From teaching physics to teaching children : beginning teachers learning from pupils

This paper discusses the development of beginning physics teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in the context of teaching basic electricity during a one-year Professional Graduate Diploma in Education course (PGDE) and beyond. This longitudinal study used repeated semi-structured interviews over a period of four-and-a-half years. The interview schedule followed a line of development through the secondary school electrical syllabus in Scotland. Fifteen student teachers were interviewed during the PGDE year. Six of them were followed up at the end of the Induction Year (their first year as a newly qualified teacher), and again two-and-a-half years later. Thematic analysis of the interviews showed that before the beginning teachers had taught any classes, their initial focus was on how to transform their own subject matter knowledge (SMK) about electricity into forms that were accessible to pupils. As the beginning teachers gained experience working with classes, they gave vivid descriptions of interacting with particular pupils when teaching electricity which showed the development of their pedagogical knowledge. This played a significant role in the teachers' change of focus from teaching physics to teaching children as they transformed their SMK into forms that were accessible to pupils and developed their general pedagogical knowledge

The Development of Inquiry Science Worksheet to Facilitate the Process Skills

This research aimed for developing Inquiry Worksheet to facilitate the process skill. Inquiry Worksheet gave the opportunity for student to make good observations in giving hypothesis, designing the experiment, collecting, analyzing, and inferring the data. To involve the students in Inquiry process is the important point in Science lessons which can help the students to develop Science literacy and give the opportunity to drill their Science process skill. This research used the steps of developing 4P but the fourth step was not used, this analysis used the descriptive qualitative. Based on the validation result showed the Lesson Plan (RPP) and Inquiry Worksheet (LKS) had been developed were in valid category. The implementation of the good Lesson Plan for Evaluation Results was classically achieved. The process skill obtained 100 for the average score. For pretest and posttest, the students obtained 82.85 and 57.14. Learning using the Inquiry worksheet showed good responses by the students. The conclusion of this research was Inquiry Worksheet competent to facilitate the process skills

Complexity of practical work in Portuguese primary science textbooks

Practical work and textbooks have an important role in primary science education. This study analyses the complexity of practical work in Portuguese primary science textbooks. The level of complexity was appreciated by the level of conceptual demand of practical work, as given by the type of practical work, the complexity of scientific knowledge, the complexity of cognitive skills and the degree of relation between theory and practice. The explicitness of practical work was also analysed. The study followed an approach that combines quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis and a total of 176 units of analysis were evaluated from six science textbooks, chosen among the most selected in Portuguese primary schools. The results showed that textbooks evidence a tendency towards a low level of conceptual demand of practical work, considering the proposals for practical activities and the related evaluation questions. Practical activities, mainly focused on practical exercises and illustrative experiences, tend to mobilize scientific knowledge and cognitive skills of a low level of complexity and point out to an apparent relation between theory and practice. The evaluation questions present a lower level of conceptual demand. The results also showed a weak concern with the explicitness of the practical work. However, findings also indicated that there are differences between the textbooks.O trabalho prático e os manuais escolares desempenham um importante papel no ensino das ciências do 1.º ciclo do ensino básico. Este estudo analisa a complexidade do trabalho prático em manuais escolares de ciências do 1.º ciclo português. O nível de complexidade foi apreciado através do nível de exigência conceptual do trabalho prático, que considerou o tipo de trabalho prático, a complexidade do conhecimento científico, a complexidade das capacidades cognitivas e o grau de relação entre a teoria e a prática. A explicitação do trabalho prático também foi analisada. O estudo seguiu uma abordagem que combina métodos de análise quantitativos e qualitativos. Foram avaliadas 176 unidades de análise de seis manuais escolares, escolhidos de entre os mais adotados nas escolas portuguesas. Os resultados mostram que os manuais tendem a evidenciar um baixo nível de exigência conceptual do trabalho prático, quando analisado em função das propostas de atividades práticas e das respetivas questões de avaliação. As atividades práticas, sobretudo focadas em exercícios práticos e experiências de verificação, tendem a mobilizar conhecimento científico e capacidades cognitivas de baixo nível de complexidade e apontam para uma aparente relação entre teoria e prática. As questões de avaliação apresentam um nível de exigência conceptual inferior. Os resultados também evidenciam uma fraca preocupação com a explicitação do trabalho prático. No entanto, os resultados indicam ainda que existem diferenças entre os manuais escolares.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America's Brightest Students, Volume II

Provides a comprehensive review of research on the academic acceleration of gifted students

Promoting Inquiry in Science Classrooms in European Schools : a Handbook for Tutors

In Scotland, PISCES stands for Promoting Inquiry Skills for a Curriculum for Excellence in Science. It is a CPD module for teachers of science, which has been developed in Scotland with the support of the S-TEAM project. However, this Handbook uses our international acronym in which PISCES stands for Promoting Inquiry in Science Classrooms in European Schools . It is, we believe, potentially equally as successful across Europe as it was designed around the idea of empowering teachers to think for themselves how to make their practice more-inquiry based, wherever they are. It is recognised that some school, social, policy and cultural environments may be more supportive of the idea of ‘more inquiry-based practice’ than others. PISCES empowers teachers to make small or large changes to their practice, according to those sorts of contextual factors, their own aims and how they perceive the needs of their pupils. You will note that we have been careful to use the word ‘more’ in ‘more inquiry-based.’ As befits the idea of empowerment to adapt to one’s own context, there is no single model of inquiry being ‘pushed’ here. Indeed, we count it as a measure of success of PISCES that the teachers who have participated did very different things in making their practice more inquiry-based. Strathclyde University is a leading partner in S-TEAM. Members of Strathclyde University, along with the Development Officer for Curriculum for Excellence for East Lothian, successfully developed and delivered a pilot version of PISCES as a module to a group of East Lothian teachers, in 2010/11. The module resulted in successful ‘experiments in practice’ and increased awareness of the benefits of inquiry-based teaching and learning. The same group of teachers have also taken part in a follow-up course (ARIES: Advanced Resources for Inquiry and Evaluation in Science). PISCES is a high quality CPD programme, valued by teachers and supportive of their professional self-development. It can be applied to both primary and secondary teaching, in all science subjects. Pupils benefit from learning experiences, which develop scientific inquiry skills. Feedback from participating teachers has been consistently positive