The prime purpose of this investigation was to improve Pre-service Chemistry Teachers (PCTs) understanding of reaction related concepts of Aliphatic Hydrocarbons (AHCs). Participants were 12 PCTs selected from a pool of 87 second year PCTs taking Introductory Organic Chemistry course in Arbaminch college of Teachers Education, Southern Nations,…

While it is well established that pedagogies purposefully linking subject matter to students' cultural contexts and prior knowledge can help students learn subject matter, little is known about practices for so doing in undergraduate biology courses enrolling substantial numbers of racially, culturally, and otherwise diverse students. This study…

Analogies have been widely used as tools for teaching difficult science concepts. The purposeful use of appropriate analogies can facilitate analogical thinking and help students develop the necessary transfer skills required for lifelong learning. Analogical thinking facilitates the development of higher order thinking skills among students. In…

Misconceptions are a barrier to understanding biology hence, to promote meaningful learning, it is necessary to overcome these difficulties with the help of different instructional methods rather than traditional instructional methods. Therefore it could be very interesting to find out "how students' prior knowledge of genetics affects…

The present case study explored the teaching belief systems of pre-service science teachers (PSTs), including epistemological beliefs, self-efficacy beliefs, conceptions of science learning and teaching and pedagogical content knowledge. Based on their epistemological scores, three PSTs who were categorised as exhibiting naïve, moderately…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore high school administrators' instructional leadership in math and science. Specifically, the study explored the feedback administrators provided to math and science teachers as part of their instructional supervision. A central goal for this study was to determine how differences in these content…

Despite pressing concerns about the need to prepare high-quality teachers and the central role of teacher educators (TEs) in this process, little is known about how TEs teach about teaching specific subject matter, and how they develop their expertise. This empirical study focuses on the specific expertise that science TEs bring into teacher…

Reform documents have provided a framework for advancing science education (e.g., The Australian National Science Standard Committee, 2002), but omit the need to assess preservice teachers prior knowledge for designing effective learning programs. A pretest-posttest 34-item survey linked to the course outcomes (associated with four constructs)…