"Primary Science Review's" original "Wobbly Bits" series of articles was born back in 1997, after a conversation about this problem at a meeting of the ASE Primary Committee. The conversation turned to primary science teachers' scientific learning journeys. Each one of them could recount a story where they had completely misunderstood an aspect of…

This paper works to shed light on challenges and possibilities of helping teacher education faculty to be competent as international teacher educators. This collaborative self study of a USA teacher educator's international experiences provides ideas that might be considered that will help support teacher education faculty in movement toward this…

The specification of various categories of knowledge that teachers should possess has been a historically consistent feature of moves to professionalize school teaching and to argue for individual teachers' professional autonomy. In this article, I suggest that the ways in which subject knowledge has been treated in research-based recipes for…

This paper is concerned with the process of how subject and pedagogic knowledge emerge through teachers' learning in science. It suggests that problematizing subject knowledge through direct experience of learning in science, particularly in those areas that are known to be difficult, constitutes a productive way of turning a deficit model of…

The goals of the Head Start on Learning Science project include increasing Head Start staff and parents' awareness of the value of science; introducing teachers to integrated, inquiry-based science; and providing follow-up support to teachers and parents. This document is an evaluation report of the program that contains planning, formative, and…

In this study I examined 19 preservice secondary mathematics teachers' solution processes to word problems for which the subtraction or addition of the two given numbers yields 1 more or 1 less than the correct solution. Among the aspects of their solution processes that were examined are: the modeling strategies, the type of errors, and the…

This essay presents a discussion of how the tools and resources of open source education may demonstrably improve education quality. The main tenet of open education is to make educational assets freely available to the public. This is becoming easier and less expensive as network and multimedia technology evolves. Obstacles may stand in the way…

This booklet is an addendum to the conference proceedings of the 20th annual meeting of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (PME 20). It contains three reactions to the research forum: (1) "Mathematizing: The 'Real' Need for Representational Fluency" (R. Lesh); (2) "Mathematics Teacher Development: An Alternative…

Tutoring is not a new idea nor a new practice in the world of teacher education. However, our understanding of how to better use tutoring as a vehicle for applying authentic knowledge and pedagogy is expanding rapidly. The purpose of this article is twofold. First, it provides an overview and rationale of a tutoring-field experience in which we…

This journal is intended for classroom teachers and provides a collection of essays and instructional materials organized around the theme of mathematics and science content knowledge. Articles include: (1) "Watching Ourselves Learn" (Annette Thorson); (2) "Search Smarter!" (Kimberly S. Roempler); (3) "Teacher Education Materials Project" (Joan…

This paper provides a critical analysis of a professional development model that proposes to improve inquiry science instruction by addressing two components of teacher knowledge: pedagogy and science content. Although this represents an improvement over professional development models that focus on a single area of teacher knowledge, this paper…

This discussion focuses upon potential implications of research conducted on preservice teachers' understanding of introductory topics from elementary number theory. Comments interlace three levels of consideration and recapitulate what is striking as some of the most interesting and important findings raised in the presentations, and flesh out…

The last decade has been marked by experimentation with various methods of assessing teaching knowledge, skills, and abilities that are alternatives to the multiple-choice tests and loosely-structured observations commonly used. While there exists a large body of literature on multiple choice tests as a methodology, less technical information is…

Professional development is frequently undertaken as an activity to be done to teachers rather than in collaboration with them; designed to make teachers more effective, with the assumption that they are currently deficient; communicates ideas with an air of expertise and a messianic quality; and assumes universally effective teaching practice…

This paper presents a conceptual framework of teachers' practical knowledge. The researcher examined interview data from 29 Finnish elementary school teachers to identify common features underlying teachers' practical knowledge. The interviews examined teachers' teaching and students' learning activities, social relationships within the…