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The current national priority for systemic approaches to the reform of science and mathematics education has led to unprecedented interest in research on the efficacy of science and mathematics teacher preparation programs. In response to this priority, a focus on collaborative approaches to educational reform and to research on educational reform resulted in a national collaborative research consortium of insitutions of higher education. The consortium was formed to investigate the following question about secondary science teacher education: What are the perceptions, beliefs, and classroom performances of beginning secondary teachers as related to their philosophies of teaching and their content pedagogical skills? The research design and instrumentation yielded detailed descriptions that elicited knowledge and beliefs held by beginning teachers about science, the nature of teaching and learning, and their philosophy of teaching. An analysis of video portfolios of beginning teachers provided classroom-based evidence of their performance in both subject matter and pedagogical dimensions of teaching. Among the findings from this 3-year exploratory study were that teachers graduated from their teacher preparation programs with a range of knowledge and beliefs about: how teachers should interact with subject content and processes, what teachers should be doing in the classroom, what students should be doing in the classroom, philosophies of teaching, and how they perceived themselves as classroom teachers. Beginning teachers described their practices as very student-centered. Observations of these teaching practices contrasted starkly with teacher beliefs: While teachers professed student-centered beliefs, they behaved in teacher-centered ways. Undertaking intensive, collaborative studies such as the one described in this article, is the beginning of efforts through which the science and mathematics education communities can strive to address the needs of students, teachers, teacher educators, and other stakeholders working to establish a common vision for excellent instruction and systemic, long-lasting reform. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 930 -954, 1999 Albert Shanker, former president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), testified ". . . In an enterprise such as education . . . research is the best hope we have of distinguishing between fads and facts, prejudices and informed judgment, habits and insights. Without systematic inquiry, development, and testing, we will continue to have the same babble of arguments and practices concerning what works or ought to work. Without good research, we will continue on an endless cycle of mistakes . . . an endless reinvention of mousetraps, the same rehashing of controversies, and in the end, the same faltering school system" (AFT conference, 1993). The current national priority for systemic approaches to the reform of science and mathematics education has led to unprecedented interest in research on the efficacy of science and m...

This symbolic interaction study was designed to identify and discover key components about caring science teachers. Grounded theory was generated that emphasizes the notion that caring is important in today's schools and provides insight into what happens in science classrooms. A key pattern that emerged regarding science teachers who are perceived to be caring is that they build a variety of relationships. The kinds of relationships described as caring by the teachers in this study include teacher-student, studentstudent, and teacher-content. The interaction and integration of these three kinds of relationships results in teacher-student-content relationships. The emergence of relationships and illustrations of the importance of these relationships is described herein.

The shortage of qualified teachers, and the quality and quantity of the science taught in precollege institutions are two focal issues in today's national crisis in science education. This article delineates aspects of qualitative research having the potential of providing guidance to change agents in designing effective strategies to mitigate the crisis. A discursive approach to qualitative research involving the method of collecting and simultaneously analyzing data known as “grounded theory” is described. Role theory and schools as organizations composed of interactive subsystems are defined as suitable frameworks within which to analyze data.

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