Secondary Science Teacher Education

Synonyms

Knowledge; Learning; Strategies

Introduction

“We teach as we were taught.” These six words summarize the major challenge facing secondary science teacher education, both from the perspective of what science we teach and from the perspective of how we teach science at the secondary level. The tendency of new and experienced teachers to teach as they were taught has been recognized for decades. Less frequently discussed and explored is the tendency of science teacher educators to teach as they were taught. We now know from research a great deal more about so-called best practices and about how individuals learn. Unfortunately, it is simply not enough to present best practices and new insights into learning to new teachers as information. As they themselves struggle to find their pedagogical feet in practicum classrooms and early in their teaching careers, new teachers need to learn from experience as they also learn how to learn from experience. Secondary science teacher...