To strengthen the professional development of its science university professors with academic assignments in scientific careers, a Colombian higher education institution commissioned the design of a six-month training programme. The aim was to help professors change their teaching practices toward more student-centred models. The purpose of this…

This article examines the impact of a professional development program aimed at encouraging high school teachers to include more modern physics in their enacted classroom curricula through improved content and pedagogical knowledge. The program was implemented with 17 high school physics teachers (three were the focal point of this study) in…

This article presents the evaluation of a two-year action research project in biology and mathematics teaching involving a primary school and a university in Sweden. The aim of the study was to contribute knowledge about a school-university intersection as a professional learning arena. The teachers' conceptions about the project implementation,…

With performativity and evidence-based teaching, the development of action research (AR) by teachers brings tensions and challenges as teachers move outside their comfort zones and question their practice. This article draws on a small-scale research study developed with teachers. It was funded as part of a professional development initiative by a…

We offer insights for using design-based research (DBR) as a model for constructing professional development that supports curriculum and instructional knowledge regarding science and literacy integration. We spotlight experiences in the DBR process from data collected from a sample of four elementary teachers. Findings from interviews, focus…

Evaluation of professional development (PD) has traditionally been composed of summative and formative feedback, and has focused on assessing the extent to which the PD impacts participating teachers' knowledge, beliefs, and practices. This study establishes an additional purpose for PD evaluation--as "educative opportunities" for…

There has been a call for effective professional learning to improve the quality of the science teaching of primary teachers in Australia. It seems from the literature that teaching science effectively is a challenging endeavour for primary teachers. Professional learning based on the instructional core framework is an emerging approach that has…

This paper reports a study that explored science teacher learning of pedagogical content knowledge and the factors that facilitated this in their workplace, schools. The research design employed interview and observation in two secondary school science departments in England. A seven part construct of PCK was used to analyse all data and the…

This article explores the effects of continuing professional development (CPD) on teachers' and pupils' experiences of learning and teaching science in primary classrooms. During 2006-2007, quantitative and qualitative data were elicited from two primary teachers in Scotland using questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and video-stimulated…

This article explores the views and actions of four science teachers participating in a collaborative action research project. A qualitative case study approach was used to describe and analyze the development of these teachers. This development initially involved the teachers critically comparing their extant practices to current developments in…

This article reports the experiences of three retrained teachers as they made the transition to science teaching. The stories of their survival in a new school context were constructed from data obtained in an evaluation of the retraining program and interpreted using a reflexive methodology. These mature professionals had developed an approach to…