The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate preservice elementary teachers' science teacher identity development during their participation in the field-based science methods course and a year after. Grounded within the Feiman-Nemser's thematic framework of learning to teach, this study utilized a case study approach aimed to examine…

Preparing students with 21st Century Skills through STEM related teaching is needed, especially at the elementary level. However, most teacher education preparation programs do not focus on STEM education. To provide an exemplary STEM unit, we transformed an inquiry-based unit on moon phases from a traditional science activity into a…

This dissertation explores the post-hoc programmatic outcomes and experiences of participants in a large scale, grant-funded professional development (PD) program. This PD was an immersive, two-year induction program designed to improve state testing scores in science, and support early career science educators as they transitioned into the…

The development of scientifically literate citizens begins in the elementary school. Yet elementary school teachers are ill prepared to teach science (Trygstad, Smith, Banilower, Nelson, & Horizon Research, Inc., 2013). The research base on teacher preparation finds that programs designed to prepare elementary teachers are inadequate in…

This multiple case study investigated how two preservice chemistry teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) representations of behavior of gases progressed in the context of a semester-long chemistry teaching methods course. The change in the participants' PCK components was interpreted with respect to the theoretical PCK learning…

The aim of this multi-case study was to explore the extent and nature of changes in elementary pre-service teachers' beliefs, attitudes, and self-efficacy toward science and science teaching as a result of participating in a science methods course. The study specifically focused on three groups of pre-service teachers based on their varying…

The present article aimed at understanding those unvoiced biases pre-service teachers may have that conflicts with their integration of nature of science in their science lessons. Three senior pre-service science teachers' views on NOS with regard to their decision making on critical incidents and their reflections about how they…

We explored adaptations to an elementary science methods course to determine how varied contexts could improve elementary preservice teachers' conceptions of NOS as well as their ideas for teaching NOS to elementary students. The contexts were (a) NOS Theme in which the course focused on the teaching of science through the consistent teaching…

The case study reported in this paper is part of a larger multiple cross case analysis focusing on pre-service teachers with various initial confidence and attitudes toward science and science teaching. In this paper, the focus will be on one elementary teacher candidate, Lisa, who began the science methods course with a negative attitude and low…

Drawn from the norms and rules of their fields, scientists use variety of practices, such as asking questions and arguing based on evidence, to engage in research that will contribute to our understanding of Earth and beyond. In this study, we explore how preservice teachers' learn to teach scientific practices while teaching plate tectonic…

To examine the notion of environmental education (EE) as context for integrating the elementary curricula, we engaged in a multi-case study analysis (Yin 2009) of two preservice elementary science methods courses that utilized an experiential reflective approach--case one (University A) through a science content focus (i.e., sustainability) and…

In this article, the authors present a case study of a preservice teacher who participated in a two-semester course sequence of elementary science and mathematics methods spanning one academic year. These two courses were taught by the first author and embedded a pedagogical approach grounded in inquiry methods. The purpose of this study was to…

The purpose of this case study was to investigate how pre-service chemistry teachers' science teaching orientations change during a two-semester intervention designed to enhance their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for teaching the nature of science (NOS). Moreover, the way that pre-service chemistry teachers translated their change in…

Using a case study approach, this manuscript describes the professional transformation of Gary--an Anglo, male novice teacher--by focusing on his first two years of teaching in a culturally diverse and economically disadvantaged school. As a participant of a larger hybrid, intervention project with peers, Gary received multiple hands-on and…

Trauma pedagogy occupies an intriguing space within the discourse about effective teaching of culturally and linguistically diverse students, particularly in relation to preservice teacher notions of power. One set of messages received by future teachers strongly advocates for asserting authority within the classroom by taking control via strict…