Aug - Jul

August 07, 2014

978-94-007-1908-8 (Online)

This book argues that the ‘constructivist metaphor’ has become a self-appointed overriding concept that suppresses other modes of thinking about knowing and learning science. Yet there are questions about knowledge that constructivism cannot properly answer, such as how a cognitive structure can intentionally develop a formation that is more complex than itself; how a learner can aim at a learning objective that is, by definition, itself unknown; how we learn through pain, suffering, love or passion; and the role emotion and crises play in knowing and learning.

In support of the hypothesis that passibility underlies cognition, readers are provided with a collation of empirical studies and phenomenological analyses of knowing and learning science—in schools, scientific laboratories and everyday life—all of which defy a constructivist explanation. The author argues that ‘passibility’ constitutes an essential factor in the development of consciousness, with a range of essential experiences that cannot be brought into the linguistic realm. His exploration is guided by concepts such as ‘otherness’, passion, passivity and undecidability, and concludes by resituating the construction metaphor to accord it its proper place in a more comprehensive theory of learning.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-007-1908-8

One Legacy of Paul F. Brandwein: Creating Scientists / Deborah C. Fort. Springer, 2010.

978-90-481-2528-9 (Online)

This book includes a brief biography of Paul Brandwein, but its most vital contribution are the essays about Paul F. Brandwein’s teaching that encouraged a number of the high school students he taught between 1944 and 1954 at Forest Hills High School in New York to become some of America’s most important scientists. In addition to the individual essays, there are cross-sectional study of the surveys returned by the 29 "Brandwein alumni," located by Richard Lewontin, James Friend, the late Walter Rosen, and Deborah Fort over the years since Paul Brandwein’s death in 1994. Creating Scientists might point the way to a replicable method that teachers (often, in addition, serving as mentors) could follow in encouraging their precollege students with a bent for science to choose to follow that inclination into postsecondary studies and eventually careers in science, mathematics, engineering, medical, and technical fields. "Once again, our nation has a powerful need for a revolution devoted to creating scientists. As we face the challenges of climate change, global competitiveness, biodiversity loss, energy needs, and dwindling food supplies, we find ourselves in a period where both scientific literacy and the pool of next-generation scientists are dwindling. To solve these complex issues and maintain our own national security, we have to rebuild a national ethos based on sound science education for all, from which a new generation of scientists will emerge. The challenge is how to create this transformation. Those shaping national policy today, in 2009, need look no further than what worked a half-century ago. ... Paul F. Brandwein spent his professional life as a scientist, educator, author, and publisher focused on the deep question of how we as a nation can create the scientist within. Through varied contributions from his former students, his colleagues, and his friends, One Legacy of Paul F. Brandwein: Creating Scientists explores how one man’s teachings and philosophies on science, education, and environmentalism both laid the groundwork for the first great science education revolution in our nation’s history and prepared the way for the one so necessary today.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-90-481-2528-9

 Science Literacy in Primary Schools and Pre-Schools / edited by Haim Eshach. Springer, 2006.

978-1-4020-4674-2 (Online)

When it comes to science, many of today's children experience narrow and impoverished learning opportunities, which, as professor Judah Schwartz writes in the preface to this book, lead ulitmately to a mere caricature of science. One source of the problem is the wrong—terribly wrong—belief that science is an inappropriate subject for early elementary education and certainly for kindergarten education.

As a curative to this prevalent and unfortunate situation, this well-written and thought-provoking book presents the state-of-the-art in science education for kindergarten and primary schools. It begins with a thorough theoretical discussion on why it is incumbent on the science educator to teach science already at first stages of childhood. It goes on to analyze and synthesize a broad range of educational approaches and themes such as: inquiry-based teaching; learning through authentic problems; scaffolding; situated learning; learning through projects; non-verbal knowledge; and informal learning. The book also presents fresh novel strategies to science teaching such as learning science through designing, building, evaluating and redesigning simple artifacts; and Inquiry Events. Numerous examples illustrating how the theories presented may be brought into practice are provided.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/1-4020-4674-X

July 31, 2014

Contemporary Trends and Issues in Science Education

Series Ed.: Zeidler, Dana

The book series Contemporary Trends and Issues in Science Education provides a forum for innovative trends and issues connected to science education. Scholarship that focuses on advancing new visions, understanding, and is at the forefront of the field is found in this series. Accordingly, authoritative works based on empirical research and writings from disciplines external to science education, including historical, philosophical, psychological and sociological traditions, are represented here.

Conceptual Profiles: A Theory of Teaching and Learning Scientific Concepts / edited by Eduardo F. Mortimer, Charbel N. El-Hani. Springer, 2014.

978-90-481-9246-5 (Online)

The language of science has many words and phrases whose meaning either changes in differing contexts or alters to reflect developments in a given discipline. This book presents the authors’ theories on using ‘conceptual profiles’ to make the teaching of context-dependent meanings more effective. Developed over two decades, their theory begins with a recognition of the coexistence in the students’ discourse of those alternative meanings, even in the case of scientific concepts such as molecule, where the dissonance between the classical and modern views of the same phenomenon is an accepted norm.

What began as an alternative model of conceptual change has evolved to incorporate a sociocultural approach, by drawing on ideas such as situated cognition and Vygotsky’s influential concept of culturally located learning. Also informed by pragmatist philosophy, the approach has grown into a well-rounded theory of teaching and learning scientific concepts. The authors have taken the opportunity in this book to develop their ideas further, anticipate and respond to criticisms—that of relativism, for example—and explain how their theory can be applied to analyze the teaching of core concepts in science such as heat and temperature, life and biological adaptation. They also report on the implementation of a research program that correlates the responsiveness of their methodology to all the main developments in the field of science education. This additional material will inform academic discussion, review, and further enhancement of their theory and research model.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-90-481-9246-5

Assessing Schools for Generation R (Responsibility): A Guide for Legislation and School Policy in Science Education / Michael P. Mueller, Deborah J. Tippins, Arthur J. Stewart. Springer, 2014.

978-94-007-2748-9 (Online)

Today’s youth will face global environmental changes, as well as complex personal and social challenges.  To address these issues  this collection of essays provides vital insights on how science education can be designed to better engage students and help them solve important problems in the world around them.

Assessing Schools for Generation R (Responsibility) includes theories, research, and practices for envisioning how science and environmental education can promote personal, social, and civic responsibility. It brings together inspiring stories, creative practices, and theoretical work to make the case that science education can be reformed so that students learn to meaningfully apply the concepts they learn in science classes across America and grow into civically engaged citizens. The book calls for a curriculum that equips students with the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values to confront the complex and often ill-defined socioscientific issues of daily life.

The authors are all experienced educators and top experts in the fields of science and environmental education, ecology, experiential education, educational philosophy, policy and history. They examine what has to happen in the domains of teacher preparation and public education to effect a transition of the youth of America.

This exciting, informative, sophisticated and sometimes provocative book will stimulate much debate about the future direction of science education in America, and the rest of the world. It is ideal reading for all school superintendents, deans, faculty, and policymakers looking for a way to implement a curriculum that helps builds students into responsible and engaged citizens.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-007-2748-9

Metacognition in Science Education: Trends in Current Research / edited by Anat Zohar, Yehudit Judy Dori. Springer, 2012.

978-94-007-2132-6 (Online)

Why is metacognition gaining recognition, both in education generally and in science learning in particular? What does metacognition contribute to the theory and practice of science learning?

Metacognition in Science Education discusses emerging topics at the intersection of metacognition with the teaching and learning of science concepts, and with higher order thinking more generally. The book provides readers with a background on metacognition and analyses the latest developments in the field. It also gives an account of best-practice methodology.

Expanding on the theoretical underpinnings of metacognition, and written by world leaders in metacognitive research, the chapters present cutting-edge studies on how various forms of metacognitive instruction enhance understanding and thinking in science classrooms. The editors strive for conceptual coherency in the various definitions of metacognition that appear in the book, and show that the study of metacognition is not an end in itself. Rather, it is integral to other important constructs, such as self-regulation, literacy, the teaching of thinking strategies, motivation, meta-strategies, conceptual understanding, reflection, and critical thinking. The book testifies to a growing recognition of the potential value of metacognition to science learning. It will motivate science educators in different educational contexts to incorporate this topic into their ongoing research and practice.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-007-2132-6

Socio-scientific Issues in the Classroom: Teaching, Learning and Research / edited by Troy D. Sadler. Springer, 2011.

978-94-007-1159-4 (Online)

Socio-scientific issues (SSI) are open-ended, multifaceted social issues with conceptual links to science. They are challenging to negotiate and resolve, and they create ideal contexts for bridging school science and the lived experience of students. This book presents the latest findings from the innovative practice and systematic investigation of science education in the context of socio-scientific issues.

Socio-scientific Issues in the Classroom: Teaching, Learning and Research focuses on how SSI can be productively incorporated into science classrooms and what SSI-based education can accomplish regarding student learning, practices and interest. It covers numerous topics that address key themes for contemporary science education including scientific literacy, goals for science teaching and learning, situated learning as a theoretical perspective for science education, and science for citizenship. It presents a wide range of classroom-based research projects that offer new insights for SSI-based education. Authored by leading researchers from eight countries across four continents, this book is an important compendium of syntheses and insights for researchers, teachers and curriculum designers eager to advance the SSI agenda.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-007-1159-4

Progressing Science Education: Constructing the Scientific Research Programme into the Contingent Nature of Learning Science / edited by Keith S. Taber

978-90-481-2431-2 (Online)

Exploring one of the central themes in science education theory, this volume examines how science education can be considered as a scientific activity within a broad post-positivist notion of science.

Many students find learning science extremely problematic, whatever level of education they have reached. At the end of the 1970s a new approach to tackling learning difficulties in science was developed, drawing on ideas from psychology and cognitive science, and centred on the way students build up new knowledge in reference to their existing ideas. ‘Constructivism’ became the dominant paradigm in science education research for two decades, spawning a vast body of literature reporting aspects of learners’ ideas in different science topics.

However, Constructivism came under fire as it was recognised that the research did not offer immediate and simple prescriptions for effective science teaching. The whole approach was widely criticised, in particular by those who saw it as having ‘anti-science’ leanings.

In this book, the notion of scientific research programmes is used to understand the development, limitations and potential of constructivism. It is shown that constructivist work in science education fits into a coherent programme exploring the contingencies of learning science. The author goes further to address criticisms of constructivism; evaluate progress in the field; and suggest directions for future research. It is concluded that constructivism has provided the foundations for a progressive research programme that continues to guide enquiry into learning and teaching science.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-90-481-2431-2

Critical Appraisal of Physical Science as a Human Enterprise: Dynamics of Scientific Progress / Mansoor Niaz.

978-1-4020-9626-6 (Online)

The objective of this book is to reconstruct historical episodes and experiments that have been important in scientific progress, and to explore the role played by controversies and rivalries among scientists. Although progress in science has been replete with controversies, scientists themselves either ignore or simply downplay their role. Such presentations lack the appreciation of the dynamics of ‘science-in-the-making’. This book provides methodological guidelines - based on a historical perspective of philosophy of science- that facilitate an understanding of historical episodes beyond that of inductive generalizations. These guidelines suggest that progress in science is not merely based on the accumulation of experimental data, but rather dependent on the creative imagination of the scientific community. This work shows that interpretation of experimental data is difficult and inevitably leads to alternative models/theories thus facilitating the understanding of science as a human enterprise.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4020-9626-6

Argumentation in Science Education: Perspectives from Classroom-Based Research / edited by Sibel Erduran, María Pilar Jiménez-Aleixandre. Springer, 2007.

978-1-4020-6670-2 (Online)

During the last decade, argumentation has attracted growing attention as a means to elicit processes (linguistic, logical, dialogical, psychological, etc.) that can sustain or provoke reasoning and learning. Constituting an important dimension of daily life and of professional activities, argumentation plays a special role in democracies and is at the heart of philosophical reasoning and scientific inquiry. Argumentation, as such, requires specific intellectual and social skills. Hence, argumentation will have an increasing importance in education, both because it is an important competence that has to be learned, and because argumentation can be used to foster learning in philosophy, history, sciences and in many other domains.

However, learning argumentation and learning by arguing, at school, still raise theoretical and methodological questions such as: How do learning processes develop in argumentation? How to design effective argumentative activities? How can the argumentative efforts of pupils can be sustained? What are the psychological issues involved when arguing with others? How to evaluate and analyze the learners’ productions?

Argumentation and Education answers these and other questions by providing both theoretical backgrounds, in psychology, education and theory of argumentation, and concrete examples of experiments and results in school contexts in a range of domains. It reports on existing innovative practices in education settings at various levels.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4020-6670-2

978-1-4020-5920-9 (Online)

This volume offers a unique set of research exemplars for science, mathematics and technology educators. The volume explores the important challenge of how to translate leading-edge methodologies into practical research strategies and techniques. The book is divided into three major sections, The Golden Age of Research, Meeting the Research Crises and A New Era of Research, with chapters exploring a variety of methodologies and representational forms and texts. These include historical, narrative, literary, phenomenological, autobiographical, virtual and performance texts, among others.

Qualitative Research in Postmodern Times is an exciting and accessible book that will be essential reading for science, mathematics and technology educators interested in new forms of educational research. Beginning researchers will find it practically helpful in planning and conducting their research studies, while experienced researchers will welcome new theoretical insights into postmodern methodologies.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4020-5920-9

Researching Design Learning: Issues and Findings from Two Decades of Research and Development / Richard Kimbell, Kay Stables. Springer, 2007.

978-1-4020-5115-9 (Online)

Design & Technology evolved in the school curriculum from the mid 1960s. By the 1980s it had become mainstream for the British government to fund research exploring what learners could do when challenged with design & technology tasks. The authors worked together on that project, producing in 1991 the first seminal research report on learners’ capability in design & technology.

This book summarises the lessons learned from this and other projects. The book’s messages centre on the designing activity, on learning, teaching and assessment, and, more widely, on what can be learnt about the research process itself. The authors aim to answer questions such as: How does the active, concrete learning tradition enable cognitive and emotional growth? What influences bear upon the process; the teacher, the environment, the task, the learners themselves? Researching such questions, their concerns have integrated the conceptual, the practical and the pedagogic.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4020-5115-9

Becoming an Urban Physics and Math Teacher: Infinite Potential / Beth A. Wassell, Ian Stith. Springer, 2007.

978-1-4020-5922-3 (Online)

What happens as beginning urban teachers transition through their first few years in the classroom? This book captures one teacher's journey through the first three years of teaching science and mathematics in a large urban district in the US. The authors focus on Ian's agency as a beginning teacher and explore his success in working with diverse students. Using critical ethnography combined with first-person narrative, they investigate Ian's teaching practices in four contexts: his student teaching experience, his work with students on a summer curriculum development project, his first year of teaching in a small, urban high school, and his second year of teaching in a large, comprehensive high school. In each field, the authors describe the structural changes Ian encounters and the ways in which he re-utilizes the practices he used successfully in previous fields. Specific practices that helped foster community and led to the increased agency of his students as learners are highlighted.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4020-5922-3

Assessment Reform in Science: Fairness and Fear / edited by Benny H.W. Yung. Springer, 2006.

978-1-4020-3408-4 (Online)

The conclusions and recommendations made in the book are derived from a study of ten teachers in Hong Kong as they tried to change their practice following a reform of the Hong Kong assessment system. Hong Kong is simply a context that provided the opportunity to gather very rich and informative data on issues pertaining to assessment reforms which also have very wide implications in many countries’ contexts.

The book is written for practising teachers, teachers-in-training, teacher educators, policy makers and researchers who are interested in teachers’ classroom practices, teacher beliefs, teacher professionalism, implementation of educational reforms in general and high stakes assessment reforms in particular.

The structure of the book is organized in a manner that rapidly presents the case stories of the teachers to the readers. These stories can be helpful to all teachers, whether in training or experienced, in a number of ways: (1) as a set of ideas to be debated upon and to act as a springboard for reflection on the purposes of assessment in education and on the role of teachers in these purposes; (2) as examples of practice that can be compared to the readers' own existing practices; and (3) as a source of models of practice to apply and test in readers' own classrooms. These case stories are followed by a discussion of a number of issues that arise from this group of teachers’ beliefs and practices. To cater for research-oriented readers, the relevant literature, theoretical underpinnings, and the intriguing research methodology that led to the case stories will appear as appendices.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/1-4020-3408-3

Metaphor and Analogy in Science Education / edited by Peter J. Aubusson,    Allan G. Harrison, Stephen M. Ritchie.  Springer, 2006.

ISBN: 978-1-4020-3829-7 (Print) 978-1-4020-3830-3 (Online)

This book brings together powerful ideas and new developments from internationally recognised scholars and classroom practitioners to provide theoretical and practical knowledge to inform progress in science education. This is achieved through a series of related chapters reporting research on analogy and metaphor in science education. Throughout the book, contributors not only highlight successful applications of analogies and metaphors, but also foreshadow exciting developments for research and practice. Themes include metaphor and analogy: best practice, as reasoning; for learning; applications in teacher development; in science education research; philosophical and theoretical foundations. Accordingly, the book is likely to appeal to a wide audience of science educators –classroom practitioners, student teachers, teacher educators and researchers.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/1-4020-3830-5

Modeling Theory in Science Education / Ibrahim A. Halloun. Springer, 2006.

978-1-4020-2140-4 (Online)

This book is the culmination of over twenty years of work toward a pedagogical theory that promotes experiential learning of model-laden theory and inquiry in science.

The book focuses as much on course content as on instruction and learning methodology, and presents practical aspects that have repeatedly demonstrated their value in fostering meaningful and equitable learning of physics and other science courses at the secondary school and college levels.

The author shows how a scientific theory that is the object of a given science course can be organized around a limited set of basic models. Special tools are introduced, including modeling schemata, for students to meaningfully construct models and required concepts, and for teachers to efficiently plan instruction and assess and regulate student learning and teaching practice. A scientific model is conceived to represent a particular pattern in the structure or behavior of physical realities and to explore and reify the pattern in specific ways. The author further demonstrates how to engage students in modeling activities through structured learning cycles.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/1-4020-2140-2

Teaching about Technology: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Technology for Non-philosophers / Marc J. De Vries. Springer, 2005.

978-1-4020-3410-7 (Online)

Teaching about technology, at all levels of education, can only be done properly when those who teach have a clear idea about what it is that they teach. In other words: they should be able to give a decent answer to the question: what is technology? In the philosophy of technology that question is explored. Therefore the philosophy of technology is a discipline with a high relevance for those who teach about technology. Literature in this field, though, is not always easy to access for non-philosophers. This book provides an introduction to the philosophy of technology for such people. It offers a survey of the current state-of-affairs in the philosophy of technology, and also discusses the relevance of that for teaching about technology. The book can be used in introductory courses on the philosophy of technology in teacher education programs, engineering education programs, and by individual educators that are interested in the intriguing phenomenon of technology that is so important in our contemporary society.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/1-4020-3410-5

Beyond Cartesian Dualism: Encountering Affect in the Teaching and Learning of Science / edited by William W. Cobern. Springer, 2005.

978-1-4020-3808-2 (Online)

There is surprisingly little known about affect in science education. Despite periodic forays into monitoring students’ attitudes-toward-science, the effect of affect is too often overlooked. Beyond Cartesian Dualism gathers together contemporary theorizing in this axiomatic area. In fourteen chapters, senior scholars of international standing use their knowledge of the literature and empirical data to model the relationship between cognition and affect in science education. Their revealing discussions are grounded in a broad range of educational contexts including school classrooms, universities, science centres, travelling exhibits and refugee camps, and explore an array of far reaching questions. What is known about science teachers’ and students’ emotions? How do emotions mediate and moderate instruction? How might science education promote psychological resilience? How might educators engage affect as a way of challenging existing inequalities and practices?

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/1-4020-3808-9

Critical Graphicacy: Understanding Visual Representation Practices in School Science / Wolff-Michael Roth. Springer, 2005.

978-1-4020-3376-6 (Online)

School science is dominated by textbook-oriented approaches to teaching and learning. Some surveys reveal that students have to read, depending on academic level, between ten and thirty-six pages per week from their textbook. One therefore has to ask, To what degree do textbooks introduce students to the literary practices of their domain? Few studies have addressed the quality of science curriculum materials, particularly textbooks, from a critical perspective. In this light, we are concerned in this book with better understanding the reading and interpretation practices related to visual materials—here referred to as inscriptions—that accompany texts. Our overarching questions included: ‘What practices are required for reading inscriptions?’ and ‘Do textbooks allow students to develop levels of graphicacy required to critically read scientific texts?’ Some of the more specific questions included: ‘What are the practices of relating inscriptions, captions, and main text?,’ and ‘What practices are required to read inscriptions in school textbooks?’ That is, we are interested not only in understanding what it takes to interpret, read, and understand visual materials (i.e., inscriptions), but also in understanding what it takes to engage inscriptions in a critical way. It is only when citizens can critically engage with language (texts, speech) and inscriptions that they become knowledgeable users of television, newspapers, and magazines, who can choose or leave aside particular expressions as part of the particular politics that they participate in.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/1-4020-3376-1

Philosophy, Science, Education and Culture / edited by Robert Nola, Gürol Irzik. Springer, 2005.

978-1-4020-3770-2 (Online)

Currents such as epistemological and social constructivism, postmodernism, and certain forms of multiculturalism that had become fashionable within science education circles in the last decades lost sight of critical inquiry as the core aim of education. In this book we develop an account of education that places critical inquiry at the core of education in general and science education in particular. Since science constitutes the paradigm example of critical inquiry, we explain the nature of science, paying particular attention to scientific methodology and scientific modeling and at the same time showing their relevance in the science classroom. We defend a universalist, rationalist, and objectivist account of science against epistemological and social constructivist views, postmodernist approaches and epistemic multiculturalist accounts.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/1-4020-3770-8

July 30, 2014

Series: Innovations in Science Education and Technology

Series Ed.: Cohen, Karen C.

As technology rapidly matures and impacts on our ability to understand science as well as on the process of science education, this series focuses on in-depth treatment of topics related to our common goal: global improvement in science education. Each research-based book is written by and for researchers, faculty, teachers, students, and educational technologists. Diverse in content and scope, they reflect the increasingly interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches required to effect change and improvement in teaching, policy, and practice and provide an understanding of the use and role of the technologies in bringing benefit globally to all.

 Are Schools Really Like This?: Factors Affecting Teacher Attitude toward School improvement / J. Gary Lilyquist.

978-1-4757-9282-9 (Online)

J. Gary Lilyquist synthesizes such innovative concepts as, systems thinking, mental models, effective school research, and Deming's theories of management to propose the new Balance Alignment Model, a wide-ranging approach for fostering school improvement. Three case studies demonstrate why schools are not improving and how Lilyquist's model can facilitate student learning.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-1-4757-9282-9

 Concepts of Matter in Science Education / edited by Georgios Tsaparlis, Hannah Sevian. Springer, 2013.

978-94-007-5914-5 (Online)

Bringing together a wide collection of ideas, reviews, analyses and new research on particulate and structural concepts of matter, Concepts of Matter in Science Education informs practice from pre-school through graduate school learning and teaching and aims to inspire progress in science education. The expert contributors offer a range of reviews and critical analyses of related literature and in-depth analysis of specific issues, as well as new research. Among the themes covered are learning progressions for teaching a particle model of matter, the mental models of both students and teachers of the particulate nature of matter, educational technology, chemical reactions and chemical phenomena, chemical structure and bonding, quantum chemistry and the history and philosophy of science relating to the particulate nature of matter. The book will benefit a wide audience including classroom practitioners and student teachers at every educational level, teacher educators and researchers in science education.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-94-007-5914-5

The Hidden Curriculum—Faculty-Made Tests in Science: Part 2: Upper-Division Courses /     Sheila Tobias, Jacqueline Raphael.  Springer, 2007.

978-1-4899-0482-9 (Online)

This resource manual for college-level science instructors reevaluates the role of testing in their curricula and describes innovative techniques pioneered by other teachers. part I examines the effects of the following on lower-division courses: changes in exam content, format, and environment; revisions in grading practices; student response; colleague reaction' the sharing of new practices with other interested professionals, and more. The book includes a comprehensive introduction, faculty-composed narratives, commentaries by well-known science educators, and a visual index to 100 more refined innovations.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-1-4899-0482-9

A Love of Discovery: Science Education — The Second Career of Robert Karplus / edited by Robert G. Fuller. Springer, 2002.

978-94-007-0876-1 (Online)

Robert Karplus, a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, became a leader in the movement to reform elementary school science in the 1960s. This book selects the enduring aspects of his work and presents them for the scientists and science educators of today. In an era when `science education for ALL students' has become the clarion call, the insights and works of Robert Karplus are as relevant now as they were in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s. This book tries to capture the essence of his life and work and presents selections of his published articles in a helpful context.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-94-007-0876-1

July 08, 2014

Series: Professional Learning

Series Ed.: John Loughran.             Springer

This series purposely sets out to illustrate a range of approaches to Professional Learning and to highlight the importance of teachers and teacher educators taking the lead in reframing and responding to their practice, not just to illuminate the field but to foster genuine educational change. audience: The series will be of interest to teachers, teacher educators and others in fields of professional practice as the context and practice of the pedagogue is the prime focus of such work. Professional Learning is closely aligned to much of the ideas associated with reflective practice, action research, practitioner inquiry and teacher as researcher.

Growing as a Teacher: Goals and Pathways of Ongoing Teacher Learning / Clive Beck, Clare Kosnik. Springer, 2014.

ISBN: 978-94-6209-560-1 (Online)

Teacher learning doesn’t end with initial preparation; many insights and skills remain to be added. This book is concerned with ongoing teacher learning, its goals (Part I) and pathways (Part II). It is based on a longitudinal study of 42 teachers: 20 over their first 8 years of teaching and 22 over their first 5 years. The areas of continued teacher learning identified in our study were: vision of teaching, program planning, assessment, relevance, subject content and pedagogy, classroom organization and community, inclusion, and professional identity. The pathways of learning included informal and formal PD, teacher inquiry, and school-based learning. A key finding of our research was that, over the years, teachers learn a great deal informally. However, they do so largely on their own and under considerable stress. Teachers need more support than they currently receive, both for survival and to enhance their informal learning. Teachers can benefit significantly from external input, but their everyday learning makes them key “experts” in teaching. Accordingly, PD providers should work with teachers, utilizing their existing knowledge. This book is written for consideration by teachers, student teachers, teacher educators, PD providers, policy developers, and others interested in facilitating teacher learning. Some of us have been writing – somewhat desperately – on these ideas for years.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-6209-560-1

Bridging between Research and Practice: Supporting Professional Development through Collaborative Studies of Classroom Teaching with Technology / Sara Hennessy. Springer, 2014.

ISBN: 978-94-6209-434-5 (Online)

This book presents a fresh approach to bridging the perceived gap between academic and classroom cultures. It describes a unique form of research partnership whereby Cambridge University academics and school teachers together grappled with and reformulated theory – through in-depth case studies analysing practice using interactive whiteboards in five subject areas. The inquiry exploited the collaborators’ complementary professional knowledge bases. Teachers’ voices are particularly audible in co-authored case study chapters. Outcomes included deeper insights into concepts of sociocultural learning theory and classroom dialogue, more analytical mindsets, sustained new practices and ways of working collegially. The book reflects upon the power of lesson video review and details how the co-inquirers negotiated “intermediate theory” – bridging educational theory and specific settings – framed in mutually accessible language and embodied in interactive multimedia resources for teacher development. These include video clips, analytic commentary from multiple perspectives, lesson materials, plus optional prompts for reflection and critique – not models of “best practice”. The resources make pedagogy explicit and vividly illustrate the book’s ideas, offering theory-informed yet practical tools designed with and for practitioners. Hennessy and colleagues have tested a model of ongoing, teacher-led development and innovation, professional dialogue and classroom trialing stimulated by discussing selected multimedia resources. The book will interest academic and teacher researchers, initial teacher educators, professional development leaders, mentors, plus practitioners interested in using interactive whiteboards and dialogic teaching. It explores widening approaches to collegial development to reach educators working in other contexts (with and without technology). This could involve intermediate theory building or shortcutting by sharing and adapting the outcomes – springboarding teachers’ further critique and professional learning.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-6209-434-5

The Professional Teacher Educator: Roles, Behaviour, and Professional Development of Teacher Educators / Mieke Lunenberg, Jurriën Dengerink, Fred Korthagen. Springer, 2014.

ISBN: 978-94-6209-518-2 (Online)

This book is a review of more than twenty years of international research on teacher educators. It offers a solid overview of what is known about the professional roles, professional behaviour and professional development of teacher educators. A systematic analysis of the focus, methods and data sources of 137 key publications on teacher educators make this book into an important reference work for everyone interested in the work of and research on teacher educators. There is a growing consensus that teacher educators largely determine the quality of teachers and hence, the quality of education. Through this book, Lunenberg, Dengerink and Korthagen provide not only insights into the various roles of teacher educators and the complexity of their work, but they also discuss building blocks for ongoing structured and in-depth professional development. The authors clarify that if we wish to take ‘being a teacher educator’ seriously, it is imperative that we build our understanding on research data. The book shows that although the number of studies on teacher educators is growing, the research in this field is still scattered. The authors highlight the need to create a coherent research programme on teacher educators and provide concrete suggestions for such a programme.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-6209-518-2

Understanding and Developing Science Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge / edited by John Loughran, Amanda Berry, Pamela Mulhall. Springer, 2012.

ISBN: 978-94-6091-821-6 (Online)

There has been a growing interest in the notion of a scholarship of teaching. Such scholarship is displayed through a teacher’s grasp of, and response to, the relationships between knowledge of content, teaching and learning in ways that attest to practice as being complex and interwoven. Yet attempting to capture teachers’ professional knowledge is difficult because the critical links between practice and knowledge, for many teachers, is tacit. Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) offers one way of capturing, articulating and portraying an aspect of the scholarship of teaching and, in this case, the scholarship of science teaching. The research underpinning the approach developed by Loughran, Berry and Mulhall offers access to the development of the professional knowledge of science teaching in a form that offers new ways of sharing and disseminating this knowledge. Through this Resource Folio approach (comprising CoRe and PaP-eRs) a recognition of the value of the specialist knowledge and skills of science teaching is not only highlighted, but also enhanced. The CoRe and PaP-eRs methodology offers an exciting new way of capturing and portraying science teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge so that it might be better understood and valued within the profession. This book is a concrete example of the nature of scholarship in science teaching that is meaningful, useful and immediately applicable in the work of all science teachers (preservice, in-service and science teacher educators). It is an excellent resource for science teachers as well as a guiding text for teacher education. Understanding teachers' professional knowledge is critical to our efforts to promote quality classroom practice. While PCK offers such a lens, the construct is abstract. In this book, the authors have found an interesting and engaging way of making science teachers' PCK concrete, useable, and meaningful for researchers and teachers alike. It offers a new and exciting way of understanding the importance of PCK in shaping and improving science teaching and learning. Professor Julie Gess-Newsome Dean of the Graduate School of Education Williamette University This book contributes to establishing CoRes and PaP-eRs as immensely valuable tools to illuminate and describe PCK. The text provides concrete examples of CoRes and PaP-eRs completed in “real-life” teaching situations that make stimulating reading.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-6091-821-6

Processes of Inquiry: Inservice Teacher Educators Research Their Practice / edited by Joanna Higgins, Ro Parsons, Linda Bonne. Springer, 2011.

ISBN: 978-94-6091-531-4 (Online)

This book presents inservice teacher educators’ accounts of systematic inquiry into their practice in a variety of contexts throughout New Zealand. The importance of purposeful networks of practice at all levels of a system in supporting education change and improvement is a theme across the chapters. The contributors describe the challenges and successes associated with working in professional learning and development in ways that aim to improve outcomes for teacher educators, teachers and students. Their accounts illuminate the importance of a research and development approach that enables the generation and application of new knowledge and enables all contributors to be learners.  Included are processes created for Maori (indigenous) settings where cultural metaphors were used to frame investigations of practice.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-6091-531-4

Scientific Literacy Under the Microscope: A Whole School Approach to Science Teaching and Learning / edited by John Loughran, Kathy Smith, Amanda Berry. Springer, 2011.

ISBN: 978-94-6091-528-4 (Online)

Scientific literacy is generally valued and acknowledged among educators as a desirable student learning outcome. However, what scientific literacy really means in terms of classroom practice and student learning is debatable due to the inherent complexity of the term and varying expectations of what it means for learning outcomes. To date the teacher voice has been noticeably absent from this debate even though the very nature of teacher expertise lies at the heart of the processes which shape students’ scientific literacy. The chapters that comprise this book tap into the expertise of a group of primary teachers from Our Lady of Good Counsel (OLGC), a primary school that chose to actively engage in teaching for scientific literacy. By analyzing the insights and thinking that emerged as they attempted to unravel some of the pedagogical complexities associated with constructing an understanding of scientific literacy in their own classrooms, these teachers demonstrate the professional knowledge and skill inherent in the expertise of teaching and learning science in a primary classroom. The chapters in this book illustrate the processes and structures that were created at OGLC to provide the conditions that allowed these teachers to explore and build on the range of ideas that informed their approach to teaching for scientific literacy. This book is a compelling example of how a whole school approach to scientific literacy can make a difference for students’ learning of science and offer a concrete example of the development of professional knowledge and practice of teachers.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-6091-528-4