Science teacher educators (STEs) have key roles in the educational system through their preparation of pre- and in-service science teachers and in implementing future-oriented policy reforms. Given the complexity and importance of their role, what types of knowledge do STEs need? STEs come from a range of backgrounds and there are few systematic…

Despite agreement among teacher educators, scholars, and policymakers on the importance of teachers' subject matter knowledge (SMK), existing models provide limited information about the nature of this foundational component of teacher knowledge. The common assumption is that teachers need to know more about the science subject matter than their…

There is a clear need for valid and reliable instrumentation that measures teacher knowledge. However, the process of investigating and making a case for instrument validity is not a simple undertaking; rather, it is a complex endeavor. This paper presents the empirical case of one aspect of such an instrument validation effort. The particular…

This paper analyzes the pedagogical studies of Finnish and South Korean physics teacher education programs that guide teacher educators to support student teachers' to build readiness for acting as professional teachers in a secondary school classroom. Research on the domains and origin of teachers' professional knowledge provides a framework for…

Over the years, the content knowledge that a teacher holds has been viewed as essential to his or her teaching. As a result, researchers are exploring the content knowledge that teachers hold and those in teacher education are crafting programs to improve the content knowledge of teachers. With this ongoing interest in this area, it is important…

A computer-based simulation, Hazelton High at REST (HHR), with embedded performance-based assessments and Likert-type survey questions was created to assess preservice teacher recognition of racial and gender intolerant behaviors. The simulation was modeled after the Racial Ethical Sensitivity Test (REST), a reliable video-based assessment,…

Teacher Education Programs (TEPs) are intended to prepare students to become qualified professionals in the field of education. Yet, many preservice teachers (PSTs) have difficulty recognizing their new roles, not simply as students in the TEP, but as future educators. As PSTs progress through their coursework, field experiences, and student…

Microteaching is widely used in many countries to prepare trainees for the complexity of the actual classroom environment but has limited use in Turkey. The main objective of this action research was to evaluate and increase in the effectiveness of microteaching, and determine the contribution of microteaching to trainees from their own…

This paper explores the learning of both individuals and organizations within the context of a 3-year professional development program for mathematics and science teachers in a middle school. We propose to extend the notion of awareness from individuals to autonomous systems as a means to study the learning of teachers, mentors, the school, and…

Teacher education programs are responsible for preparing science teachers for today's culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms, which includes preparing them to support students' science learning and language development. Given the rapid growth in linguistic diversity across the country, science teacher preparation for English learners,…

This paper investigates Lebanese grade 7 biology teachers' mathematical knowledge and skills, by exploring how they explain a visual representation in an activity depending on the mathematical concept "Function". Twenty Lebanese in-service biology teachers participated in the study, and were interviewed about their explanation for the…

Despite significant pressure to reform science teaching and learning in K12 schools, and a concurrent call to reform undergraduate courses, higher education science content courses have remained relatively static. Higher education science faculty have few opportunities to explore research on how people learn, examine state or national science…

This purpose of this study is to investigate how the course designed based on constructivist principles has been implemented, what actions have been taken to solve problems and what thoughts have arisen in the minds of teacher candidates with regard to the constructivist learning approach. In this study, an action research was employed which…

This paper reports findings from an ongoing study exploring how the Content Representation (CoRe) design can be used as a tool to help chemistry student teachers begin acquiring the professional knowledge required to become expert chemistry teachers. Phase 2 of the study, reported in this paper, investigated how collaboration with school-based…

The author's research on beginning science teachers stemmed from her interest in the teaching abilities of her newly graduated students. She was certain that the teachers who participated in her classes were adequately prepared to plan and enact sound science lessons. As she followed her new graduates through their first years of teaching, the…