Scientific practices describe behaviors scientists engage in while investigating the natural world. Educators should be aware of different science practice frameworks to better understand their students' progression for learning science practices across the K-20 spectrum. For example, a high school AP instructor would benefit from understanding…

This paper reports on an ongoing professional learning and development (PLD) initiative in New Zealand. The Academy is designed to provide primary and intermediate classroom teachers with the knowledge, materials and support needed for effective delivery of "The New Zealand Curriculum's" science subject area. Specifically, this paper…

The implementation of educational reforms requires behavioral changes from the teachers involved. Theories on successful behavioral change prescribe the following conditions: teachers need to possess the necessary knowledge and skills, form strong positive intentions to perform the new behavior, and have a supporting environment for change.…

Educators across the nation have been responding to the push for content-area literacy instruction in their systems. While the press for higher academic standards has sharpened national focus on the reading of complex, discipline-specific informational texts, educators have been grappling with how to help science, social studies, and vocational…

SMK and PCK are crucial for effective science teaching, yet the amount of subject matter covered in elementary teacher education programs is limited. This exploratory study of ten elementary school teachers focuses on how teachers learned science content from their teaching practice (including preparing to teach, classroom instruction, and…

The goal of this study is to map the current state of research in the field of metacognition in science education, to identify key trends, and to discern areas and questions for future research. We conducted a systematic analysis of 178 studies published in peer-reviewed journals in the years 2000-2012 and indexed in the ERIC database. The…

In educational reform, teaching through socio-scientific issues (SSIs) is considered the best way to promote scientific literacy for citizenship as the goal of science teaching. To bring SSIs into the science classroom, Thai pre-service science teachers (PSTs) are expected to understand the concept of SSI-based teaching and to use it effectively…

Practical work has a long history in science education in the UK. This article explores how the influences of curriculum and assessment policy have shaped practical work over recent years. We argue that, together with changes in teacher training programmes, these influences have weakened science teachers' capacity to meet the challenge of calls…

Many educational researchers across the United States have found that inquiry-based learning (IBL) supports the development of deep, meaningful content knowledge. However, integrating IBL into classroom practice has been challenging, in part because of contrasting conceptualizations and practices across educational fields. In this article, we (a)…

Echoing the current emphasis on examining changes in teacher beliefs, combined with the central role of inquiry in reform, this article argues that science "education" research experiences should hold promise in shaping preservice teachers' beliefs about the role of inquiry in understanding classroom science teaching. The aim of this…

The act of exemplary teaching requires the orchestration of subject matter knowledge and pedagogical knowledge with pedagogical content knowledge. If this last component is not sufficiently present, then we may be quite efficient in presenting students with rote information. If this last component is sufficiently present (and carried out well),…

Science education and the preparation of science teachers have been of great concern over the past two decades. This research investigated the influence of an extended elementary science teaching practicum upon preservice elementary teachers' (N=19) science self-efficacy. It explored both quantitatively and qualitatively the progression of teacher…