The role of emotion during learning encounters in science teacher education is under-researched and under-theorized. In this case study, we explore the emotional climates (ECs), that is, the collective states of emotional arousal, of a preservice secondary science education class to illuminate practice for producing and reproducing high quality…

Teachers often have difficulty implementing inquiry-based activities, leading to the arousal of negative emotions. In this multicase study of beginning physics teachers in Australia, we were interested in the extent to which their expectations were realized and how their classroom experiences while implementing extended experimental investigations…

The Exemplary Practice in Science and Mathematics Education (EPSME) project involved outstanding teachers of science or mathematics from Western Australia. The project's goal was to identify effective practices of exemplary teachers for the purpose of developing programs for improving practices in science classrooms. Thirteen science teachers and…

Presents a case study of the teaching practices of a biology teacher in Western Australia. Identifies practices considered exemplary for analysis by biology teachers and teacher educators. Discusses the methodology of the study and the qualities of exemplary teaching. (CW)

Compares two high school chemistry teachers with two elementary science teachers from case studies from the Exemplary Practice in Science and Mathematics Education Project in Australia. Concludes that both pedagogical and content knowledge are important ingredients for outstanding teaching. (CW)

Presents the case study of a university-level instructor teaching a course in physical science to prospective elementary and early childhood teachers. Concludes that the beliefs of the instructor constrained the enacted curriculum to an extent that gaps between the needs of students and the enacted curriculum were wider at the end of the course.…

Designed to obtain information on the tests and activities in which students engage in science classes, this study focused on the activity structures used by teachers in high school science classes and on the academic work of students. The main component of the study was an ethnographic investigation of 15 science teachers from Perth, Australia.…

Teachers rarely get to see good teaching in the classes of others, usually because they are too busy in their own classrooms. The teaching practices of mathematics and science teachers recognized as good teachers in Western Australia were studied in the hope that other teachers might learn from these findings. Exemplary teachers (n=22) and a…

This book seeks to improve the way science is taught in the elementary school. It suggests that there are three main contradictions that make it difficult for teachers and students to engage in meaningful activities from which understandings result. The central issues in this book are framed in terms of three dichotomies that lead to tensions…

Describes and synthesizes the findings of 11 case studies which comprise the Exemplary Practice in Science and Mathematics Education Study. Reports four assertions in which exemplary teachers used strategies for management, encouraging students to participate, increasing understanding of science and math, and maintaining a favorable classroom…

Described is how an elementary teacher established an environment conducive to learning in her classroom by implementing her own integrated science and mathematics curriculum. The implications for change on the county and state levels are discussed. (KR)

I present theory and research associated with learning to teach science in inner city high schools on the east coast of the United States. I use theories from cultural sociology as a framework to explore how coteaching is enacted in a science teacher education program in which coteachers collaborate with high school students in cogenerative…

Learning environment research should take into account postpositivist ways of thinking to assist students and teachers to construct a more emancipatory learning environment. A critical perspective could lead to research playing a larger role in the transformation of science classroom learning environments. Presented a case study of a middle school…

In cultural historical activity theory, the entities that make a system are not conceived as independent but as aspects of mediated relations. Consequently, an individual, a tool, or a community cannot be theorized in an independent manner but must be understood in terms of the historically changing, mediated relations in which they are integral…