Research on teacher educators' professional learning has gained increasing interest within science education. Curriculum materials have been suggested as a means of supporting "teacher" learning for several decades but have not yet been examined as a potential tool for supporting the learning of "teacher educators." In this…

Background: In the context of recent research in science education and continued struggles to understand how best to support science teachers, epistemological frames, made up of sets of epistemological resources teachers activate, have emerged as an important focus of research. However, at the time of this writing no research was available to…

The science teacher education community plays a prominent role in teacher preparation programs. Particularly, science methods courses emphasize modeling instructional strategies to promote inquiry-based practices. Integrating appropriate educational technology to enhance and support classroom practices should be embedded in these courses. The…

This study investigated preservice elementary science teachers' TPACK development throughout a science teaching method course. The pretest-posttest control group was used in the study. At the end of the study, a self-reported TPACK measure was administered to the experimental (n=26) and control (n=23) groups. The experimental group learned about…

This research examines the impact of a science methods course on the beliefs of female pre-service teachers (PSTs) in Saudi Arabia. Forty-seven female PSTs enrolled in a diploma of education programme at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University (IAU) took a 16-week science methods course aimed at promoting their beliefs about their own…

With the release of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), assessing K-12 science teachers' self-efficacy in Computational Thinking (CT) is an important research gap to study. Bandura defines self-efficacy as awareness of the individual's potential and capabilities to accomplish a goal. Teaching efficacy beliefs is a significant identifier…

National science education documents emphasize new learning outcomes of elementary students; therefore, the preparation of elementary teachers should be revised to meet these challenges. This article describes how science educators at a large southeastern university developed specialized science training for elementary preservice teachers (EPSTs)…

As teachers are being viewed as critical agents of educational change, conceptions and approaches of how to prepare teachers are changing. Among these changing conceptions of teacher preparation, the kinds of knowledge prospective teachers need to develop so as to be effective at teaching are often at the center of the debates. Pedagogical content…

This study investigated the influence of immersive classroom simulation activities on the development of elementary pre-service teachers in two separate mathematics and science education courses that simultaneously focus on pedagogy and content. Participants submitted written personal reflections about their teaching experiences using the…

New reforms envision ambitious science teaching, which requires a set of knowledge and abilities beginning teachers may not have. To support learning to teach, a practice-based approach has been suggested. This study examines the pathways of four preservice teachers' learning of one science teaching practice, "supporting students to construct…

Early childhood educators teach science to all students, including students with disabilities. Strategies for accommodating students with disabilities in science, including familiarity with equitable frameworks such as Universal Design for Learning (UDL) are therefore a critical aspect of early childhood teacher candidates' pedagogical content…

Science vocabulary knowledge plays a role in understanding science concepts, and science knowledge is measured in part by correct use of science vocabulary (Lee et al. in "J Res Sci Teach" 32(8):797-816, 1995). Elementary school students have growing vocabularies and many are learning English as a secondary language or depend on schools to learn…

This study examined how science teachers' knowledge of research methods, neuroscience and drug addiction changed through their participation in a 5-day summer science institute. The data for this study evolved from a four-year NIH funded science education project called Addiction Research and Investigation for Science Educators (ARISE). Findings…

The purpose of this research was to investigate the viability of partnerships between instructional technology and teacher education faculty in order to promote technology integration in content methods courses. This study also focused on preservice teachers' evolving perception of technology integration through participation in targeted…

Nineteen pre-service and in-service teachers taking a chemistry teaching methods course at a university in Hong Kong were asked to take a diagnostic assessment. It consisted of seven multiple-choice questions about the chemistry of the lead-acid battery. Analysis of the teachers' responses to the questions indicated that they had difficulty in…