This study explores in-service teachers' attitudes and knowledge about a pressing environmental issue, "global climate change" (GCC), and how these may relate to their classroom teaching. In this work, nineteen teachers from Native American communities attended a professional development workshop that focused on enhancing their…

There is a distance between the power that whole class dialogic discussions (WCDD) may offer to the science class and their use in practice. Teachers' attitudes toward WCDD are part of the problem. The aims of this study were twofold: (a) to examine Taiwanese physics teachers' attitudes toward WCDD by considering cultural perspectives and describe…

The success of science education reform initiatives depends considerably on the teachers. Effective professional development opportunities have been shown to encourage and support teachers in their adoption of inquiry-based teaching practices. In particular, it has been argued that an effective means for science teachers to learn about science…

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…

A mixed-methods research study was designed to examine teachers' knowledge and confidence for implementing a STEM-based problem-based learning (PBL) unit in their 6-12 grade science and math classrooms. Twenty-one teachers (7 in-service and 13 pre-service) participated in an intensive two-week summer workshop during which they engaged in, and then…

This study examines professional development activities provided for mathematics and science teachers in the National Science Foundation's Math and Science Partnership Program by analyzing a cross-sectional sample of over 2000 professional development (PD) activities in the program. Data were gathered from secondary source documents and surveys to…

Few studies demonstrate the impact of teaching chemistry embedded in a context that has relevance to high school students. We build upon our prior work showing that pharmacology topics (i.e., drugs), which are inherently interesting to high school students, provide a useful context for teaching chemistry and biology. In those studies, teachers…

Climate change is occurring, is very likely caused by human activities, and poses significant risks for a broad range of human and natural systems. Each additional ton of greenhouse gases emitted commits us to further change and greater risks. In the judgment of the Committee on America's Climate Choices, the environmental, economic, and…

The best science teachers are not only experts in teaching and knowledgeable about science content, but they are also great at teaching science. They have specialized teaching knowledge, including knowledge of effective pedagogical practices in science, student difficulties with understanding content, and curricular purposes. As a result,…

The purpose of this paper is to describe the model of a mathematics and science staff development cooperative and focus on the evaluation of the mathematics component. The Mathematics and Science Education Cooperative (MSEC) was a comprehensive, long-range staff development program to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics and science at…