Capturing and Enhancing Science Teachers’ Professional Knowledge

This paper reports research from a three-year Australian science teacher professional learning project, the Science Teaching and Learning (STaL) Project, in which groups of science teacher participants (across years K – 12) worked with academics over a one-year period as teacher researchers. Through reflecting on their experiences within the STaL Project and collecting data from their classrooms related to specific science teaching concerns, teacher participants constructed cases around particular aspects of their professional learning. The cases that these participants developed elicited rich insights into their teaching and their students’ learning of science. This paper discusses how the cases were developed by the teacher researcher participants and uses exemplars as a way of illustrating the nature of the professional knowledge developed.     

Consistencies and Inconsistencies Between Science Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices

To gain a better understanding of teachers’ beliefs about teaching, as compared with their in-reality classroom practices, case studies were constructed with four science teachers in different schools in Egypt. The main aims of this article were to provide an answer to the research question, ‘To what extent do science teachers’ beliefs correspond to their practices?’ and to explore the contextual factors that can explain the difference, the consistency or inconsistency, between teachers' beliefs and practices. The study collected data for each teacher using semi-structured interviews, notes taken while observing classes, and teachers’ notes, journals, and lesson plans concerned with STS lessons. The data were analysed using the constant comparative method around common themes, which were identified as distinctive features of teachers’ beliefs; these same themes were then compared with their practices. Results showed that a few of the in-service science teachers’ pedagogical beliefs aligned with constructivist philosophy. Some of the teachers’ beliefs were consistent with their practices, especially the traditional beliefs, while some of teachers’ practices were conflicted with their beliefs in different contexts.     

Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Beliefs About Science Teaching

In this study, a Beliefs About Teaching (BAT) scale was created to examine preservice elementary science teachers’ self-reported comfort level with both traditional and reform-based teaching methods, assessment techniques, classroom management techniques, and science content. Participants included 166 preservice teachers from three different US universities. Analyses revealed significant correlations among participants’ confidence level with assessment techniques, classroom management, teaching methods, and science content and number of science methods and science content courses taken. A significant difference was observed among the students enrolled at each university. Overall, study participants felt more comfortable teaching biology concepts than teaching chemistry concepts, physics concepts, or both.     

Exploring Relations Among Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Ideas About Evolution, Understanding of Relevant Science Concepts, and College Science Coursework

This study investigated the relations among preservice elementary teachers’ ideas about evolution, their understanding of basic science concepts and college science coursework. Forty-two percent of 240 participants did not accept the theory of human evolution, but held inconsistent ideas about related topics, such as co-existence of humans and dinosaurs and plate tectonics. Accepting the theory of evolution was positively correlated with correctly answering the three other questions related to the age of Earth. Furthermore, participants who rejected evolution scored significantly lower on a test of basic science concepts than did participants who held accurate views on human evolution. Study results revealed no apparent association between completion of advanced college science courses and acceptance of evolutionary theory or understanding of science concepts. Implications for elementary science teacher education were discussed.     

Exploring Science Teachers’ Argumentation and Personal Epistemology About Global Climate Change

Research in Science Education - This case study investigated the nature of in-service science teachers’ argumentation and personal epistemology about global climate change during a 3-year...     

Assessing and Enhancing Pre-service Science Teachers’ Self-Efficacy to Teach Science Through Argumentation: Challenges and Possible Solutions

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of an intervention on pre-service science teachers’ self-efficacy to teach science through argumentation and explore the challenges they experienced while implementing argumentation. Forty pre-service science teachers in their final semester of schooling participated in an intervention that lasted for 11 weeks. Intervention focused on participants’ understanding of argumentation as a scientific practice and as a pedagogical tool. The participants engaged in argument construction, evaluation, and critique, taught three argumentation lessons, engaged in peer observation of teaching, and reflection on their teaching skills. Data were collected through Argumentation Self-Efficacy Scale and an open-ended questionnaire. The results show that the intervention had a significantly positive effect on pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy. Despite this reported self-efficacy, participants experienced significant challenges in guiding their students to construct scientific arguments and assessing the arguments developed by their students. Discussion focuses on implications for professional development of pre-service and in-service science teachers.     

K-12 Science and Mathematics Teachers’ Beliefs About and Use of Inquiry in the Classroom

A survey instrument was developed and administered to 1,222 K-12 mathematics and science teachers to measure their beliefs about and use of inquiry in the classroom. Four variables (grade level taught, content area taught, level of support received, and self-efficacy for teaching inquiry) were significantly correlated to two dependent variables, percentage of time that students are engaged in inquiry during a typical lesson and the perceived ideal percentage of instructional time that should be devoted to inquiry. Specifically, elementary school teachers reported using inquiry-based practices more than either middle-school or high-school teachers; similarly, elementary-school teachers believed such practices should be used more often. All groups, however, reported believing in an ideal percentage of time devoted to inquiry instruction that was significantly greater than their reported percentage of time actually spent on inquiry instruction. A disordinal effect was found between grade level taught and content area taught; at the elementary level, science teachers reported both an ideal and actual percentage of time on inquiry higher than those reported by the math teachers, while at the high school level math teachers reported both an ideal and actual percentage of time on inquiry higher than those reported by the science teachers. No correlations were found between typical and ideal percentage of time devoted to inquiry and subject matter content knowledge training, gender, years of teaching experience, or maximum degree earned.     

First-Year College Students’ Conflict with Religion and Science

This study took place during a First Year Seminar course where 20 incoming college freshmen studied the central topic of the nature of science within the context of biological evolution. The instructor researched students’ understandings in the nature of science as they progressed through the course by examining a variety of qualitative and quantitative data including class writings, pre- and post-test selected items from the VOSTS (Views on Science-Technology-Society), and interviews. The intended outcomes of the course were to reduce the number of student misconceptions in the nature of science and to ease student apprehension when learning about evolution. Data were analyzed to determine whether students were moving toward a more generally accepted idea of the nature of science or toward another type of misconception.     

Spanish Secondary-School Science Teachers’ Beliefs About Science-Technology-Society (STS) Issues

This study analyzes the beliefs about science-technology-society, and other Nature of Science (NOS) themes, of a large sample (613) of Spanish pre- and in-service secondary education teachers through their responses to 30 items of the Questionnaire of Opinions on Science, Technology and Society. The data were processed by means of a multiple response model to generate the belief indices used as the bases for subsequent quantitative and qualitative analyses. Other studies have reported a negative profile of teachers’ understanding in this area, but the diagnosis emerging from the present work is more complex. There was a mix of appropriate beliefs coexisting with others that are inappropriate on the topics analyzed. The overall assessment, however, is negative since clearly teachers need to have a better understanding of these questions. There were scant differences between the pre- and in-service teachers, and hence no decisive evidence that the practice of teaching contributes to improving the in-service teachers’ understanding. These results suggest there is an urgent need to bring the initial and continuing education of science teachers up to date to improve their understanding of these topics of science curricula, and thus improve the teaching of science.     

Associations Between Attitudes Towards Science and Children’s Evaluation of Information About Socioscientific Issues

Science educators are typically dismayed by the failure of students to use relevant scientific knowledge when reasoning about socioscientific issues. Except for the well-documented association between having more knowledge about a topic and a tendency to use that knowledge, the influences on students’ evaluation of information in socioscientific issues are not well understood. This study presents an initial investigation into the associations between upper elementary students’ attitudes towards science and their evaluation of information about a socioscientific issue. We surveyed the science attitudes of 49 sixth grade students and then asked them to evaluate information about a socioscientific issue (alternative energy use). Positive attitudes were associated with a more scientific approach to evaluating information in the task. When trying to make judgments, students with generally positive attitudes towards science were more likely to attend to scientific information than other sources. Scientific information, nonetheless, served a variety of socially oriented goals in students’ evaluations. These findings warrant further research on the relationship between science attitudes and reasoning about socioscientific issues and support the argument for connecting school science more clearly with everyday concerns.     

Teachers’ and Students’ Conceptions of Good Science Teaching

Capitalizing on the comments made by teachers on videos of exemplary science teaching, a video-based survey instrument on the topic of ‘Density’ was developed and used to investigate the conceptions of good science teaching held by 110 teachers and 4,024 year 7 students in Hong Kong. Six dimensions of good science teaching are identified from the 55-item questionnaire, namely, ‘focussing on science learning’, ‘facilitating students’ understanding’, ‘encouraging students’ involvement’, ‘creating conducive environment’, ‘encouraging active experimentation’ and ‘preparing students for exam (PSE)’. Significant gaps between teachers’ and students’ conceptions on certain dimensions have been revealed. The inconsistency on the dimension ‘PSE’ is particularly evident and possible reasons for the phenomenon are suggested. This study raises the important questions of how the gap can be addressed, and who is to change in order to close the gaps. Answers to these questions have huge implications for teacher education and teacher professional development.     

Naïve Empiricism and the Nature of Science in Narratives of Conflict Between Science and Religion

Scientific inquiry is both theoretical and empirical. It succeeds by bringing thought into productive harmony with the observable universe, and thus, students can attain a robust understanding of the nature of science (NOS) only by developing a balanced appreciation of both these dimensions. In this article, I examine naïve empiricism, a teaching pattern that deters understanding of NOS by attributing to observation scientific achievements that have been wrought by a partnership of thought and empirical experience. My more specific concern is the naïve empiricism promoted when teachers illustrate NOS through historical anecdotes about conflict between science and religion. Since the religious actors depicted in such accounts appear to reject evidence, these narratives lead readers to suppose that scientists draw their conclusions in exactly the opposite way, from empiricism alone. I illustrate this pattern by examining two representative treatments of the Copernican revolution. My methods are historical and critical.     

Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Science Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Science Content Knowledge

Self-efficacy beliefs that relate to teachers’ motivation and performance have been an important area of concern for preservice teacher education. Research suggests high-quality science coursework has the potential to shape preservice teachers’ science self-efficacy beliefs. However, there are few studies examining the relationship between science self-efficacy beliefs and science content knowledge. The purpose of this mixed methods study is to investigate changes in preservice teachers’ science self-efficacy beliefs and science content knowledge and the relationship between the two variables as they co-evolve in a specialized science content course. Results from pre- and post-course administrations of the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument-B (Bleicher, 2004) and a physical science concept test along with semi-structured interviews, classroom observations and artifacts served as data sources for the study. The 18 participants belonged to three groups representing low, medium and high initial levels of self-efficacy beliefs. A repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance design was used to test the significance of differences between the pre- and post-surveys across time. Results indicated statistically significant gains in participants’ science self-efficacy beliefs and science conceptual understandings. Additionally, a positive moderate relationship between gains in science conceptual understandings and gains in personal science teaching efficacy beliefs was found. Qualitative analysis of the participants’ responses indicated positive shifts in their science teacher self-image and they credited their experiences in the course as sources of new levels of confidence to teach science. The study includes implications for preservice teacher education programs, science teacher education, and research.     

Teachers’ Understanding and Operationalisation of ‘Science Capital’

Across the globe, governments, industry and educationalists are in agreement that more needs to be done to increase and broaden participation in post-16 science. Schools, as well as teachers, are seen as key in this effort. Previous research has found that engagement with science, inclination to study science and understanding of the value of science strongly relates to a student's science capital. This paper reports on findings from the pilot year of a one-year professional development (PD) programme designed to work with secondary-school teachers to build students’ science capital. The PD programme introduced teachers to the nature and importance of science capital and thereafter supported them to develop ways of implementing science capital-building pedagogy in their practice. The data comprise interviews with the participating teachers (n?=?10), observations of classroom practices and analyses of the teachers’ accounts of their practice. Our findings suggest that teachers found the concept of science capital to be compelling and to resonate with their own intuitive understandings and experiences. However, the ways in which the concept was operationalised in terms of the implementation of pedagogical practices varied. The difficulties inherent in the operationalisation are examined and recommendations for future work with teachers around the concept of science capital are developed.     

Science Teachers’ Analogical Reasoning

Analogies can play a relevant role in students’ learning. However, for the effective use of analogies, teachers should not only have a well-prepared repertoire of validated analogies, which could serve as bridges between the students’ prior knowledge and the scientific knowledge they desire them to understand, but also know how to introduce analogies in their lessons. Both aspects have been discussed in the literature in the last few decades. However, almost nothing is known about how teachers draw their own analogies for instructional purposes or, in other words, about how they reason analogically when planning and conducting teaching. This is the focus of this paper. Six secondary teachers were individually interviewed; the aim was to characterize how they perform each of the analogical reasoning subprocesses, as well as to identify their views on analogies and their use in science teaching. The results were analyzed by considering elements of both theories about analogical reasoning: the structural mapping proposed by Gentner and the analogical mechanism described by Vosniadou. A comprehensive discussion of our results makes it evident that teachers’ content knowledge on scientific topics and on analogies as well as their pedagogical content knowledge on the use of analogies influence all their analogical reasoning subprocesses. Our results also point to the need for improving teachers’ knowledge about analogies and their ability to perform analogical reasoning.     

Teachers’ Concerns About Biotechnology Education

The impacts of biotechnology are found in nearly all sectors of society from health care and food products to environmental issues and energy sources. Despite the significance of biotechnology within the sciences, it has not become a prominent trend in science education. In this study, we seek to more fully identify biology teachers’ concerns about biotechnology instruction and their reported practices. Consistent with the Stages of Concern framework as modified by Hord et al., we investigated teachers’ awareness, informational, personal, management, consequences, collaboration, and refocusing concerns about biotechnology teaching by employing a qualitative design that allowed for the emergence of teachers’ ideas. Twenty high school life science teachers attending a biotechnology institute were interviewed using an interview protocol specifically designed to target various Stages of Concern. Although the Stages of Concern framework guided the development of interview questions in order to target a wide range of concerns, data analysis employed a grounded theory approach wherein patterns emerged from teachers’ own words and were constantly compared with each other to generate larger themes. Our results have potential to provide guidance for professional development providers and curriculum developers committed to supporting initial implementation of biotechnology education. Recommendations include supporting teacher development of biotechnology content knowledge; promoting strategies for obtaining, storing and managing biotechnology equipment and materials; providing opportunities for peer teaching as a means of building teacher confidence; and highlighting career opportunities in biotechnology and the intersections of biotechnology and everyday life.     

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.