Keeping the focus on teaching and learning

This article presents findings from a pioneer study addressing the first co-action between students with intellectual disabilities and an Academy of Music in Sweden. The aim of the article is to study and discuss subject positions that are constructed in rhythmic lessons related to a gathering where students with intellectual disabilities interact with a group of Master of Education in Music students at an Academy of Music, and also to describe how constructions of identity are manifested in the interaction between the actors. With poststructuralist and social constructionist theories as theoretical framework, video observations were conducted to enable an overarching view of the pedagogic practice. The findings reveal that the gathering between the groups becomes an expression of inclusion functioning as exclusion, since the teacher’s position the students with intellectual disabilities in ways that obstruct equal interaction with the other student group. Finally, implications of the findings are discussed in addition to inclusion as an ideal model in educational settings.     

In search of pedagogical content knowledge in science: Developing ways of articulating and documenting professional practice

This study examines the development of ways of documenting and portraying science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). As a result of a longitudinal study into science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge, a method is developed for capturing and portraying PCK that comprises two important elements. The first is linked to the particular science content, termed Content Representation (CoRe), and the second is linked to teaching practice, termed Professional and Pedagogical experience Repertoire (PaP‐eR). Through this approach new understandings of PCK emerge that are of interest in terms of both academic (knowledge building about PCK) and teaching perspectives. This study includes a full CoRe and one PaP‐eR and fully demonstrates how these two elements interact to begin to portray science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 370–391, 2004     

Attempting to document teachers' professional knowledge

This paper explores ways of uncovering and documenting teachers' professional knowledge. Through a research project that has worked with a number of teachers over an extensive period of time, serious attempts have been made to make the (often) tacit nature of teachers' knowledge more explicit in ways that might begin to address the question of what a knowledge base in teaching might look like. The paper examines methodological issues that have guided this research and illustrates how the knowledge of teachers can be articulated in ways that might help to clarify particular features of practice. An important aspect of the research reported in this paper is the need to have a language of teaching that is common to participants. Therefore, the research reported in this paper offers one way of considering this issue and offers a methodology for exploration and further development whilst simultaneously highlighting some aspects of the problematic nature of developing such a methodology.     

Becoming a science teacher: First year teachers' approaches to learning about teaching

This paper discusses some of the issues arising from the first year of a longitudinal study into the career development of science teachers. It deals with the influences on, and approaches to, teaching by first year science teachers. Eighteen science graduates who had completed a Diploma in Education in 1990, were interviewed about their first year's teaching experiences. The participants explored issues ranging from the influences on their approach to teaching, student learning, determinants of a good lesson, the role of pre-service teacher training, and teaching as a career. Specializations: Science education, reflective practice, teaching and learning.     

Illustrating the lecture: Prepared diagrams vs. built-up diagrams

Conclusions The opinions of senior students largely confirmed the earlier speculative analysis. The sequential build-up of diagrams simplified the task of copying and, since oral and visual exposition were synchronized, led to better understanding. But the greatest advantage was that it gave the class enough time to take notes. When prepared transparencies are used, the lecturer seems irresistibly tempted to hurry on at too great a pace. All teachers subjectively exaggerate the length of an unfilled time interval in which they have nothing to do; they become impatient and allow insufficient time for the slower members of a class to complete tasks. Therefore, if lecturers believe that visually presented materials should be recorded, then they should either build up the materials as they go or discipline themselves to wait until the class has had reasonable time to record them.