Loose connections: The context of science teachers' work

This paper is based on an interview study with eighty science teachers in twelve secondary schools across Australia. The study was conducted as part of the Science Education Professional Development Project. The project's brief was to develop a national strategy for the professional development of science teachers and was commissioned by the Federal Government's Department of Employment, Education and Training. The aim of the interviews was to help define the problem that a national strategy needed to address and this paper reports on one theme that emerged from the interviews, the concept of “loose connections.” Loose connections reflects the weak sense of professional community we found among science teachers and their isolation from potentially beneficial influences on their work. The paper explores implications of loose connections for a national professional development strategy such as the need to strengthen areas of professional responsibility and links between professional development and career development.     

Science Teachers’ Views on CoRes and PaP-eRs as a Framework for Articulating and Developing Pedagogical Content Knowledge

This paper reports on a study which was designed to examine how CoRes (Content Representations) and PaP-eRs (Pedagogical and Professional-experience Repertoires) might impact the practice of science teachers by considering how they might value (or not) pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) as part of their professional knowledge. The paper is based on a 2?year longitudinal study that used CoRes and PaP-eRs as a form of intervention with a group of teachers (n?=?6) to determine how they interpreted, used and developed their understanding of PCK over time. The study concluded that the participating teachers developed rich understandings of their professional knowledge of science teaching and were of the view that CoRes and PaP-eRs were significant in shaping that development. As a consequence, the study also validates the use of CoRes and PaP-eRs as a meaningful methodology for examining science teachers?? PCK.     

Slowmation: Preservice elementary teachers representing science knowledge through creating multimodal digital animations

Research has identified the value of learners using technology to construct their own representations of science concepts. In this study, we investigate how learners, such as preservice elementary teachers, design and make a narrated animation to represent their science knowledge. The type of animation exemplified is called a “Slowmation” (abbreviated from “Slow Animation”), which is a simplified way for preservice teachers to make an animation that integrates features from claymation, object animation, and digital storytelling. Drawing on semiotic theory, a case study of three preservice elementary teachers, who were audio and video recorded as they created a slowmation, illustrates how the construction process enabled them to engage with a science concept in multiple ways. Findings suggest that when preservice teachers create a slowmation, they design and make a sequence of five representations, each being a semiotic system with particular affordances that link as a semiotic progression: (i) research notes; (ii) storyboard; (iii) models; and (iv) digital photographs, which culminate in (v) a narrated animation. In this study, the authors present their theoretical framework, explain how the preservice teachers created a slowmation using a sequence of representations to show their science knowledge and discuss the implications of these findings for learners in universities and schools. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 985–1009, 2011     

Educational patterns in lifelong learning settings

Education involves interactive processes in which symbolization plays a major role. Poetry promotes a unique approach to symbolization that is characterized by (a) fostering creativity within the realm of meaning, and (b) generating the development of sensibility. Despite these important educative functions, poetry has never been recognized as part of the core curriculum in schools. However, poetry has continuously managed to promulgate its educative functions from the periphery of schools. The focus of this paper is on the aspects of critical thinking the poetry of two Persian poets has fostered not only in the Iranian audience but also in a larger community since the 11th century.     

Practising what I preach: Modelling reflective practice to student teachers

This study explores the relationship between a teacher educator's explicit modelling of reflection on practice and student-teachers' developing use of reflection on practice. In this case, the teacher educator attempted to offer his student-teachers opportunities to see, hear and understand the thinking that underpinned his pedagogy so that they might better understand and develop their reflective skills in their own teaching practice. Through a framework developed from the work of Dewey (1933) a theoretical perspective on reflection was designed and applied to the student-teachers' thoughts as displayed through their journal writing and interviews. This paper demonstrates that modelling is an important aspect to enhancing student-teachers' learning about teaching and learning.     

澳大利亚教师教育质量保障体系:21世纪初的挑战与变革

21世纪初,澳大利亚各级政府为教师教育的发展提供了法律保障、政策支持和专业标准的指导,建立了较为全面的教师教育质量保障体系.在追求高质量发展的同时,澳大利亚教师教育也面临不同层面的困境,尤其是教师教育的管理和教师评估的策略与方法.本文从体系保障、师资保障、过程保障和结果保障几个方面讨论了澳大利亚教师教育机构、教师教育者在提供教师教育过程中应坚持的基本原则和改革方向.     

Utilizing Video Conferencing to Introduce an International Perspective to Foundation Practice

Video conferencing has much potential to enrich international social work education. In this educational initiative, video conferencing was used to deliver a joint foundation social work practice class to students attending an MSW degree program both in the United States and in Ireland. Student feedback indicated that they gained an appreciation of the global nature of social work practice. They reported a deeper understanding of shared theoretical perspectives in relation to client engagement, and of the differences in many fields of practice. Students recommended additional opportunities for international discourse using both synchronous and asynchronous distance education methods.     

Exploring the Development of Pre-Service Science Elementary Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge

This paper explores how a group of pre-service elementary science student teachers came to understand the development of their Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) over the course of a semester??s study in a science methods course. At the start of the semester, PCK was introduced to them as an academic construct and as a conceptual tool that they could use to plan for, and assess, the development of their professional knowledge and practice as beginning science teachers. All participants were provided with a tool known as a CoRe (Content Representation) and the manner in which they worked with the CoRe was such that it supported them in planning for and assessing their own learning about teaching elementary science through a focus on the development of their PCK. Through analysis of data derived from the application of a CoRe based methodology (modified and adapted for this study) to the teaching of the science topic of Air, participants?? reasons for, confidence in, and perceived meaningfulness of their learning about science teaching could be examined. In so doing, the nature of participants?? PCK development over time was made explicit. The results illustrate real possibilities for ways of enhancing student teachers?? ongoing professional learning in teacher preparation and offer a window into how the nature of PCK in pre-service education might be better understood and developed.     

Continuities and Discontinuities: The transition from pre-service to first-year teaching

The study outlined in this paper is one element of a research project that was designed to determine, from the teachers' perspective, how their teacher preparation program influenced their development as teachers and how this development progressed in their beginning years within the profession. This paper then explores how a group of student-teachers who had completed their Dip. Ed. at Monash University described their own development during their transition into the teaching profession as they re-considered their pre-service teacher preparation program.