Elementary teachers' pedagogical content knowledge for teaching the nature of science

Abstract

Although teacher educators have achieved some success in improving teachers' understanding of the nature of science (NOS), helping teachers teach NOS has proved a much greater challenge. Currently, there are few examples in the literature of teachers who effectively teach NOS, and fewer still that rely on student outcomes as a measure of teachers' effectiveness. Much remains to be understood regarding the sources, nature, and development of teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in regard to NOS. Using S. Magnusson, J. Krajcik, and H. Borko's (1999) framework, we examined the PCK for NOS of three elementary teachers who have been successful in improving their students' understanding of NOS. We relied on interviews, questionnaires, classroom observations, and classroom artifacts collected over a 3-year period to characterize their PCK for NOS. Although each had robust knowledge of instructional strategies for teaching NOS, teachers lacked the requisite knowledge of assessment that would provide a feedback loop to support continued development of their knowledge of learners and lead to improvement in their teaching of NOS. Our findings highlight a need for professional development that focuses

Nature of Science in the Science Curriculum: Origin, Development, Implications and Shifting Emphases

“…A further raft of studies point to the key role played by teachers' NOS-oriented pedagogical content knowledge, curriculum awareness, confi dence, self-effi cacy and access to appropriate curriculum resources (Hanuscin et al 2011 ;Ryder and Leach 2008 ). My own views on how we can build and implement a curriculum to achieve enhanced levels of NOS understanding are discussed at length in Hodson ( 2009 ).…”

From black and white to shades of grey

“…& A lack of teaching resources that can be embraced as adequate by the teachers (Abd-El- Akerson and Hanuscin 2007;Hanuscin et al 2011;Lakin andWellington 1994, Höttecke andSilva 2011) & NOS considered as an add-on even by teachers who regard it as important (Abd-El- Clough and Olson 2012;Höttecke and Silva 2011) & Teachers are unaccustomed to, and insecure regarding, the NOS teaching format and strategies (Bell et al 2000;Herman et al 2013;Lakin and Wellington 1994, Henke and Höttecke 2015, Leden et al 2015 & Concerns for students' abilities to deal with abstract or controversial issues (Abd-El- Aikenhead 2006;Brickhouse and Bodner 1992;Hodson 1993;Lederman 1995;Leden et al 2015) & Concerns for the Bgood students^who are accustomed to memorize facts for the test (Aikenhead 2006;Leden et al 2015) Research studies have examined what teachers perceive as opportunities with NOS teaching to a surprisingly small extent. One interesting exception is Herman et al (2015) who connected the Btype of utility value^expressed by the teachers to their level of NOS implementation.…”

La comprensión de un aspecto de la naturaleza de ciencia y tecnología: Una experiencia innovadora para profesores en formación inicial

“…Las actividades de desarrollo del currículo (diseño, planificación, elaboración y aplicación de secuencias de enseñanza-aprendizaje) constituyen aprendizajes básicos para el conocimiento didáctico del contenido de materias de ciencias en la formación del profesorado e influyen sobre sus prácticas educativas (Hanuscin, Lee y Akerson, 2011;Lederman, 2008;Tsai, 2007). En este estudio, un conjunto de estas actividades, habituales en la formación del profesorado, se han organizado, aplicado y complementado a través de la reflexión didáctica, para mejorar la comprensión del profesorado en formación inicial, acerca del tema de NdCyT sobre toma de decisiones científicas en investigaciones.…”

“…La reflexión cualitativa del profesor sobre sus propias respuestas ratifica, por un lado, la validez de las respuestas al cuestionario escrito, y por otro, ayuda a comprender los múltiples matices del pensamiento del profesorado sobre NdCyT (Abd-El-Khalick, 2006;Hanuscin, Lee y Akerson, 2011). Al tiempo, el contraste entre la evaluación cuantitativa y la evaluación cualitativa realizada por el profesor sobre su propia ejecución, apunta un aspecto muy importante para la investigación de NdCYT, a saber, el riesgo de las evaluaciones de NdCyT puramente cualitativas, que se basan en seleccionar e interpretar algunas frases redactadas por los estudiantes (Abi-El-Mona y Abd-El-Khalick, 2011).…”