Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Over the past twenty years much has been written about the knowledge bases claimed to be needed for teaching science. Aspects of this knowledge have changed over the last 20 years because of shifts in curriculum thinking. There is sharply increasing significance for the knowledge bases for science teaching in current trends in school science education. With the development of a standards-based approach to the quality of science teaching becoming increasingly common in the Western world, and phrases such as evidence-based practice becoming the catch-cry of attempts to "measure" such quality, it is timely to look at what constitutes evidence of quality science teaching, on what basis can such evidence be judged and how does such evidence reflect the knowledge basis of the modern day professional science teacher.
The time is ripe for a collection of writings (an edited book) that considers the knowledge bases seen to be required for science teaching. This book will bring together an international group of researchers who have researched and worked with science teachers in a number of ways and at the full range of educational levels/contexts in an attempt to make more explicit what can constitute valid evidence for making judgements about what is quality science teaching.
Synopsis
Forward.- Approaches to considering the professional knowledge base of science teaching, Deborah Corrigan, Richard Gunstone & Justin Dillon.- Blurring the boundary between the classroom and the community: Challenges for teachers' professional knowledge, L onie Rennie.- Didaktik - An appropriate framework for the professional work of science teachers?, Helmut Fischler.- Moving beyond deconstruction and reconstruction: Teacher knowledge-in-action, Alister Jones & Bronwen Cowie.- Making a case for improving practice: What can be learned about high quality science teaching from teacher produced cases?, John Loughran & Amanda Berry.- An approach to elaborating aspects of a knowledge base for expert science teaching, Deborah Corrigan, Richard Gunstone.- Towards a cultural view on quality science teaching, Glen Aikenhead.- Japanese elementary Rika teachers' professional beliefs and knowledge of Rika teaching: How are they indigenized?, Masakata Ogawa.- Chinese teachers' views of teaching culturally related knowledge in school science, Hongming Ma.- Teaching secondary science in rural and remote schools: Developing appropriate pedagogical knowledge and classroom practice, Debra Panizzon.- Argumentation in the teaching of science, Maria Evagorou, Justin Dillon.- Assessment literacy: What science teachers need to know and be able to do, Sandra Abell & Marcelle Siegel.- Supporting technological thinking: Block play in early childhood education, Jill Robbins, Beverley Jane, Jacinta Bartlett.- Re-conceptualizing the teaching of physics for non-majors: Motivations, constraints, and evolutions in curricular change, Sandy Martinuk, Gaalen Erickson, Anthony Clarke.- Developing the knowledge base of preservice science teachers: Starting the path towards expertise, Stephen Keast & Rebecca Cooper.- Teaching science in informal environments: Pedagogical knowledge for informal educators, Lynn Uyen Tran, Heather King.- Knowledge to deal with challenges to science education from without and within, Peter Fensham.