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…

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…

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…

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.…

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)