The purpose of this study was to examine practicing teachers' understandings of the use of misconceptions in building new scientific knowledge as well as their personal understandings of common scientific misconceptions. 91 participants from a non-random sample of teachers who teach science at the grades 5 through 8 levels completed a paper-based questionnaire of which 6 were subsequently interviewed. The data collected included demographic data (gender, age, teaching experience, and educational background), a self-assessment of personal content knowledge, a survey of classroom practices utilized, and a series of science ideas that were evaluated as either true or false by the participants. Various relationships between these data were identified. It was found that age and teaching experience had no effect on participants' abilities to identify misconceptions. In addition, participants with more scientific backgrounds were better able to identify misconceptions. Conclusions include the need for explicit instruction about the role of misconceptions in preservice teacher education and through improved professional development opportunities for science teachers.

Ph.D. / Evolution of life as a scientific theory was introduced officially into the South African life sciences grade twelve curriculum in 2008. This presented an opportunity to investigate how teachers could incorporate teaching strategies, involving the use of narratives and concept cartoons, into their pedagogical content knowledge to encourage the use of higher-order thinking skills and deep learning about evolution, a new topic in the curriculum. Little research has been done on how narratives and concept cartoons contribute to the development of higher-order thinking skills in teachers and their ability to use these teaching strategies to effect a better conceptualization of evolution. A mixed methods research design was adopted to establish generalizations about the teachers’ higher-order thinking skills as well as to explore their individual worldviews about evolution as a scientific theory and their perceptions about the controversy between science and religion. The quantitative and main part of the study involved a (quasi)experimental format based on interventions focusing on workshop presentations using either narratives or concept cartoons. A pre-test and post-test format was used to measure the effect of the treatments. A rubric, based on the Piagetian levels of concept development, was designed to transform qualitative responses into quantitative data. The responses to five open-ended questions of a questionnaire were analyzed using the Wilcoxon Signed Rank test and the Mann-Whitney U test. The smaller and supportive phase of the study involved categorizing and then analyzing qualitative data, derived from different artifacts and responses to the questionnaire, in order to establish how the teachers’ worldviews influenced their perceptions of the evolution of life, the nature of science and religion. An embedded concurrent mixed methods design allowed for the simultaneous generation and collection of quantitative and qualitative data. The findings were integrated and mixed to give a clearer and more global picture not only of the teachers’ ability to use higher-order thinking skills but also to reflect their conceptual ecologies of evolution.

M.Ed. (Tertiary Didactics) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Ed. (Science Education) / South Africa is one of the global hotspots of both biological and ethnic diversity. Southern Africa is rich in angiosperm species, and the angiosperm species count is considered to be 21,817. The traditional medicinal systems of different cultural groups and their herbal, animal and mineral materia medica have ancient origins which may date back to Palaeolithic times. Indigenous knowledge (lK) and cultural practices in many areas of the country provide learners with a good "entry" into the scientific world. A true constructivist teacher will realise the importance of building new knowledge on learners' existing knowledge. This will show the learners how relevant science is to our daily lives. It might also open future career opportunities, and develop learners' entrepreneurial skills. This fact is acknowledged by the new curriculum (the National Curriculum Statement), and Life Sciences teachers are expected to infuse their teaching with indigenous knowledge. When these new policies were created, policy makers focused on the what of desired educational change, and unfortunately neglected the how (Rogan & Aldous, 2009). Teachers often have limited understanding of the curriculum changes. The textbooks used in class give little or even no proper information about indigenous knowledge. Whereas some textbooks still provide information on IK in the form of examples, hardly any attention is given to teaching strategies and practical work that can be done in the classroom. My study highlights the problem that many teachers simply ignore IK, due to their lack of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) in this regard, and the lack of guidance and support from the Department of Education. As many teachers were trained in the "old method" of teaching and not in the pedagogy prescribed by the National Curriculum Statement (NCS), many of them do not have specific knowledge about the indigenous knowledge that they need to impart to learners. Those who are fortunate enough to have sufficient knowledge of indigenous knowledge systems (IKS), often lack the pedagogy. Once again, we need to go back in history to understand why teachers find it so difficult to teach IK. In the apartheid era it was a taboo to mention traditional medicine in the classroom. Our traditional medicine was often replaced by Western medicine. Black South Africans were robbed of their identity. Under the Suppression of Witchcraft Act, indigenous belief systems were undermined and in most cases referred to as pagan (heathen) belief systems. As a result, indigenous belief systems were viewed as something that derails society. This study focuses on a number of issues related to the incorporation of indigenous knowledge in the classroom. One of the main concerns is teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Two additional factors also make the introduction of indigenous knowledge difficult in the classroom: (a) the multicultural South African society (whose IK should be entertained?), and (b) the nature of science, and many teachers' perception that the introduction of IK would constitute pseudo-science. The question arises whether it is possible to introduce indigenous knowledge in a scientific way in the Life Sciences classroom. Is an IK focus compliant with the syntactical nature of Life Sciences, namely an emphasis on inquiry-based approaches? A second question arises: Are South African teachers able to teach IK in such a context? As mentioned above, many Life Sciences teachers find it difficult to follow heuristic approaches where learners engage with discovery learning making observations, formulating hypotheses, developing experimental designs, collecting and interpreting data, and making conclusions. Now, in addition to this challenge, teachers need to follow such a pedagogy to investigate indigenous knowledge claims. It is just so much easier for teachers to rely on "chalk and talk" approaches, as a study of Petersen (2010) reveals...

This naturalistic case study documents a year long Teacher Professional Development Program (TPDP) initiated by an elementary school staff in British Columbia. The TPDP was designed to enable the teachers to meet their objective of making science instruction more frequent, more active, and more student-centered in all classrooms in the school. This case study addresses two research questions: 1. What attributes of the Teacher Professional Development Program supported the school's "objective" for improved science instruction? 2. How did the outcomes of the Teacher Professional Development Program relate to the achievement of the school's educational objective? The site for the research was a kindergarten - Grade 7 school. A university professor and the researcher were invited to visit the school on a bi-weekly basis during one school year (1993-94) to facilitate a series of science workshops involving the entire teaching staff and to provide classroom support to teachers. Teachers were offered university course credit for their participation. This case study draws on qualitative data including: audio recordings of planning/debriefing sessions, workshop discussions, and interviews with participants; field notes and written observations; a survey of teachers' opinions about the TPDP; and documents relating to the school accreditation process in 1994-95. The results of the study show that teachers, administrators, and parents were satisfied that the school's objective for science instruction was met, and that the TPDP contributed significantly to this outcome. The study identifies TPDP attributes which supported the school's objective with reference to the teachers and their context, the planning process, and the organizational context, that is, the school. This study contributes to our understanding of teacher professional development by examining an alternative to more common approaches to elementary teacher science inservice in British Columbia, which are typically short-term, designed by inservice providers with little input from participants, and removed physically and conceptually from the classroom. Such inservice experiences often lack administrative and collegial support for the teacher who attempts classroom implementation. While this study relates to science, the discussion is relevant to other curriculum areas such as fine arts or physical education. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

Despite the positive outcomes for inquiry-based science education and recommendations from national and state standards, many teachers continue to rely upon more traditional methods of instruction This causal-comparative study was designed to determine the effects of the Inquiry Institute, a professional development program that is intended to strengthen science teachers' pedagogical knowledge and provide practice with inquiry methods based from a constructivist approach. This study will provide a understanding of a cause and effect relationship within three levels of the independent variable-length of participation in the Inquiry Institute (zero, three, or six days)-to determine whether or not the three groups differ on the dependent variables-beliefs, implementation, and barriers. Quantitative data were collected with the Science Inquiry Survey, a researcher-developed instrument designed to also ascertain qualitative information with the use of open-ended survey items. One-way ANOVAs were applied to the data to test for a significant difference in the means of the three groups. The findings of this study indicate that lengthier professional development in the Inquiry Institute holds the most benefits for the participants.

While No Child Left Behind ushered in the age of the "highly qualified" teacher, accountability focus has been shifted to the "highly effective" teacher, defined as teacher impact on student achievement. The Science Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) is used to judge the adequate yearly progress of students in Texas public schools. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of teacher factors (i.e., ethnicity, gender, teaching experience, university selectivity, certification route, National Center for Education Statistics Locale/Code, number of science content and pedagogical course semester credit hours, grade point average for science content and pedagogical coursework) on student achievement using the eighth grade Science TAKS. The primary dependent variables were students' five objective scores and their overall scores on the eighth grade Science TAKS examination. The sample was 44 eighth grade science teachers and 4,119 students in Texas public schools. Multiple linear regression models enabled examinations of the relationships between teacher quality variables and student achievement. No significant relationships between the variables were found. Small effect sizes for the beta weights and structure coefficients occurred between teachers' science credit hours and TAKS objectives to explain 20% of the variance for TAKS Living Systems and the Environment, 39% of the variance for TAKS Structures and Properties of Matter, and 21% of the variance for TAKS Earth and Space Systems. Teacher experience accounted for 24% of the variance with TAKS Structures and Properties of Matter, and pedagogical credit hours explained 30% of the variance with TAKS Motion, Forces, and Energy. Science GPA explained 31% of the variance for the TAKS Earth and Space Systems objective. Policy makers should examine NCLB assumptions about teacher content knowledge as a significant indicator of teacher effectiveness via student achievement on standardized tests. While measuring content knowledge provides a simple, efficient, and cost effective form of accountability, the small effect size indicated other factors, including teaching practice, need investigation.

O presente trabalho busca compreender como os processos de socialização contribuem para a formação das identidades profissionais docentes dos professores de Ciências egressos do curso de Licenciatura em Ciências da Natureza da Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades da Universidade de São Paulo EACH/USP. O principal referencial teórico que sustenta a pesquisa é constituído por Claude Dubar, que conceitua e fundamenta a construção das identidades sociais e profissionais. Além disso, o trabalho faz uma abordagem sobre a questão das identidades sob a perspectiva dos Estudos Culturais e das discussões suscitadas por alguns de seus teóricos como Stuart Hall e Néstor García Canclini. Para responder a pergunta de pesquisa, foram realizadas entrevistas semiestruturadas com professores de Ciências iniciantes, egressos do curso de Licenciatura em Ciências da Natureza da Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades da Universidade de São Paulo. No que confere à análise dos dados utilizou-se uma metodologia qualitativo-interpretativa de pesquisa tendo como principal referencial metodológico as contribuições da História Oral e da Análise de Narrativas. Os resultados mostram que a construção das identidades profissionais docentes é um processo permeado por uma ampla teia de identidades herdadas e visadas e por tensões e rupturas entre os grupos de referência de origem e os grupos nos quais os professores pretendem se inserir em sua vida profissional. Na escolha pela profissão, parece haver um predomínio de identidades herdadas de gerações anteriores, e uma ruptura com o grupo de origem, enquanto que para permanecer no curso e na profissão docente, os professores utilizam algumas estratégias identitárias vinculadas com o reconhecimento desse grupo de origem. Os estágios obrigatórios parecem ter sido um elemento crucial na hora de decidir pela permanência na profissão docente. Quanto à inserção no mercado de trabalho, parece haver tensões entre os professores novos e sua cultura, por um lado, e os professores mais antigos e a cultura institucional, pelo outro. Os resultados nos conduzem a pensar que, nos processos de formação docente é importante incluir oportunidades de reflexão e de trabalho sobre os processos de socialização, para que o início na carreira e a permanência se tornem o menos problemático possível / This study aims to understand how the socialization processes influence on the construction of professional identities of science teachers who have studied the Natural Sciences Teaching Major at School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities of the University of São Paulo - EACH / USP. The main theoretical framework that supports the research is the socialization theory of Claude Dubar, who conceptualized the construction of social and professional identities starting from socialization processes. Moreover, the work is an approach to the issue of identity from the perspective of Cultural Studies and discussions raised by some of its theoreticians such as Stuart Hall. To answer the research question, semi-structured interviews with beginners Science teachers which have studied the Natural Science Teaching Major at EACH-USP were conducted. Regarding to the data analysis, it was used a qualitative-interpretive research methodology, being the narrative analysis the main methodological approach. The results show that the construction of professional teachers\' identities is a permeate process by a wide web of inherited and target identities and tensions and ruptures between the source reference groups and groups in which teachers plan to insert into your professional life. In choosing the profession, seems to be a predominance of inherited from previous generations identities, and a break from the original group, while to stay the course and the teaching profession, teachers use some identity strategies linked with the recognition of this source group. Required stages appear to have been a crucial factor in deciding the stay in the teaching profession. As for the inclusion in the labor market, there seems to be tension between new teachers and their culture, on the one hand, and the older teachers and the institutional culture, on the other. The results lead us to think that the teacher training process is important to include opportunities for reflection and work on the processes of socialization, so that the early career to become the least problematic possible

The purpose of this study was to determine the sustainability of professional development--teacher utilization of the Science-in-CTE pedagogical model and science-enhanced CTE lessons--one year following the Science-in-CTE Pilot Study. This study included 27 teachers (15 experimental CTE and 12 science) who participated in the Pilot Study in 2009-2010. This study was a partial replication of the Math-in-CTE Follow-up Study and data were collected using a mixed methods approach. Quantitative data were obtained from online questionnaires and qualitative data were collected from personal and telephone interviews. Data found that a majority of the CTE and science teachers voluntarily incorporated portions of the seven-element pedagogical model and 15 science-enhanced lessons into their curricula one year later. Findings suggest that collaborative professional development is an effective method of integrating science content into CTE curricula to enhance student CTE course achievement without reducing the intent of the CTE program.

Today’s modern society is multicultural, school is therefore a meeting place for pupils withdifferent experiences, prior knowledge, and mother tongue. Second language students whohave not yet developed good skills in various subject languages, face several challenges inupper secondary school. To succeed in different school subjects these students need todevelop language that is specialized for each school subject. The purpose of this study is toexamine how social science teachers in the upper secondary school experience and work withsecond language students who have difficulties with content-based language. The appliedmethod in the study is qualitative interviews. The theoretical framework is based on differentconcepts of literacy to analyze the results. The results in this study show that the teachers useboth similar and different methods to develop second language students’ understanding ofconcepts, reading, and writing skills, subject language, and subject knowledge. However,several differences between teachers’ perceptions and approaches are also discerned. Theteachers in this study understand the importance of placing the language in focus within thesubject, however some of the teachers experience difficulties with integrating language andsubject into the teaching.