Addressing student conceptions is crucial in science education. Therefore, teachers should be able to notice and interpret situations, in which student conceptions are part of the complex classroom interactions. This study analyzes the skills known as professional vision using an interpretivist research paradigm and a sociocultural perspective.…

One aspect of scientific inquiry that appears to be particularly challenging to learn is how explanatory models are developed and used in science. It is even more challenging to learn to teach through methods that engage young students in building and using explanatory models. In part, this is because to do so requires that teachers make real-time…

Although teacher educators have achieved some success in improving teachers' understanding of the nature of science (NOS), helping teachers teach NOS has proved a much greater challenge. Currently, there are few examples in the literature of teachers who effectively teach NOS, and fewer still that rely on student outcomes as a measure of teachers'…

Two elementary certified middle school science teachers are studied for changes in practical knowledge supporting the implementation of kit-based inquiry as part of a schoolwide reform effort. Emphasis is placed on studying how these two pilot teachers enact guided inquiry within their unique pedagogical and curricular interests, and what…

Clarifies the distinction between what science teachers should teach and what they should know by exploring how and why key ideas in teaching high school physics differ from key ideas in the discipline of physics. (Author/SAH)

Explores ways in which two teachers' views of themselves and their students as knowers of science have an influence on classroom practices. Reports that the teachers seem to view themselves as consumers rather than inquirers in science, and produce a rapport with knowledge similar to that which they themselves experience in their classrooms.…

Explores how collaboration among teachers from several schools and with university researchers facilitates attempts to change practices. Analysis indicates that collaboration facilitates change because it provides opportunities for teachers to learn new content and pedagogical knowledge, encourages them to be risk-takers in implementing new ideas,…

Presents a detailed case study of a ninth grade science teacher to explain how school science constrains the development of her professional knowledge. Concludes that the version of experiment and inquiry seemingly prescribed by the institutional science of school is antithetical to the sort of explanatory inquiry the teacher uses when planning…

This paper reports the design and evaluation of small-scale teaching interventions addressing the epistemology of science as part of the regular high school science courses followed by English students. Although there is a growing consensus that the curriculum should include aspects of the nature of science, there is a limited body of knowledge…

Examines a beginning elementary teacher's experiences participating in an educational research project and her work in the classroom to bring her students' ideas into contact with accepted scientific ideas and practices. The project explored an approach to professional development that engaged teachers in learning and viewing science as a socially…

Interpretive analysis of preservice teachers' writings and discussions during an elementary-science methods course identified the teachers' positivist views of knowledge, learning, and teaching as prominent tools for guiding understanding of and reaction to ideas of teaching science to diverse student populations. Discusses the impact on teachers'…

Chemistry learning involves establishing conceptual relationships among macroscopic, microscopic, and symbolic representations. Employing the notion of intertextuality to conceptualize these relationships, this study investigates how class members interactionally construct meanings of chemical representations by connecting them to real-life…

Compares two high school chemistry teachers with two elementary science teachers from case studies from the Exemplary Practice in Science and Mathematics Education Project in Australia. Concludes that both pedagogical and content knowledge are important ingredients for outstanding teaching. (CW)