Developing a science teacher education course that supports student teachers’ thinking and teaching about the nature of science

This paper reports on part of an ongoing research project in England concerning the Nature of Science (NOS). The particular focus is on the initial thinking of the graduate scientists starting a one-year, Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) course and the way the course approaches adopted influence their views and understanding of NOS and their teaching. The research is set against a wealth of literature indicating that teachers find it difficult to teach curricula that emphasise NOS. Thus a key impetus for research in this area has been to look for ways that beginning teachers might be better prepared to face such challenges.

Sample

The paper draws on data from three cohorts of secondary PGCE students in a university–schools partnership, involving a total of 169 students.

Design and method

The research lies within a design research tradition. It has used mixed methods, involving written tasks, interviews and focus groups, with an iterative approach where the outcomes from one cohort have been used to inform course developments in successive years.

Results

The results from these cohorts suggest that, while the students starting the course have a less restricted view of NOS than indicated by some other studies, in most cases there is a lack of breadth and depth to their understanding. There is some evidence that the use of specific tasks focusing on NOS in university-based sessions may be helping to develop and deepen understanding. However, the impact of current approaches remains fairly limited and attempts to develop teaching practices often face considerable barriers in the school-based practicum.

Conclusions

Graduate science students’ understanding of NOS as they embark on the PGCE is not highly developed. Hence, the emphasis on aspects of NOS in the school curriculum presents a considerable challenge. This study suggests that there is a need to both further develop an explicit focus on NOS in university-based sessions and to develop closer relationships between schools and university faculty in seeking to support developments in classroom practice in this difficult area.     

Whitehead's Contribution to Ecological Thought: Some Unrealized Possibilities

The organizers of this conference have given me a difficult task: that of finding heretofore unfound implications of Whitehead's philosophy for environmental thought. The task is not difficult because implications of Whitehead's philosophy for environmental thought are hard to find. They are easy to find. The problem is that so many people have found them that finding something new to say is not easy.In what follows, however, some new implications are actually ferreted out. They fall under three headings: a) the interrelations between three ways of thinking about the environment: bioregionalism, land ethics, and the philosophy of organism; b) the implications of Whitehead's philosophy of organism for environmental aesthetics; and c) the implications of Whitehead's philosophy of organism for human communities (sustainable communities) viewed as interfused with living nature.     

E Pluribus Unum: Mohawk Indian Students’ Views Regarding the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance

This study examined 191 high school students’ willingness to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, their reasons for participating or not participating in saying the Pledge, and their thoughts about the Pledge during this daily school ritual. The study was conducted in a rural town next to the Akwesasne Mohawk reservation. The majority of the students chose not to recite the Pledge, and Mohawk students were less likely to recite the Pledge than their classmates.     

A study of technical signs in science: implications for lexical database development

Both classroom instruction and lexical database development stand to benefit from applied research on sign language, which takes into consideration American Sign Language rules, pedagogical issues, and teacher characteristics. In this study of technical science signs, teachers' experience with signing and, especially, knowledge of content, were found to be essential for the identification of signs appropriate for instruction. The results of this study also indicate a need for a systematic approach to examine both sign selection and its impact on learning by deaf students. Recommendations are made for the development of lexical databases and areas of research for optimizing the use of sign language in instruction.     

Does teacher professional development affect content and pedagogical knowledge: How much and for how long?

We examine the impact of teacher professional development on a key aspect of teacher quality—teacher knowledge. Specifically we use English Language Arts teacher content and pedagogy assessments to determine whether the California Professional Development Institutes significantly improve teacher content knowledge and whether teachers retain that knowledge six months after the institutes are completed. The results indicate that teachers vary significantly in pre-institute knowledge on the four assessed domains, that they demonstrate significant knowledge growth between the pre- and post-assessments, but that practical classroom experience hinders knowledge retention as measured six months later. Further, pre-exiting knowledge gaps are not systematically reduced thereby not alleviating the uneven distribution of teacher quality among California elementary schools.     

Collaborative approaches in initial teacher education: lessons from approaches to developing student teachers’ use of the Internet in science teaching

In many countries, governments are keen to persuade teachers at all levels to seek to enhance the learning of their students by incorporating information and communication technologies within their classrooms. This paper reports on the development of collaborative approaches to supporting use of the Internet by Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) science students on initial teacher education (ITE) courses in England, drawing on data from five higher education institution (HEI)–school partnerships across four years. A mixed-method approach was used, involving questionnaires, structured interviews, lesson observations and case studies. The outcomes of the first three years identified barriers to practice and suggested the need to develop more collaborative approaches to development. The focus of this paper is on examining ways in which university faculty tutors and mentors or cooperating teachers can work together with students on PGCE courses in developing practice. The lessons from this focus on the Internet, no longer a new technology, have enabled us to identify implications for HEI partnerships in ITE and suggest a need for further collaborative structures in order to support and develop practices, including those involving the innovative use of new technologies in the post-industrial society.