Preservice preparation courses for elementary teachers of science can provide opportunities to build pedagogical content knowledge. One common concern of preservice teachers is how to cope with a preplanned lesson that does not proceed as planned. Providing opportunities for preservice teachers to experience the unexpected actually immerses them…

This qualitative case study examines one secondary social studies teacher's enactment of her critical constructivist beliefs in teaching for democratic citizenship education. Results are organized around the knowledge, skills, and dispositions addressed, and their consistency with critical constructivism. The teacher's practices were consistent…

This article presents the text of the author's presidential address, delivered at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Annual Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 22, 2009. For the author, the title of this president's address, "Sailing over the Edge: Navigating the Uncharted Waters of a World Gone Flat," calls to…

"Mathematics is more than skills... it is also the excitement of discovery." This is how Derek Holton, one of the contributing authors to this book, defines mathematics. His enthusiasm and energy are echoed throughout by many of the other writers. This is a book to delight mathematics teachers at all stages: experienced and inexperienced;…

The researcher found few studies that explore decisions of social studies teachers as they plan what and how to teach their classes. Over a century, social studies educators have adapted and responded to political, social, and economic changes. From educating immigrants a century earlier to addressing contemporary cross-border issues, social…

Current research indicates that a professional learning community (PLC) is an effective means for helping teachers to bridge the gap between research and practice. A PLC is a team of educators systematically working together to improve teaching practice and student learning. This study evaluated the PLC formed by teachers at a public elementary…

The teaching of science has long been viewed as problematic within primary classrooms across Australia. This study explores the teaching of primary science in an area of rural and regional Australia (the New England Region of New South Wales) where small populations, remote settings and isolation can make the teaching of science and other Key…

This study examines the development of technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge (TPACK) in four in-service secondary science teachers as they participated in a professional development program focusing on technology integration into K-12 classrooms to support science as inquiry teaching. In the program, probeware, mind-mapping tools (CMaps),…

Because technological pedagogical content knowledge is becoming an increasingly important construct in the field of teacher education, there is a need for assessment mechanisms that capture teachers' development of this portion of the knowledge base for teaching. The paper describes a proposal drawing on qualitative data produced during lesson…

This study examines the influence of reading and planning from two differently organized mathematics textbooks on prospective high school mathematics teachers' pedagogical content knowledge and content knowledge of exponential functions. The teachers completed a pretest and two posttests. On the pretest, the teachers possessed an incomplete…

What should constitute knowledge bases that we expect our future teachers to gain related to pedagogically sound technology integration? Employing the Shulman's teacher knowledge base as a theoretical lens, this study examined the complexity of pre-service teachers' "technological pedagogical content knowledge" (TPCK) in the context of…

The teaching of science, especially at pre-college and teacher education levels has undergone tremendous transformation over the years: from teacher-centred transmission to student-centred approaches rooted in constructivism. Whereas constructivism has been charged with all manner of shortfalls, it still can be of benefit to the way physics…

The purpose of our study was that of analysing, starting from literature, the definitions of the following concepts: capacity, skill, and competency, as well as of analysing the competencies they phrased in school curricula and those that teachers phrased. Moreover, we wanted to give appropriate examples. The hypotheses of our study were the…

Engaging primary and elementary students in meaningful, relevant science learning is challenging. PBL is an instructional approach that provides a means to foster meaningful science learning while enhancing teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). This paper reports on the experiences of a teacher inquiry group consisting of five teachers…

In an environment characterised by increasing complexity where teachers need to make sophisticated pedagogical decisions the minimum requirement for teaching in Australian Vocational Education and Training (VET) is a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment (CIV TAA). This paper asks: Does the CIV TAA provide opportunities for participants to…