Analysing Exemplary Science Teaching

"I read lots of books in which science education researchers tell science teachers how to teach. This book, refreshingly, is written the other way round.We read a number of accounts by outstanding science and technology teachers of how they use new approaches to teaching to motivate their students and maximise their learning. These accounts are then followed by some excellentanalyses from leading academics. I learnt a lot from reading this book." Professor Michael Reiss, Institute of Education, University of London "Provides an important new twist on one of the enduring problems of case-based learning... This is a book that deserves careful reading and re-reading, threading back and forwards from the immediate and practical images of excellence in the teachers’ cases to the comprehensive andscholarly analyses in the researchers’ thematic chapters." Professor William Louden, Edith Cowan University, Australia Through a celebration of teaching and research, this book explores exemplary practice in science education and fuses educational theory and classroom practice inunique ways. Analysing Exemplary Science Teaching brings together twelve academics, ten innovativeteachers and three exceptional students in a conversation about teaching and learning.Teachers and students describe some of their most noteworthy classroom practice,whilst scholars of international standing use educational theory to discuss, define andanalyse the documented classroom practice. Classroom experiences are directly linked with theory by a series of annotatedcomments. This distinctive web-like structure enables the reader to actively movebetween practice and theory, reading about classroom innovation and then theorizingabout the basis and potential of this teaching approach. Providing an international perspective, the special lessons described and analysed aredrawn from middle and secondary schools in the UK, Canada and Australia. This bookis an invaluable resource for preservice and inservice teacher education, as well as forgraduate studies. It is of interest to a broad spectrum of individuals, including trainingteachers, teachers, researchers, administrators and curriculum coordinators in scienceand technology education.

This collection of 16 essays is ideal for staff development providers, as well as preservice science methods instructors. Each essay describes a specific program designed to train current or future teachers to carry out the constructivist, inquiry-based approach of the Standards. Each essay also provides evidence of effectiveness on how teachers grow more confident using inquiry approaches,

Developing Scientific Literacy addresses the gap of the revelance of science in everyday life, offering a much-needed framework for teachers wishing to explore ‘science in the media’ in secondary schools or colleges.

Do the Standards really matter in middle school? Nine years after the National Science Education Standards' release, just how well do science teachers in grades 5 to 8 actually use them to plan content, define improved teaching, and assess real learning? Find out the answers to these key quesitons in this groundbreaking collection of 15 essays by teachers, researchers, and professors whose specialty is middle school. Nine years after the release of the Standards, these educators describe what they're doing to achieve the visions for the reform of teaching, assessment, professionaldevelopment, and content. All the visions correspond to the Less Emphasis and More Emphasis conditions that conclude each section of the Standards, characterizing what most teachers and programs should do less of as well as decribing the changes needed if real reform is to occur. Among this collection's wide-ranging essay topics: "Teaching Science With Student Thinking in Mind," "The Relationship Between a Professional Devleopment Model and Student Achievement," "Creating a Classroom Culture of Scientific Practices," "Traveling the Inquiry Continuum: Learning Through Teacher Action Research," "What Do We Get to Do Today? The Middle School Full Option Science System Program," and "Teach Them to Fish." This volume is the third in NSTA Press's Exemplary Science monograph series, which provides the results of an unprecedented national search to assess how well the Standards' vision has been realized.