Despite the importance of developing elementary science teachers' content knowledge for teaching (CKT), there are limited assessments that have been designed to measure the full breadth of their CKT at scale. Our overall research project addressed this gap by developing an online assessment to measure elementary preservice teachers' CKT about…

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.…

This multicase study examines how three teachers enacting ambitious instruction purposefully designed and used their classroom as a "place of science" in which students participated in disciplinary practices. A place of science is a location that shapes the norms, values, and history of disciplinary practices. Each participant's…

The purpose of this research was twofold. The first was to investigate the development of preservice teachers' knowledge base for science teaching on the rate of reaction topic within the 14-week content representation (CoRe)-based mentoring-enriched practicum course. In this course, CoRe design was used as a form of lesson planning and…

This study examined 188 preservice science teachers' professional growth along three dimensions--self-regulated learning (SRL) in a science pedagogical context, pedagogical content knowledge, and self-efficacy in teaching science--comparing four learner-centered, active-learning, peer-collaborative environments for learning to teach higher order…

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…

There is evidence that science teachers give naive responses to direct questions about the nature of science. However, there is also evidence that such responses underpredict the more sophisticated knowledge that teachers may use in classroom situations. The purpose of this study was to characterize the informal ideas used by teachers in…

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…

This longitudinal study explored change in teachers' knowledge of subjects they teach from preservice training through 17 years of professional experience. It followed secondary school science teachers in Australia, through sequences of individual interviews in which change in content knowledge (mainly energy-related) was probed primarily via…

Proposes a model of teacher knowledge situated in school science teaching that is the synthesis of a number of models, metaphors, and notions. Uses this model to examine the ways in which science teachers design and implement science lessons. Indicates that the model is sufficiently robust enough to provide simple and rapid yet effective and…

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)

Examines the role that students' science concepts play in promoting teachers' professional growth. Journals and portfolios showed that students' science knowledge served as discrepant events that evoked teachers' dissatisfaction with their own content knowledge and motivated them to reconsider their pedagogical practices. (Author/CCM)

Examines the teaching journal of a first-year chemistry teacher to understand how teachers create professional identities. Focuses on three dilemmas related to feeling like a student versus the expectation to act like an adult, wanting to care for students rather than be tough, and feeling incompetent in the subject matter. Contains 47 references.…

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.…

Presents a study that examines the beliefs of teachers (N=24) and their interpretations of a two-week summer institute intended to change their treatment of scientific knowledge and assessment strategies at the classroom level. Contains 31 references. (DDR)