Explains the rationale, program specifics and initiatives for the preparation and development of staff, curriculum, instructional support, and research for science education in the United States. Includes total program cost for each. (RT)

A major goal of any teacher education program is to prepare prospective teachers to know what to do in a classroom of children and how to do it effectively. The purpose of this research study was to examine the level of first-year teachers' science content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge in order to evaluate the…

This study focuses on the need to know more about Nevada science teachers, their current teaching situations, their educational and experience backgrounds, their needs, and their opinions. Questionnaires were mailed to all 471 Nevada educational personnel assigned to teach science classes in the spring of 1990. The number of respondents was 345.…

Renewed interest in public schools by the private sector led to the idea of "partnerships" between education and business. This digest focuses on partnerships where businesses, government agencies, or university laboratories employ teachers during the summer months as a form of professional development and on the subsequent outcomes that…

The first (exploratory) phase of the Learning in Science Project focused on science teaching/learning in the Form 1 to 4 level (ages 10 to 14) and sought to identify problems and difficulties in several areas. Provided in this paper are comments obtained during structured/unstructured interviews (from students, ex-students, teachers, headmasters,…

Many reports have pointed to the need to improve the quality of mathematics and science teaching in schools in the United States and to alleviate the shortage of qualified teachers. A policy focus on the teaching force is reinforced by the fact that the ability of the United States to compete in an increasingly technological world economy depends…

Responding to the increasing math and science teacher shortage in the United States, this study intended to determine which science, engineering, and math (SEM) majors during which years in their undergraduate education and from which academic performance levels are most interested in K-12 teaching. Results may aid policymakers and practitioners…

This report provides an analysis of issues and recommendations for further implementation of the National Education Goals and the America 2000 National Education Strategy related to education in mathematics, science, engineering, and technology. This report considers teachers and teaching at every level. The report focuses on the need to build a…

This practicum endeavored to improve science laboratory instruction for elementary students. The major goal of the practicum was to facilitate laboratory use so that teachers would incorporate laboratory experiences as an integral component in science instruction. To improve the instructional significance of the science laboratory, the writer…

The Oregon vision for transforming science education is called concept/process-based science. It is not a program but a conceptual framework which presents goals for the direction of science program development. It focuses science programs on helping students develop basic scientific understandings through the use of the key processes of human…

Abstractor's analyses of 12 science education research studies are presented. Nine analyses in the first section, focusing on various aspects of science instruction, include: a comparison of different approaches to helping students understand metric units of volume; use of specific questions to cue elementary school students in obtaining…

The Search for Excellence in Science Education was inaugurated in 1982 to carry out the National Science Foundation's 1981 initiative, Project Synthesis. The Search establishes criteria for excellence and applies them to actual programs in one or several fields each year. In each area the Search identifies hallmarks of excellence in terms of…

To meet the need for improved science instruction in rural schools, a project to identify, honor, and provide training for outstanding rural science teachers in grades 6-9 was designed cooperatively by the National Science Foundation, Kansas State University, Kansas Cosmosphere and Discovery Center, and rural school districts. In order to create a…

Presents a report on the first phase of a large scale meta-analysis of the field of science education in which the major research questions pursued in the extant science education research literature were identified and organized to provide a conceptual framework for meta-analysis. The six major research questions identified from this project are…

This issue of "Investigations in Science Education" (ISE) provides analytical abstracts, prepared by science educators, of research reports in the areas of preservice and in-service teacher education for elementary and secondary science teachers; and in cognitive development of elementary and secondary school children. Each abstract…