On a recent trip to a local art museum with a group of undergraduate teacher candidates, the author was impressed by the presentation made by the group facilitator. She showed the teacher candidates a slide of a painting found in the gallery and asked the students to take a few minutes to examine it and be prepared to share what they found…

Lack of confidence towards science is a major factor in the avoidance of teaching science at elementary school. This paper reports the results of a survey that asked 28 pre-service elementary teachers what they believed contributed to their confidence towards science and the teaching of science during a second year science unit where an holistic…

Describes a project in the United Kingdom designed to produce materials for methods courses. (BR)

This document presents a description of a science education program which provides experiences in the affective, cognitive, and psychomotor domains. The methods course has no required textbook and is an activity-oriented course, requiring students to become acquainted with three of the national elementary science projects: Elementary Science Study…

The development of a scientifically literate society is dependent upon effective communication. Accordingly, the Benchmarks for Science Literacy, which defines science literacy goals for United States students K-12, contains an entire section on communication skills. One of the skills described in the Benchmarks is that "students should be able to…

Describes the conduct of a new course in Peru designed for physics teachers at the university level with emphases upon learning of up-to-date teaching and laboratory techniques. Included is a description of local degree programs and basic philosophy underlying teacher education. (CC)

Describes the content of a one year post-degree program of science teacher education that utilizes flexible scheduling of required courses and integration of curriculum, methods, philosophical analysis, educational psychology and sociology. (AL)

Reports on selected opinions of secondary science methods instructors and their students concerning the new science courses and inquiry teaching, based on the Research on Science Education Survey conducted with 37 colleges and universities from October 1967 to March 1968. (PR)

Describes the continuation of a project that used collaborative technologies to team teach elementary science methods courses across three different public institutions. Student outcomes for the project indicate positive change in comfort with technology and understanding science education issues. (Author/MM)

Explains how to use microteaching in an effective way to have students in methods classes plan, teach, and evaluate a lesson presented to a small group of their peers. (PR)

This paper, based on an interactive session, offers the perspectives of three male professors, all of whom teach science methods classes consisting primarily of female prospective teachers. These three men have engaged the matter of gender-inclusive education in their classrooms and have struggled with the ramifications of that engagement. It is a…

Reports on conference of public school and university personnel in which the improvement of preparation of prospective science teachers was the topic. Lists of suggestions are divided into the categories (1) secondary science methods courses, (2) student teaching, and (3) university-public school relationships. (CP)

Describes a course, taught in Jamaica, for prospective high school physics teachers that stresses concepts which are difficult to teach and easily misunderstood by students. Also stresses preparing high school students to take national exams and teaching physics in poorly equipped laboratories. (MLH)