Socioscientific issues (SSI) have been found to improve scientific literacy skills among K-12 students. Existing literature shows, however, that elementary preservice teachers are reluctant to implement SSI due to a lack of confidence with subject matter knowledge and knowledge of instruction concerning SSI. Previous research has focused on…

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…

Orchestrating inquiry-based science learning in the classroom is a complex undertaking. It requires fitting the culture of the classroom with the teacher's teaching and inquiry practices. To understand the interactions between these variables in relation to student learning, we conducted an investigation in two different classroom settings to…

Learning progressions, or representations of how student ideas develop in a domain, hold promise as tools to support teachers' formative assessment practices. The ideas represented in a learning progression might help teachers to identify and make inferences about evidence collected of student thinking, necessary precursors to modifying…

We examined curricular orientations that graduate students in science and mathematics fields held as they experienced urban high-school science and mathematics classrooms. We analyzed how these educators (called Fellows) saw themselves, students, teachers, schools, education, and the sense they made of mathematics and science education in urban,…

Reports an interpretive examination of four teachers' use of analogies to teach chemistry. Suggestions for how science teacher education can be informed by case studies of teaching in context, in this instance of analogy-inclusive teaching by four experienced chemistry teachers, are provided. (ZWH)

Teachers who are classified as humanistic'' were perceived by students as using different teaching styles than those classified as custodial.'' The humanistic'' teachers tended to be perceived as using techniques more compatible with the recommendations of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study writers. (AL)

Examines the relationships among instructors' course goals, instructional activities, and students' assessment of their learning of content and writing in writing-intensive undergraduate natural and applied science courses. Finds that instructors are described along a continuum anchored by instructor-as-corrector on one end and…

Studied the relationship of teachers' I/D ratio to their students' achievement and retention of learning in senior high chemistry and junior high general science classes. Concluded that the student score on a standardized achievement test was dependent on the teacher I/D ratio as measured on Flanders scale. (CC)

Explores how the school classroom context influenced the expression of one prospective science teachers' beliefs about science and science teaching. Using the comparative method of data analysis, four interrelated categories of a student teacher's experience were generated: (1) beliefs about teaching science; (2) constrained teaching and…

Describes a study in which the Predicted Role Measure (PRM) was found to be a predictive instrument for separating preservice teachers into activity-centered and textbook-centered elementary science teachers. Using Cattell's 16-Personality Factor Questionnaire, a significant difference was also found between the personality profiles of the two…

Subjects (N=41) were randomly assigned to one of two groups defined by the teacher's clarity in a genetics lesson: low-clarity versus high-clarity. Subjects rated lesson presentation and completed a test on content. The high-clarity group perceived lessons as significantly clearer and achieved more than the low-clarity group. (DS)

Studied the effectiveness of using checklist-structured observations as a self-improvement technique for modifying teachers' verbal behaviors in the classroom. Concluded that significant changes were found in analyzing pre- and post-treatment audiotape recordings of participating teachers' regular classes. (CC)

The two-phase study was designed to (1) create a means whereby preservice teachers could lengthen the time they allow for a student to respond after posing a question; and (2) to study the relationship of want-time as an independent variable and dialogue measure, as a dependent variable. (RE)