Pamela Mulhall

Exploring Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Science Teacher Education

While the development of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is considered to be a goal of teacher education, teaching about the concept itself is an unusual practice. In this case study, we explore the outcomes when a teacher educator explicitly introduces student‐teachers to ideas about PCK through the use of a CoRes and PaP‐eRs conceptualisation. The case study explores how, through this purposeful use of PCK in a pre‐service science teacher programme, student‐teachers’ thinking about their teaching and about their development as science teachers is shaped.

A Perspective on the Resolution of Confusions in the Teaching of Electricity.

Physics continues to be widely regarded by students as difficult and therefore unattractive. Electricity is a particular problem, as it involves extremely complex and highly abstract concepts and is thus totally dependent on models/analogies/metaphors. Research consistently shows very poor student understanding after the teaching of electricity. We consider this research and draw two broad conclusions of central relevance to the teaching of electricity (which are both also argued to be significant contributors to student learning difficulties): there is an absence of any systemic consensus about what models etc. are appropriate for students at different year levels and for different intended learning outcomes; there is no consensus about appropriate learning outcomes for electricity at different levels.

Students' Perceptions of Teaching and Learning in First-Year University Physics

The transition from school to university involves substantial change in the structure and organization of teaching, and in the nature and purpose of learning contexts. This paper, which reports some data from a broader study of learning and teaching in first year university physics, focuses on aspects of the school-university transition. In particular, we report perceptions of first year physics students about how they should learn physics, what it is intended they should learn, and what they believe to be the functions of the various teaching situations in which they are placed.

CUP: cooperative learning that works

A cooperative learning strategy has been developed to help first-year tertiary students overcome common misconceptions in mechanics. In this Conceptual Understanding Programme (CUP), students work on exercises alone, then in threes and finally discuss their views in the whole class. This process encourages students to actively think about and modify their views and it results in a high level of participation and satisfaction. The strategy can be implemented without major changes to a teaching programme.

Views about learning physics held by physics teachers with differing approaches to teaching physics

Research into teacher thinking offers potential insights into ways of promoting better teaching. A recent qualitative study explored the views about physics, and learning and teaching physics of a group of teachers whose classroom practice was ‘traditional’ and a group who used conceptual change teaching approaches. This paper focuses on the views about learning physics held by the two groups. To summarize and compare the groups, a composite description was created for each group. This composite description represents all the common views of teachers who were in that group. The composite description is termed ‘typical’ teacher. The study concluded that the conceptual change teachers’ views about learning physics were constructivist while the traditional teachers held absorptionist views.

Pedagogical Content Knowledge: What Does it Mean to Science Teachers?

This paper examines understandings of science teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) as conceptualized through CoRes (Content Representations) and PaP-eRs (Pedagogical and Professional-experience Repertoire). The consolidation of CoRes and PaP-eRs into Resource Folios that offer in depth, concrete examples of PCK in specific content areas (e.g., Particle Model, Chemical Reactions, etc.) was conceptualized as one way of articulating and portraying PCK that might be meaningful and accessible to science teachers. The study underpinning this paper is two-fold. First, it briefly considers the development of CoRes and PaP-eRs and the implications of these as both a methodology and a research product. Secondly, science teachers’ understandings of the usefulness of Resources Folios through a pre and post test study in which the influence of CoRes and PaP-eRs on science teachers’ thinking about science teaching and learning was explored. Results tentatively suggest that through a CoRe and PaP-eRs approach PCK becomes a more meaningful construct in terms of these participants’ articulation of understandings of professional practice

Textbooks and their authors: another perspective on the difficulties of teaching and learning electricity

Despite extensive research, our understanding of the teaching and learning of direct current (DC) electricity remains poor. As part of a larger project focused on learning outcomes and analogies/models/metaphors appropriate at different levels of electricity learning, in this study we investigated the detailed forms of explanations and analogies/models/metaphors used in senior high school textbooks in Victoria, Australia, and the understandings of the writers of these textbooks. All 3 authors had inadequate understandings of models and analogies, there was great variation in author understanding of voltage (with one author having clearly inadequate understanding), and the approaches authors used in their books reflected these inadequacies. We suggest that this serious issue is not specific to the state of Victoria.

Using Laboratory Work for Purposeful Learning about the Practice of Science

Much laboratory work in school science has been criticised for its highly ritualised nature, in which students are led “cook-book” style through a set of instructions to a predetermined end point. Along the way students collect data and answer questions that are presented in a formal report. It has been argued that such an approach is not only an ineffective means of developing students understanding of science concepts, but also presents a misleading picture of the way in which scientific knowledge develops. This paper describes two different approaches to laboratory work. In each the teacher’s purpose was to provide her students with some insight into ways in which knowledge in science is generated, shared and validated.

Contemporary High-Profile Scientists and Their Interactions with the Community.

ABSTRACT This article presents a case study of 10 high-profile Australian research scientists. These scientists are highly committed to engaging with the public. They interact with a wide range of groups in the community, including the traditional media. They are aware that they are seen as representatives of science at a time when the authority of science and scientists is threatened in Australia by controversy around issues such as climate change and vaccination. Through their experiences of interacting with non-scientists, they have developed views about qualities, characteristics and knowledge that contribute to, or inhibit, positive interactions between scientists and non-scientists. Their experiences and insights highlight aspects of contemporary science that are not generally acknowledged in science curricula.

Science Teaching and Science Teacher Education

There is an inherent difficulty in science teaching whereby complex and abstract concepts and ideas need to be taught in ways that make them accessible and understandable for learners. As a consequence, teachers’ attempts at simplification may inadvertently reduce such subject matter to propositional forms that, sadly, foster reliance on rote learning as opposed to encouraging the development of rich and deep understandings. Paradoxically, many science teachers themselves come from that sub-set of students who successfully managed to learn science despite the difficulty and associated teaching and learning tensions within this very situation. Therefore, it is not hard to see how they may in fact actually find themselves unwittingly recreating the same situation again for their own students, all of whom are not likely to learn “just like they did”.