Earth Systems Science (ESS) is emerging rapidly as a discipline and is being used to replace the older earth science education that has been taught as unrelated disciplines--geology, meteorology, astronomy, and oceanography. ESS is complex and is based on the idea that the earth can be understood as a set of interacting natural and social systems.…

Teachers' subject and pedagogical knowledge requires an understanding of the relationship between various elements, rather than thinking of them in isolation. In order to teach in a given discipline, the teacher must have knowledge of the subject, an understanding of the best teaching strategies for presenting the content, and knowledge of the…

Students need to achieve automaticity in learning mathematics without sacrificing conceptual understanding of the algorithms that are essential in being successful in algebra and problem solving, as well as in science. This research investigated the relationship between science-contextualized problems and computational fluency by testing an…

This paper reports data from a larger study into the ways in which Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) students engaged in professional learning during teaching practice (TP) in Ireland. The study comprised one umbrella case study of Greendale University, schools and PETE students that consisted of five individual cases: tetrads of PETE…

Cell phones are ever-present in daily life, yet vastly underused in the formal science classroom. The purpose of this study was to implement a novel learning tool on cell phones, Augmented Reality Games, and determine how the interaction influenced preservice teachers' content knowledge and self-efficacy of cell phone use in schools. Results show…

The purpose of this study was to determine how pedagogical content courses taken during teacher education programs affect the pre-service teachers' attitudes toward teaching profession. 239 secondary school science and Mathematics (Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics) pre-service teachers participated in the study and "Teaching…

Constructivism posits that the teacher's role is to help their students to actively construct new understanding for themselves. Diagnosis of students' prior understanding followed by carefully planned teaching sequences enables learners to grasp hitherto unknown concepts. Assessing whether they can then apply their new knowledge in new contexts…

In this paper, we report on (1) how preservice secondary mathematics teachers (PSMTs), who had experiences doing and practice-teaching mathematics in a technology-rich environment, subsequently used this technology when planning lessons and (2) how the use of technology affected other aspects of the PSMTs' quality of classroom life. These results…

Our field is ushering in a new generation of teachers who need experiences that will prepare them to acknowledge the multiple worldviews of the diverse student population they will teach. For pre-service teachers working in urban under-resourced classrooms, constructing alternative practices rooted in critical ideology that honors their students'…

The Relevance of Science Education project (ROSE, 2009 and 2004) has indicated a lack of motivation towards schools science. Unfortunately, the questionnaire ROSE used did not include questions on History and Philosophy of Science (HPS). The History and Philosophy in Science Teaching (HIPST) project is dedicated to inserting that perspective into…

Multicultural therapist training is greatly based on the competency areas of knowledge, skills, and awareness (Arredondo et al., 1996; Arredondo et al., 2005; Sue et al., 1982; Sue et al., 1992). Developing therapists' awareness of their own assumptions, values, and biases, has shown to be a complicated and elusive process (Collins & Pieterse,…

Despite considerable focus on evolution knowledge-belief relationships, little research has targeted populations with strong content backgrounds, such as undergraduate degrees in biology. This study (1) measured precertified biology and non-biology teachers' (n = 167) knowledge of evolution and the nature of science; (2) quantified teacher…

In this article, the author explores one issue that he believes is central to the preparation of teachers to teach in democratic societies: the question of who should prepare teachers to do this important work. Currently, there are basically two general approaches to the preservice education of teachers in the United States despite all the program…

Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), since its inception as teacher-specific professional knowledge, has been researched extensively. Drawing on a wide range of literature, this paper seeks to clarify how the potential offered by PCK could be utilised to further develop science teacher education. An analysis of PCK models proposed by various…

Ask a parent, politician, or school board member to describe the ideal qualifications of a math teacher, and most would probably rank having a college major in that subject high on the list. Yet when it comes to improving student learning in elementary and middle school, research shows that the value of that academic credential is limited--at…