The study described in this book arose in the contextof a three-year collective effort to bring about change in science teaching at Mountain Elementary School. 1 This opportunity emerged after I contacted the school with the idea to help teachers implement student-centered science teaching. At the same time, the teachers collectively had come to realize that their science teaching was not as exciting to children as it could be. They had recognized their own teaching as textbook-based with little use of the "hands-on" approaches prescribed by the provincial curriculum. At this point, the...

Global science education is a reality at the end of the 20th century - albeit an uneven reality - because of tremendous technological and economic pressures. Unfortunately, this reality is rarely examined in the light of what interests the everyday lives of ordinary people rather than the lives of political and economic elites. The purpose of this book is to offer insightful and thought-provoking commentary on both realities. The tacit question throughout the book is Whose interests are being served by current science education practices and policies?' The various chapters offer critical...

This ambitious text is the first of its kind to summarize the theory, research, and practice related to pedagogical content knowledge. The audience is provided with a functional understanding of the basic tenets of the construct as well as its applications to research on science teacher education and the development of science teacher education programs.

Formative Assessment and Science Education documents the findings of a research project which investigated the ways in which teachers and students used formative assessment to improve the teaching and learning of science in some New Zealand classrooms. The research documented in this book used the definition of formative assessment as the process used by teachers and students to recognise and respond to students' learning, in order to enhance that learning, during the learning'.
The book contains one detailed case study from the research, as well as cameos of instances of...

In response to ETA's 1997 kidnappings and murders thousands of Spaniards attended mass demonstrations to express their contempt for violence as a means of political pressure. The demand that public authorities prosecute and condemn those who directly or indirectly support ETA and its terrorist attacks was one of the most prevalent slogans in the marches. Indeed, the social response was aimed not only against the terrorist group, but also against Herri Batasuna (HB), the political party that openly endorse ETA's armed actions in the Basque Country. From the legal point of view, it is...

Analysis of past developments in teacher education in Pakistan has shown that substantial progress has been made in this field. It has, however, been pointed out that education of science teachers still needs much improvement. At the present, there is an emergent need to meet the shortage of qualified science teachers and at the same time to bring qualitative improvements in the courses offered in teacher education institutions. First, we recommend that the 1-year duration of teacher preparation is grossly inadequate for all teaching courses, and should be lengthened, and the qualifications...

Mapping Biology Knowledge addresses two key topics in the context of biology, promoting meaningful learning and knowledge mapping as a strategy for achieving this goal. Meaning-making and meaning-building are examined from multiple perspectives throughout the book. In many biology courses, students become so mired in detail that they fail to grasp the big picture. Various strategies are proposed for helping instructors focus on the big picture, using the need to know' principle to decide the level of detail students must have in a given situation. The metacognitive tools described...

Since its emergence over two decades ago, the construct of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) has significantly impacted preservice and inservice teacher education, educational policy, and educational research. PCK has served to re-focus educators' attention on the important role of subject matter in educational practice and away from the more generic approach to teacher education that dominated the field prior to 1975.
This ambitious text is the first of its kind to summarize the theory, research, and practice related to pedagogical content knowledge. The audience is provided with a...

The authors propose the science curriculum concept of Global Science Literacy justifying its use internationally with reference to the nature of science, the probable direction of science in the new millennium, the capability for GSL to develop inter-cultural understanding, and its relevance to non-Western cultures and traditions. GSL curricula are organized conceptually rather than by science discipline, include objectives from the social studies construct of global education, and represent the broad spectrum of science methodologies, not just those of the physical sciences typical of...

Scope of the book There is an on-going debate regarding the role of labwork in science education, which dates back several decades and which illustrates the conviction and interest of teachers, researchers and policy-makers world-wide in the value of laboratory work for understanding science. This is evident in more recent books and studies regarding the laboratory, which mainly refer to countries with a considerable tradition in practical work in science education (Woolnough & Alsop 1985, Hodson 1993, Hegarthy-Hazel 1990, Wellington 2000). Yet in discussing research studies on labwork,...