Self-study research is making an impact on the field of science education. University researchers employ these methods to improve their instruction, develop as instructors, and ultimately, impact their students’ learning. This volume provides an introduction to self-study research in science education, followed by manuscripts of self-studies undertaken by university faculty and those becoming university faculty members in science teacher education. Chapter authors range from those new to the field to established researchers, highlighting the value of self-study research in science teacher education for every career rank. The fifteen self-studies provided in this book support and extend this contemporary work in science teacher education. They, and the subsequent reflections on professional knowledge, are organized into four sections: content courses for preservice teachers, elementary methods courses, secondary methods courses, and preparation of future teacher educators. Respondents from various locations around the globe share their reflections on these sections. A culminating reflection of the findings of these studies is provided at the end of the book that provides an overview of what we have learned from these chapters, as well as a reflection on the role of self-study research in the future of science teacher education.

This book explores global issues in the professional development of science teachers, and considers classroom applications of teacher training with a comparative lens. The twelve studies collected in this volume span five continents and vastly differing models of teacher education. Carefully detailing the social and cultural contexts for the teaching of science, this is a guidebook for anyone concerned with equity and reform in professional development.

This book offers valuable guidance for science teacher educators looking for ways to facilitate preservice and inservice teachers’ pedagogy relative to teaching students from underrepresented and underserved populations in the science classroom. It also provides solutions that will better equip science teachers of underrepresented student populations with effective strategies that challenge the status quo, and foster classrooms environment that promotes equity and social justice for all of their science students. Multicultural Science Education illuminates historically persistent, yet unresolved issues in science teacher education from the perspectives of a remarkable group of science teacher educators and presents research that has been done to address these issues. It centers on research findings on underserved and underrepresented groups of students and presents frameworks, perspectives, and paradigms that have implications for transforming science teacher education. In addition, the chapters provide an analysis of the socio-cultural-political consequences in the ways in which science teacher education is theoretically conceptualized and operationalized in the United States. The book provides teacher educators with a framework for teaching through a lens of equity and social justice, one that may very well help teachers enhance the participation of students from traditionally underrepresented and underserved groups in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) areas and help them realize their full potential in science. Moreover, science educators will find this book useful for professional development workshops and seminars for both novice and veteran science teachers. "Multicultural Science Education: Preparing Teachers for Equity and Social Justice directly addresses the essential role that science teacher education plays for the future of an informed and STEM knowledgeable citizenry. The editors and authors review the beginnings of multicultural science education, and then highlight findings from studies on issues of equity, underrepresentation, cultural relevancy, English language learning, and social justice. The most significant part of this book is the move to the policy level—providing specific recommendations for policy development, implementation, assessment and analysis, with calls to action for all science teacher educators, and very significantly, all middle and high school science teachers and prospective teachers. By emphasizing the important role that multicultural science education has played in providing the knowledge base and understanding of exemplary science education, Multicultural Science Education: Preparing Teachers for Equity and Social Justice gives the reader a scope and depth of the field, along with examples of strategies to use with middle and high school students. These classroom instructional strategies are based on sound science and research. Readers are shown the balance between research-based data driven models articulated with successful instructional design. Science teacher educators will find this volume of great value as they work with their pre-service and in-service teachers about how to address and infuse multicultural science education within their classrooms. For educators to be truly effective in their classrooms, they must examine every component of the learning and teaching process. Multicultural Science Education: Preparing Teachers for Equity and Social Justice provides not only the intellectual and research bases underlying multicultural studies in science education, but also the pragmatic side. All teachers and teacher educators can infuse these findings and recommendations into their classrooms in a dynamic way, and ultimately provide richer learning experiences for all students." Patricia Simmons, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA "This provocative collection of chapters is a presentation in gutsiness. Ingenious in construction and sequencing, this book will influence science teacher educators by introducing them to issues of equity and social justice directly related to women and people of color. The authors unflinchingly interrogate issues of equity which need to be addressed in science education courses. "This provocative collection of chapters is a presentation in gutsiness. Ingenious in construction and sequencing, this book will influence science teacher educators by introducing them to issues of equity and social justice directly related to women and people of color. The authors unflinchingly interrogate issues of equity which need to be addressed in science education courses. It begins with setting current cultural and equity issue within a historic frame. The first chapter sets the scene by moving the reader through 400 years in which African-American’s were ‘scientifically excluded from science’. This is followed by a careful review of the Jim Crow era, an analysis of equity issues of women and ends with an examination of sociocultural consciousness and culturally responsive teaching. Two chapters comprise the second section. Each chapter examines the role of the science teacher in providing a safe place by promoting equity and social justice in the classroom. The three chapters in the third section focus on secondary science teachers. Each addresses issues of preparation that provides new teachers with understanding of equity and provokes questions of good teaching. Section four enhances and expands the first section as the authors suggest cultural barriers the impact STEM engagement by marginalized groups. The last section, composed of three chapters, interrogates policy issues that influence the science classroom." Molly Weinburgh, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, USA

This edited book aims to provide a global perspective on socioscientific issues (SSI), responsible citizenship and the relevance of science, with an emphasis on science teacher education. The volume, with more than twenty-five contributors from Africa, North and South America, Asia, Australasia and Europe, focuses on examples from in- and pre-service teacher training. The contributors expand on issues related to teachers’ beliefs about teaching SSI, teachers’ challenges when designing and implementing SSI-related activities, the role of professional development, both in pre- and in-service teacher training, in promoting SSI, the role of the nature of science when teaching SSI, promoting scientific practices through SSI in pre-service teaching, and the role of indigenous knowledge in SSI teaching. Finally, the book discusses new perspectives for addressing SSI in teacher education through the lens of relevance and responsible citizenship.

This book enhances readers’ understanding of science teachers’ professional knowledge, and illustrates how the Pedagogical Content Knowledge research agenda can make a difference in teachers’ practices and how students learn science. Importantly, it offers an updated international perspective on the evolving nature of Pedagogical Content Knowledge and how it is shaping research and teacher education agendas for science teaching. The first few chapters background and introduce a new model known as the Refined Consensus Model (RCM) of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) in science education, and clarify and demonstrate its use in research and teacher education and practice. Subsequent chapters show how this new consensus model of PCK in science education is strongly connected with empirical data of varying nature, contains a tailored language to describe the nature of PCK in science education, and can be used as a framework for illuminating past studies and informing the design of future PCK studies in science education. By presenting and discussing the RCM of PCK within a variety of science education contexts, the book makes the model significantly more applicable to teachers’ work.

This engaging and practical book offers science teacher educators and K-12 science teachers alike the tools to engage in a dialogic mode of collaborative action research (D-CAR), a collaborative mode of action research focused on teachers’ experiences with students, reflection upon these experiences, and peer learning. Renowned science educator Allan Feldman and co-authors from across numerous settings in K-12 science education present the theory, methodology, case studies, and practical advice to support the use of D-CAR as a means to enhance teachers’ normal practice and address the problems, dilemmas, and dissonances that science teachers must negotiate as they work to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population and engage with complex science teaching challenges that disproportionately affect marginalized students. The book will be of use to science teacher educators, pre-service and in-service science teachers, professional development specialists, or any science educator invested in developing creative, reflective, and thoughtful teachers.

Drawing from the discourse of practice-oriented teacher education, this book investigates the state of pre-service teachers’ practical knowledge in mainland China, providing insights into the reform of initial teacher education programmes for teacher educators. Conducting empirical studies at a university in Beijing, involving 400 pre-service teachers, the author investigates factors influencing pre-service teachers’ practical knowledge. Five innovative methodologies, namely concept mapping, visual metaphors, video analysis, epistemic network analysis, and formative interventions are employed to make pre-service teachers’ practical knowledge visible, helping to increase our theoretical understanding of practical knowledge and proposing practical guidelines for the reorganisation of initial teacher education. While the study is grounded in mainland China, the methodological thinking and theoretical discussions can inspire international scholars and teacher educators, and therefore contribute to the global reform of teacher education.