Search results for: Science curriculum

The work of this study examines the process of interacting with materials and students while thinking about teaching in order to guide curriculum material designers’ thinking about when and how materials might be helpful for teachers. The study followed a seventh-grade science teacher, who enacted five inquiry-based science units with all 5 of her seventh-grade science classes over a 2-year period. The findings describe the teacher’s interactions with materials written to support teachers learning to teach inquiry science. Findings indicate that this teacher’s ideas developed as she interacted with materials and her students. Information about student ideas, task and idea-specific support, and model teacher language was most helpful.

This study examined preservice teachers’ views of their own cultural values, the cultural values they believed scientists hold, and the relationships of these views to their conceptions of nature of science (NOS). The authors found that from the beginning to the end of the semester, preservice teachers perceived fewer differences between their own cultural values and those they perceived scientists held, though they did not change their own cultural values.

The purpose of this study was to explore science teacher perceptions regarding the most effective professional learning opportunities. This descriptive study surveyed 118 candidates for National Board certification in Adolescent and Young Adult Science from 42 states about their professional learning experiences. Candidates' self‐reports reveal that developing science curriculum, reading scientific literature, and pursuing National Board certification are the three most productive approaches to professional development while education courses and in‐service workshops were identified as least effective.

The article describes Kuhn’s (1970) claim that textbooks are good 'pedagogical vehicles' for the perpetuation of ‘normal science’. However, Collins (2000) has found out a fundamental contradiction with respect to what science could achieve (create new knowledge) and how we teach science (authoritarian). The author claims that despite the reform efforts, students still have naïve views about the nature of science. The author suggests that the teacher by 'unfolding' the different episodes can emphasize and illustrate how science actually works, and this will show to the students that they need to go beyond ‘normal science’ as presented in their textbooks.