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 was designed to examine benefits and challenges of teaching through videoconferencing in the context of students' field placement experiences, particularly as it relates to an inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning math and science. In the context of mathematics and science methods courses, preservice teachers, with the…

Critiquing and adapting curriculum materials are essential teaching practices but challenging for many preservice teachers. This study explores the use of educative curriculum materials--materials intended to support both teacher and student learning--to help preservice elementary teachers develop their pedagogical design capacity for critiquing…

In this study, we determined the effectiveness of the inquiry-based Itakura method for mediating alternate conceptions of preservice elementary teachers (N = 38) in an integrated mathematics, science, and technology methods course. We investigated alternate conceptions in the expansion of solids due to heating. There was a significant increase in…

In this study, a Beliefs About Teaching (BAT) scale was created to examine preservice elementary science teachers' self-reported comfort level with both traditional and reform-based teaching methods, assessment techniques, classroom management techniques, and science content. Participants included 166 preservice teachers from three different US…

Preservice and inservice teachers were asked to examine 2 considerably different museum-based worksheets and to choose which, if any, they might use if they were conducting a science field trip for upper elementary or middle school students. The more detailed, survey-oriented worksheet was chosen more frequently than the open-ended,…

This is the report of a qualitative emergent-design study of 2 different Web-enhanced science methods courses for preservice elementary teachers in which an experiential learning strategy, labeled "using yourself as a learning laboratory," was implemented. Emergent grounded theory indicated this strategy, when embedded in a course organized as an…

National and international reform documents have forged blueprints for advancing science education. Coursework for preservice teachers needs to correspond to these documents by providing learning experiences that develop preservice teachers' capabilities to plan and implement reform measures. Using a pretest-posttest design, responses from 59…