As teachers' knowledge determines to a large extent how they respond to educational innovation, it is necessary for innovators to take this knowledge into account when implementing educational changes. This study aimed at identifying patterns in the content and the structure of science teachers' knowledge, at a point in time when they still had little experience in teaching a new subject, that is, Public Understanding of Science. We investigated three domains of teacher knowledge: Teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), subject-matter knowledge, and general pedagogical knowledge. A semi-structured interview and a questionnaire were used. From the analysis of the data, two types of teacher knowledge emerged. One of the types was more integrated and more extended in terms of PCK. Teachers who represented this type of knowledge had developed PCK that connected the various programme domains of the new science subject. In both types, PCK was found to be consistent with general pedagogical knowledge. In both types, however, subjectmatter knowledge was similar, and not directly related to the other knowledge domains. Implications for the implementation of the new subject are discussed.
The purpose of this study is to provide insight into shortterm professionalization of teachers regarding teaching socioscientific issues (SSI). The study aimed to capture the development of science teachers' pedagogical content
Science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) has been researched in many studies, yet little empirical evidence has been found to determine how this knowledge actually informs teachers' actions in the classroom. To complement previous quantitative studies, there is a need for more qualitative studies to investigate the relationship between teacher knowledge (as formulated by the teacher) and classroom practice, especially in the context of an educational innovation. In this study we explored a possible way to investigate this relationship in an in-depth and systematic fashion. To this end, we conducted a case study with a chemistry teacher in the context of the implementation of a context-based science curriculum in The Netherlands. The teacher's PCK was captured using the Content Representation form by Loughran, Mulhall, and Berry. We used an observation table to monitor classroom interactions in such a way that the observations could be related to specific elements of teachers' PCK. Thus, we were able to give a detailed characterization of the correspondences and differences between the teacher's personal PCK and classroom practice. Such an elaborate description turned out to be a useful basis for discussing mechanisms explaining the relationship between teachers' knowledge and teachers' actions.
In the context of educational innovation, it is important to investigate how in-service teachers learn and adapt their knowledge to changing professional circumstances. The authors investigated the informal learning of a small number of experienced science teachers in their first few years of teaching a new science syllabus in secondary education in the Netherlands. The storyline method was used to elicit the teachers' perceptions of their learning from experiences at work. The authors focused on three aspects of learning, namely, teachers' learning activities, courses of development, and changed competences. From the results, two qualitatively different ways of learning were identified. Type I represents a revolutionary course of development in a teacher's engagement in mainly individual activities in the working context. Type II symbolizes an evolutionary development in a teacher's participation in both individual and collaborative activities. Implications for professional development initiatives are discussed, as are suggestions for initial teacher education.
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