Teachers are increasingly expected to incorporate Project-based learning (PBL) pedagogy to teach science. While teachers' definitions and challenges in the use of PBL are widely studied, very few studies focus on the development of a teacher's knowledge of the use of PBL over multiple projects. The current research is an in-depth case study aimed…

Chemish - the scientific language of chemistry - is crucial for learning chemistry. To help students acquire the competencies to understand and use Chemish, chemistry teachers need to have a sound knowledge of teaching and learning Chemish: Pedagogical Scientific Language Knowledge (PSLK). But still, despite the importance of this knowledge, the…

Science teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning are a vital component of teachers' professional competence and are often assumed to impact classroom practice. To date, these beliefs have been predominantly investigated regarding teaching and learning in general or for a particular science subject (e.g., physics). It remains to be determined…

Supporting teacher candidates' learning of coherent and well-ordered content knowledge is one of the most important educational aims in subject teacher education. To reach this aim, teacher educators need suitable tools to enhance the formation of such knowledge. In this article, we present an analytical framework to examine conceptual knowledge,…

The insufficiency of teachers who teach integrative science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses is a major challenge facing science education today. Many teachers lack adequate expertise to combine disciplines and choose effective instructional approaches. This study examines how and to what extent teachers might succeed in…

Evolution is a unifying theory in biology and is challenging for undergraduates to learn. An instructor's ability to help students learn is influenced by pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), which is topic-specific knowledge of teaching and learning. Instructors need PCK for every topic they teach, which is a tremendous body of knowledge to…

The purpose of this study was to explore whether chemistry lesson sequences can indicate the level of teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The sequencing of lessons for teaching chemical bonding is taken as the case for this study. The correct sequencing of concepts in teaching chemical bonding is key to learners' conceptual…

Systematic studies on the effectiveness of in-service teacher professional development (PD) are important for science education research and practice. Previous studies have mostly focused on certain outcomes of PD, for example, the effectiveness of PD for improving teachers' knowledge or students' learning outcomes. This study, however, explores…

This study investigated pre-service science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge in the physics, chemistry, and biology topics. These topics were the light and sound, the physical and chemical changes, and reproduction, growth, and evolution. Qualitative research design was utilized. Data were collected from 33 pre-service science teachers…

Background: Research indicates that physical education teacher education (PETE) has only limited impact on how physical education (PE) is taught in schools. In this paper, our starting point is that the difficulties of challenging the dominating subject traditions in PE could be due to difficulties of challenging certain epistemological…

Knowledge is not simply a collection of facts, principles, and formulas; instead, meaningful knowledge is organized around core concepts that guide peoples' thinking about a subject. Therefore, knowledge organization is recognized as an important component of understanding learning and teaching. In this research, knowledge organization of two…

We investigated how prospective teachers used physics content knowledge when analyzing the talk of elementary children during special activities in an undergraduate physics content course designed for prospective teachers. We found that prospective teachers used content knowledge to reflect on their own learning and to identify students'…

In the Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, there are advanced physics courses designed for the needs of pre-service physics teachers. The starting point is that after introductory and intermediate physics courses, pre-service physics teachers know laws and definitions but the knowledge is quite fragmented and does not form coherent…

The goal of this study was to investigate Turkish science and mathematics teacher candidates' levels of attainment in chemical literacy. These candidates had all studied the new Turkish chemistry curriculum in high school. The sample of the study consisted of 112 students, who were first-year students in the Department of Secondary Science and…

Technological pedagogical content knowledge TPACK refers to the knowledge set that teachers currently use to further improve the quality of their teaching and assist their students in learning. Several TPACK models have been proposed, either for discussing TPACK's possible composition or its practical applications. Considering that…