Empirical evidence from the National Education Inspectorate suggested that teachers at the primary school in this study in an island country in the Caribbean have inadequate science content knowledge. Students' average performance on the science Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) has been below 40% for the last 5 years. The purpose of this bounded…

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.…

This paper looks into research aimed to elicit teachers' ideas about science through the development of resources as questionnaires, problematic tasks and interviews. It is focused on how those ideas are conceptualised and how such conceptualisations have been reflected in the methodological approaches adopted and the advantages and disadvantages…

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 purpose of the study was to establish lecturers and student teachers' perceptions of the importance of subject matter knowledge and how these views affected supervision and assessment of pre-service and in-service science teachers at University of Mashonaland (pseudonym) in Zimbabwe. The study was largely qualitative and used group…

This study investigated the influence of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for teaching macroevolution on non-science majors' knowledge of macroevolution and evolution acceptance. The nature and sources of an experienced faculty member's PCK and instruction as enacted PCK (Park & Oliver, 2008) were examined to consider the influence of these…

This article examines Finnish cooperating physics teachers' conceptions of teacher knowledge in physics. Six experienced teachers were interviewed. The data was analyzed to form categories concerning the basis of teacher knowledge, and the tradition of German Didaktik and Shulman's theory of teacher knowledge were used in order to understand the…

This paper describes a module provided to first year elementary participants in a two-year after-degree Bachelor of Education program. The module was specifically designed to address the fact that pre-service teachers can enter the B.Ed. degree with little or no science knowledge. Science experiences were explicitly incorporated into the B.Ed.…

The study reported in this article aimed at exploring what teachers know and do about fostering higher-order thinking skills in teaching science, and how they see themselves involved in achieving this end. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 11 teachers experienced in teaching high school physics, which is considered a…

The goals of the Head Start on Learning Science project include increasing Head Start staff and parents' awareness of the value of science; introducing teachers to integrated, inquiry-based science; and providing follow-up support to teachers and parents. This document is an evaluation report of the program that contains planning, formative, and…

This research examined concerns that primary teachers had in challenging gifted pupils in a normal classroom setting. Research findings in England indicated that children with high ability do not always attain highly, and within the context of primary science education underachievement was often linked to lack of appropriate challenge. The…

Partnering for Elementary Environmental Science, a professional development program developed to enhance teachers' skills and content knowledge in science education, pairs classroom teachers with resource professionals for one year of collaborative instruction. This paper reports part of the evaluation and research related to the program.…

An interview with Susan Loucks-Horsley, director of professional development at the National Research Council's Center for Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Education, explores the importance of good teachers, deficiencies in professional development, rural problems, the importance of high academic standards, how the newer standards differ…

This study sought to determine how experienced language teachers use analogies to help students comprehend a text on the course of their regular teaching routines. It is assumed that analogies constitute one important component of the content of teachers' practical knowledge in the context of reading-comprehension instruction. The framework of the…