This case study of a midwestern school district's reform effort explored the treatment fidelity of the Science: Parents, Activities, and Literature (Science PALs) project. Data were collected from the perspectives of three stakeholders: students, school district, and parents. Students' and school district supervisor's perceptions indicated that…

The National Science Education Standards include suggested visions for changing staff development programs for preparing new teachers and working with inservice teachers. Analyzing the visions for the most successful programs precedes the identification of programs that best match the NSES visions. The National Science Teachers Association is…

To provide meaningful science experiences for students, educators need quality science experiences themselves from which to draw. Informal learning contexts, such as museums, are well positioned to provide educators with these professional development experiences. We investigated the impact museum-created professional development experiences had…

The purpose of this study was to monitor the development of teacher personal attribute and school environmental factors at an urban intermediate (years 7 and 8) school in New Zealand as a result of an extended science professional development intervention project. Over a 2-year period, a validated, comprehensive science curriculum delivery…

The authors describe an innovative perspective for the evaluation of professional development programming in science. This perspective focused on a self-critical analysis of the reflective practices developed and used among program participants. This approach ties program quality directly to issues impacting the implementation of curriculum reform…

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of a local systemic change (LSC) project on scientists' practices and beliefs about teaching and learning. A mixed-method design was implemented that consisted of a series of interviews and the administration of the Classroom Learning Environment Survey (paper presented at the annual meeting…

Inquiry Into Life Science is a content biology course expressly for the fulfillment of the General Education life science laboratory course requirement of elementary education majors at this university. The course is modeled on the Teaching Standards and Content Standards of the National Science Education Standards [National Research Council.…

This study examined relationships between conceptual understanding, self-efficacy, and outcome expectancy beliefs as preservice teachers learned science in a constructivist-oriented methods class. Participants included 49 preservice elementary teachers. Analysis revealed that participants increased in self-efficacy, outcome expectancy, and…

A particularly useful pedagogical strategy for beginning a dialogue with prospective teachers about the ways in which their experiences and beliefs shape their development of professional knowledge is writing impressionist tales. Impressionist tales are a form of autobiography that portrays one highly personal perspective on a significant moment…

The National Science Education Standards (National Research Council 1996, "National science education standards." Washington, DC: National Academy Press) and various other national and state documents call for teachers who possess science content knowledge, employ an inquiry approach in teaching, and engage in reflective practices. This paper…

This paper explores new elementary teachers' instructional representations and how these are related to their science subject matter knowledge. One pair of prospective elementary teachers studied here exhibited a well-integrated, principled, and scientifically accurate understanding of the science they were teaching. The other pair exhibited less…

Case studies to investigate the conceptions of teaching science held by three novice teachers participating in an alternative secondary science teacher certification program were conducted, along with the relationships between their conceptions of science teaching and their science teaching practice. Data used to build the cases included the…

In view of the research on education--and subject-related education in particular--that has been conducted in recent years, it would seem useful to describe the current state and future trends of research on science teaching and learning. In the present article, research findings are described, the deficits of science education are analyzed, and…

This study examined the use of digital video editing as the main venue for fostering reflection. The impact of digital video editing technology on preservice teachers' beliefs included shifts in (a) reflections regarding children's thinking, (b) planning and instruction informed by reflection, and (c) notions of teaching expertise and requisite…

The purpose of this study was to examine the student performance and student satisfaction in two courses offered by the University of Minnesota to in-service career and technical education teachers who were preparing to teach occupational programs at the high school or technical college level. The study compared the student performance and…