Pre-service science teachers develop their teaching practices within and across the university and school contexts of their teacher education programs. The practices and visions of teaching and learning emphasized in each context are often disjointed, a problem referred to as the "two-worlds pitfall." Responding to the call for teacher…

Lesson planning is a core part of teachers' professional competence. Written lesson plans play a significant role in science teacher education as a preparation for demonstration lessons during the final teacher certification exam. However, the few existing scoring rubrics on lesson plans are not particularly theoretically sound and are barely…

In recent years, there has been an increase in the integration of socioscientific issues (SSI) into educational practices, which are recognized for enhancing higher-order thinking, scientific literacy, ethical considerations, and civic engagement. SSI teaching equips students to tackle global challenges, although they are complex challenges for…

In the era of the Framework for K-12 Science Education and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), research on preparing preservice science teachers (PSTs) for NGSS-aligned teaching practices is important. In this study, we explored PSTs' sense-making around planning for Ambitious Science Teaching (AST) during their discussions of teaching in a…

Purpose -- This study is part of a comprehensive investigation conducted in Malaysia, examining science teachers' understanding of the Nature of Science (NOS) and their ability to translate this knowledge into Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) for NOS. This paper specifically examines how teachers apply their NOS knowledge to develop NOS PCK in…

As one of the three dimensions of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), the crosscutting concepts (CCCs) have a presumably equal role in science teaching and learning as the science and engineering practices (SEPs) and disciplinary core ideas (DCIs). While much research has focused on teachers' understanding and use of the DCIs and SEPs,…

In this study, I documented, analyzed, and compared the thought processes of six high school science teachers during twenty minutes of planning for NGSS-aligned instruction. Teachers' thoughts were captured using a virtual revisit think-aloud protocol and their thoughts were analyzed and compared using a novel tool called a thinking web. A…

Background: This paper builds on the growing focus on learning about teaching science with digital technologies, and the relationship between different elements that constitute teacher knowledge and how these are captured and understood during teacher education program. Purpose: The aim of the paper is to capture and understand how student…

Each year, in middle and high school classrooms, secondary science teachers introduce their students to the periodic table of elements (herein the periodic table). According to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013), one of the performance expectations states that high school students should be able to, "Use the…

Learning progressions (LPs) are considered to have great potential to improve pedagogical practices. However, even with LPs, teachers may still be unaware of the barriers that keep students from progressing; many are struggling with essential pedagogical strategies to support students' progression. This study thus proposed an educative LP (ELP), a…

Developing 21st-century skills among students is crucial for their success in college, future careers, and civic engagement. These skills, commonly referred to as the 4Cs (creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving, communication, and collaboration), require teachers to provide tailored learning experiences. This study investigates the…

Background: Training both pre - and in-service teachers who are capable of planning and enacting engineering design-based science instruction are critical for integrating engineering into K-12 science curricula. Purpose: This study investigates pre-service teachers' efforts to integrate engineering into their lesson plans. Sample: 13 pre-service…

The principle of Science for All emphasizes that every learner, including students with disabilities (SWD), should have equitable opportunities to access and participate in science education. This study explores how science teachers in inclusive schools in the Indonesian context design, present, and assess science lessons based on universal design…

This study was an action research self-study that examined my role as a teacher educator supporting a resident teacher in learning how to design inquiry-based culturally responsive science lessons. I explored my own growth in understanding how to act as a teacher educator to provide appropriately scaffolded support to promote learning for a…

The purpose of this study was to, first, examine the potential of lesson plans (LPs) of preservice science teachers (PSTs, N = 631) as a source for gathering rich data on their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and, second, qualitatively describe PSTs' reasons for the level of data richness in their LPs on PCK. PSTs' handwritten LPs were…