形成了以知识为中心的学科教学体系。而在新的教育理念下,学科教师的教育使命显然不只是教知识,而是培养健全的人。因此,对于学科教师而言,知识教学与品德教育是不可分离的,学科教师应从自身的学科特点出发来积极参与到德育工作之中,共同实现培养健全的人的教育使命。这也是解决当下德育困境的一条重要途径。     

Conceptions of Science Teacher Mentoring and Mentoring Practice in an Alternative Certification Program

Conceptions of mentoring held by six mentors and six beginning science teachers in an alternative certification program were explored qualitatively by means of case studies and phenomenography. Interviews with the six mentors and six beginning teachers produced 379 statements that were grouped into six conceptual categories. The categories of apprenticeship, personal support, and colearning revealed the variation in how mentors and beginning teachers conceptualized school-based mentoring. The conceptions functioned as referents for their mentoring practice. Mentoring as apprenticeship was the dominant conception among both the beginning teachers and mentors. The findings of this study imply that conceptions of mentoring held by mentors and beginning science teachers should be considered when organizing the school-based component of alternative certification programs.