The Chemistry Teaching Fellowship Program (CTFP) is offered to graduate students and postdoctoral researchers at the University of Toronto as an opportunity to undertake curriculum development and chemistry education research. Projects are run with faculty supervision and focus on designing new laboratory activities, lectures, tutorials,…

In this work, we present the design, implementation, and initial outcomes of the Climate Academy, a hybrid professional development program delivered through a combination of face-to-face and online interactions, intended to prepare formal and informal science teachers (grades 5-16) in teaching about climate change. The Climate Academy was…

In today's technological age, visions for technology integration in the classroom continue to be explored and examined. Digital game-based learning is one way to purposefully integrate technology while maintaining a focus on learning objectives. This case study sought to understand agriscience teachers' experiences implementing digital game-based…

Instructional design focuses on solving problems in a multitude of contexts. As such, designers are investigators, gathering evidence to optimally design solutions to learning problems within the identified context. The challenge described in this case study was the need to create an educational activity to promote interaction and collaboration…

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…

Teaching outdoors has been established as an important pedagogical strategy; however, science classes rarely take place outside. Previous research has identified characteristics of teachers who have integrated out-of-classroom opportunities into their teaching repertoire; yet little is understood as to why teachers make these different pedagogical…

Reform-oriented science teaching with a specific focus on evidence and explanation provides a student-centered learning environment which encourages children to question, seek answers to those questions, experience phenomena, share ideas, and develop explanations of science concepts based on evidence. One of the ways schools have risen to meet the…

This pilot study aimed to address persistent gaps in the research regarding effective professional development models associated with reading comprehension pedagogy in content area classrooms (science). An appropriate instructional model was developed, ("Do-Read-Do") which attempts to embed the explicit teaching of reading comprehension strategies…

The present article analyses the changes in practices, ideas, and attitudes proposed by a group of novice science teachers during a further education teacher training program. The research on which it is based is focused on monitoring the training program and its impact on the participating teachers. The training program has as its starting point…

Community colleges educate almost half of all American undergraduates. These students include but are not limited to under-prepared high school graduates, and individuals who are working full-time while attending school, as well as students of diverse cultural, socioeconomic, and ethnic backgrounds. With such a diverse student population, science…

A lack of research exists about how secondary school science teachers use inquiry-based instruction to improve student learning. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how science teachers used inquiry-based instruction to improve student learning in high school biology courses. The conceptual framework was based on Banchi and Bell's…

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 describes the development of curriculum design expertise from the perspective of a teacher reflecting on a science lesson. His involvement in the research process resulted in a self-determined professional development strategy. The description comes from data collected through lesson observations and an in-depth stimulated recall…

The purpose of this case study was to examine a beginning elementary teacher's development of identity for science teaching from her first year at university, her field experience, and through her first year of teaching. Several kinds of data were collected over a period of 5 years through different sources: interviews, journal entries,…

This article compares the experiences of two elementary teachers, each of whom attended a traditional workshop on the development of conclusions within science notebooks. One teacher continued to expand her learning on this topic by participating in a lesson study group; the other did not. Through a qualitative case study, I explored the impact on…