Since many preservice teachers (PTs) display anxiety over teaching math and science, four PT educators collaborated to better understand the PTs' background experiences and attitudes toward those subjects. The research project provided two avenues for professional learning: the data collected from the PTs and the opportunity for collaborative…

Informal science education institutions (ISEIs), such as museums, aquariums, and nature centers, offer more to teachers than just field trip destinations--they have the potential to provide ideas for pedagogy, as well as support deeper development of teachers' science knowledge. Although there is extensive literature related to teacher/museum…

This study examined the beliefs and rationale pre-service elementary teachers used to choose activities for upper-elementary students in a 1-week intensive science camp. Six undergraduate elementary pre-service teachers were observed as they took a semester-long science methods class that culminated in a 1-week science camp. This qualitative,…

In this manuscript, we use a "learning to notice" framework to suggest that preservice elementary teachers bring a range of interpretations and responses to their students' funds of knowledge and science teaching and learning. By examining data from three sections of an elementary methods course, we find that preservice teachers recognized…

This study explores the influence of religion as a support factor for a group of Latina and African-American women majoring in science. The current project is a part of a larger study that investigated persistence factors of underrepresented woman who were enrolled as science majors at United States colleges and universities. This paper focuses on…

While some researchers have argued for science classrooms that embrace open-inquiry by engaging students in doing science as scientists do (cf. National Research Council [NRC] 1996; Driver et al. in "Sci Educ" 84:287-312, 2000; Windschitl et al. in "Sci Educ" 87(1):112-143, 2008), others have argued that open-inquiry is impractical, ineffective,…

In order to understand how prospective teachers develop knowledge for teaching, researchers must identify the types of knowledge that are integral to effective science teaching. This case study investigated how 4 prospective secondary biology teachers' science teaching orientations, knowledge of science learners, and knowledge of instructional…

This study explored 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). Parallel assignments in a foundations of early childhood education and a science methods course required preservice teachers to explore…

This study explored practicing elementary school teacher's conceptions of teaching in ways that foster inquiry-based learning in the science curriculum (inquiry teaching). The advocacy for inquiry-based learning in contemporary curricula assumes the principle that students learn in their own way by drawing on direct experience fostered by the…

The impact of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandated state science assessment on elementary teachers' beliefs about teaching science and their classroom practice is relatively unknown. For many years, the teaching of science has been minimized in elementary schools in favor of more emphasis on reading and mathematics. This study examines the…

In this study, pre-service teachers facilitated stations at a family science night as a context to learn to identify, assess, and use children's science ideas. Assessment is already difficult in K-12 classrooms. Assessing learning in informal learning environments adds the complication that participation is largely voluntary. As such, controlling…

In this study, pupils' understanding of chemical change was investigated in relation to two cognitive variables: logical thinking and field-dependence/field-independence. The participants (N = 99) were sixth-grade elementary school pupils (aged 11/12), which were involved in two different tasks related to combustion. The pupils were tested for…

This study explored American high school and middle school science teachers' attitudes toward the use of standardized testing for accountability purposes, their justification for the attitudes they hold and the impact of standardized testing on their instructional and assessment practices. A total of 161 science teachers participated in the study.…

There are some small urban high schools that have high levels of student engagement in science. However, much of the science education research and student teacher placement in urban areas is done in large, somewhat dysfunctional schools. Those who have created these effective environments for science show that it is only in the "whole school…

This review brings together the literature on inquiry-based teaching and learning and science teacher professional development (PD). We present a targeted critical review of research focused specifically on the nature of PD programs purported to emphasize inquiry. Our review analyzes the features of each program and critiques the reported outcomes…