Joan Parker

The earth and beyond: developing primary teachers' understanding of basic astronomical events

The demands on the primary school teacher in delivering the National Curriculum in England and Wales at Key Stage 2 (KS 2) for children aged 7‐11 years are considerable. Public debate concerning teacher subject knowledge and understanding, particularly in science, has raised the issue of the need for increased specialism in the primary school. A core element of this debate has focused on how to develop teacher subject knowledge for the effective delivery of the Programme of Study (POS) at KS 2 for practising teachers. This has resulted in the increased provision of in‐service courses in higher education and has also impacted significantly on course content in initial teacher training. This paper relates to the ‘The Earth and Beyond’ POS exploring factors which contribute to developing teachers’ understanding of basic astronomical events. Results indicate that providing teachers with the necessary skills and confidence to teach this aspect of science effectively is much more complex than simply explicating...

Exploring the relationship between subject knowledge and pedagogic content knowledge in primary teachers' learning about forces

This study explores the tension between subject knowledge and pedagogic content knowledge in primary teacher education. It documents students and in-service teachers learning about forces within the context of floating and sinking. In doing so it describes not only significant features of the learning process itself but also examines subject specific aspects of learning, identifying some of the inherent difficulties for learners within this domain and demonstrating how learners construct links between tacit knowledge and abstract scientific notions. Implications for teacher education and the teaching of science in the classroom are explored.

Confronting the analogy: primary teachers exploring the usefulness of analogies in the teaching and learning of electricity

Abstract Analogies are commonly employed in teaching and learning about abstract scientific phenomena such as electricity. There has been extensive research on the effectiveness of a range of analogies in promoting conceptual understanding with respect to the behaviour of simple circuits. Such studies focus on the development of learners’ thinking with respect to the transfer of understanding from the analogy to the target concept. This study attempts to explore what happens to individuals’ learning when analogies break down in the light of practical investigation. It proposes that the honest appraisal of such breakdown can constitute an effective learning tool. The implications for teacher education and classroom practice are discussed.

Exploring the Impact of Varying Degrees of Cognitive Conflict in the Generation of both Subject and Pedagogical Knowledge as Primary Trainee Teachers Learn about Shadow Formation

Primary teacher preparation courses to need support students in developing not only science content knowledge, but also pedagogical knowledge appropriate to the effective translation and representation of subject matter for learners in classrooms. In the case of the generalist primary trainee, this constitutes a considerable challenge. This study explored how a group of 13 primary trainees developed subject and pedagogical knowledge during university‐based training as they investigated shadow production in a variety of contexts using cognitive conflict as a strategy for promoting conceptual change. By using a metacognitive approach, students analysed their own learning in response to increasing depth of conflict within a series of shadow investigations. The results indicate that the depth of conflict perceived by the learners in this study was instrumental in inducing conceptual change and generating pedagogical insight within the domain of light.

Becoming Science Teachers: an evaluation of the initial stages of primary teacher training

Abstract This 3‐year evaluation study explores the development of trainee primary teachers’ attitudes toward the teaching and learning of science during the early stages of their professional education. We demonstrate that science is, for many students, a potentially problematic area of the curriculum in which their past learning experiences are particularly prominent in the development of negative attitudes and feelings of apprehension towards the subject. Through a combination of questionnaire data and reflective writing, origins of attitude development and the impact of both course provision and teaching practice are explored at depth. A dichotomy between student expectation and experience of science teaching is demonstrated and the implications of this are examined with respect to the nature of teacher education, course provision and primary partnership initiatives currently being developed between higher education and primary schools.

The pedagogy of physical science

The central theme of the book concerns how to develop effective teaching for meaningful learning in science. In attending to this question we seek to identify how teachers interpret difficult ideas in science and, in particular, what supports their own learning in coming to a professional understanding of how to teach science concepts to young children. We investigate how such professional insight emerges in the process of teachers identifying those elements that support their understanding during their own learning. In this paradigm, professional awareness derives from the practitioner interrogating their own learning and identifying implications for their teaching of science. The book draws on a significant body of critically analysed empirical evidence collated and documented over a five year period involving large numbers of trainee and practising teachers.

Developing pre-service primary teachers’ perceptions of cross-curricular teaching through reflection on learning

In recent years, there has been greater emphasis placed on cross-curricular approaches to teaching and learning evidenced in changes to curriculum guidance in a number of countries. Research indicates the complexity and challenge of such approaches to curriculum organisation, and presentation is considerable. This small scale study is focused on post graduate student teachers’ perceptions of cross-curricular approaches to the planning, organisation and representation of the primary curriculum. It tracks their emerging understanding of the nature of cross-curricular education prior to and following their own cross-curricular learning experience in art and science. The discussion draws on empirical evidence from questionnaires and reflective group discussion to identify student teachers’ emerging insights into the rationale underpinning such approaches to teaching and learning. The findings reveal a paradox between their initial positive perceptions and their direct experiences of such practice. The conclusions identify some implications for enhancing critical engagement and the development of teacher subject and pedagogic knowledge in initial teacher education.

The Role of Analogies in Learning

In this chapter, we first present an empirical account that documents teachers’ learning about simple electric circuits through the use of analogies. In reviewing the analysis of data generated, we go on to propose that the research enterprise should shift focus from determining the effectiveness of analogy in cognitive transfer towards recognising the role of analogy in generating engagement in the learning process. Finally, we present an account of how the language used in analogical reasoning offers us both possibility and constraint in shaping the way we conceptualise the world.

Conceptual Change and Learning About Forces

This chapter outlines some aspects of the historical evolution of research into science learning and examines some of the complexities of the conceptual change process in learning about forces. Section 2.1 discusses the influence of cognitive psychology, in particular Piaget’s work on the individual construction of meaning, and how this relates to classical models of conceptual change. The discussion includes a review of conceptual change models concerned with developing knowledge and understanding of learners’ conceptions in science and explores some of the more recent criticisms of such approaches. This section concludes with a brief examination of socio-cultural and social constructivist perspectives. Section 2.2 provides an empirically based account of conceptual change in action detailing primary teachers’ learning about forces. This part of the discussion explores the generation of an emergent pedagogy as teachers analyse the dynamics of their own learning.

Metacognition and Developing Understanding of Simple Astronomical Events

This chapter focuses on the value of developing metacognitive awareness of learning as an integral part of science teacher education. Previous chapters have shown how adopting a metacognitive approach to teaching and learning affords the opportunity to support students in synthesising subject and pedagogical knowledge. In developing knowledge of their own cognition, students make pedagogical observations of significance for future classroom practice. In Chapter 4 we illustrated that as a result of experiencing cognitive conflict in their own learning, students identified emergent pedagogical implications ranging from knowledge of learners and learning in general, to detailed subject-specific observation relating to building understanding of light in the curriculum such as the need to enable learners to access what is an instantaneous process of light production, propagation and reception. In this chapter we explore the potential of this approach in generating subject-related pedagogical knowledge (pedagogic content knowledge) as students generate causal explanations of simple astronomical events. Pedagogic content knowledge (PCK) concerns knowledge related to the translation of subject knowledge in the act of instruction; it requires knowledge of the cognitive demand of the subject as well as knowledge of instructional practices appropriate to structuring learning including the use of metaphors, analogies and explanation. The chapter concludes by discussing the potential for the development of unique insight into the learning of subject in this area with important implications for instructional practice. First we consider the nature of metacognition and its potential to contribute towards effective teaching and learning in science.