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teachHOUSTON is a university-based secondary STEM teacher preparation program that addresses the critical need for highly qualified STEM teachers in Texas and across the country. STEM teachers are prepared through early and ongoing field-based teaching experiences and rigorous research-based instruction that integrates content and pedagogy provided by faculty members who have extensive teaching experience in public schools. teachHOUSTON serves the fourth largest city in the United States, along with its satellite communities and has many noteworthy features which are mapped in this chapter. Particular attention is paid to inquiry-based learning, student-centered instruction, and culturally responsive pedagogy as well as the improvements in the program based on the collaboration between physics and teachHOUSTON faculty.

In order to teach science effectively, teachers need a strong background in science content as well as an understanding of productive methods of teaching. This includes inquiry-based learning that will cultivate conceptual development of science concepts with their students. Furthermore, it is imperative to use student-focused activities in high-needs schools to engage all students, particularly students of color, in the learning process. As a result, faculty from the teachHOUSTON Program and the Department of Physics at the University of Houston produced a Physics by Inquiry course to engage middle school and high school preservice teachers in interactive, inquiry-based teaching pedagogies for physics. This chapter provides an overview of the course. It also highlights the benefits of including such a course in a STEM teacher education program.

To demonstrate how teacher candidate narratives in response to videos depicting science and literacy instruction can be used to both teach and evaluate beginning teachers’ emerging conceptions of disciplinary literacy.

Teacher candidates viewed and responded to videos depicting exemplary practice in science education and then videos of their own practice. Qualitative discourse analysis was used to investigate the science teacher candidates’ interpretations of problems of practice, their views of scientific literacy and understandings of their students.

The teacher candidates displayed distaste for textbooks, reinforced by negative experiences with textbooks in school settings, and yet they viewed textbooks as essential for effectively teaching knowledge about science. At the same time, each viewed the natural world as the ideal “text” for teaching knowledge about science, at times compensating for the weaknesses of textbooks and at other times entirely replacing textbooks as the source of knowledge about science. We consider what this means for preparing teachers for effective subject matter and literacy practice.

Video reflections like these demonstrate that what teacher candidates understand about video representations of others’ and their own teaching are far from literal and are interpreted through the educational and background lenses of the teacher candidates’ themselves. We suggest that a great deal more work needs to be done to better understand how to use video reflection to best develop teacher candidates’ conceptions of subject matter and literacy practice.

The purpose of this chapter is to identify the pedagogical approaches that foster critical reflection using video among the pre-service teachers during tutorials.

The research is situated in a school-based teaching programme in which pairs of pre-service teachers taught small groups of primary aged children over a period of seven weeks. Volunteer pre-service teachers videotaped their lessons and selected video excerpts to share with their peers in the tutorial. The educator guided the pre-service teachers’ reflection using the video. A case study drawing on interviews with pre-service teachers and audio recordings of tutorials, charted the development of pedagogical decisions made by the educators to promote reflection.

The pre-service teachers had difficulties undertaking deep reflection of their own and peers’ teaching practice. The response by educators was to promote collaboration among pre-service teachers by discussing specific aspects of the teaching in small groups and to use a jigsaw approach. This enabled a deeper analysis of particular elements of the lesson that were then integrated to produce a more holistic understanding of the teaching. The video data are most suitable for reflection and provide valuable evidence for pre-service teachers to develop their practice.

For pre-service teachers to develop effective skills to analyse their own practice they need to experience teaching in a safe but challenging environment, over a sustained period; have opportunities to develop a shared understanding of what constitutes quality teaching; have opportunities to critically analyse their teaching in discussion with peers and educators and be able to be guided by a framework of reflective strategies.

This chapter details our story of developing and using a series of videocases in elementary science teacher preparation. The Reflecting on Elementary Science videocases provide models of best practices in reform-based elementary science teaching. They reduce the complexity of teaching into a manageable story situated in a specific context, so that preservice teachers can uncover and reflect upon their theories about science learning and teaching. Through an accompanying research program, we have found that the videocases perturb student thinking and catalyze them to think like a teacher as they refine their science education theories.

Recently, various policies have been implemented in Saudi Arabia to reform science teaching at K-12 levels in order to focus on critical thinking, inquiry-based learning, and problem solving. Research is needed to explore the adequacy of teacher preparation programs to determine whether these programs sufficiently prepare Saudi science teachers to teach according to these new reforms. This study explores the challenges that Saudi pre-service science teachers face in these higher education programs. Results indicated that graduates of the programs studied were satisfied with their experiences; however, various concerns were expressed by some pre-service teachers regarding the theory-practice gap between their university coursework and field experiences, and the supervision structures and functions in place for the professional experiences component. Modifications to the teacher preparation programs are suggested in order to address these concerns and to successfully enact reforms in science education in Saudi Arabia.

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the cultural script of the teaching of a lower secondary science lesson on the topic “Classification of Non-living Things” in Singapore through the eyes of Japanese and Singaporean researchers and teachers. In particular, the study analyzes the structural content, i.e. organization of learning activities of a lower secondary science lesson of Singapore and the culture of teaching, i.e. views about teaching held as tacit knowledge of science teachers. It focusses on students’ inquiry skills in a participative and problem-driven science lesson in the Singapore classroom.

This exploratory study adopts a cultural approach of viewing teaching and learning and compares classroom practice in two countries – Japan and Singapore. Contextually, the cultural differences in beliefs and values define how educators learn about what is “good” teaching.

The cultural script of teaching of the science lesson case values the setting of learning tasks that encourage a variety of ideas. It also sets a tone of inquiry-based learning where students are open to questioning, the formulation of ideas and the presentation of solutions. In the science lesson case, the teacher aimed at providing opportunities for students to think for themselves and to engage in group discussion. This study identifies key aspects of the science lesson for revealing the teaching script based on a cross-cultural lesson analysis. Figure 1 summarizes such facets of teacher teaching and student learning in detail as a result of the lesson analysis. Furthermore, it draws attention to recognizing areas of the lesson script which the Japanese team found effective/ineffective as well as identifying the Singaporean team's reflections on feedback from Japanese educators.

Through this study, the research team raises the following questions. Are there common practices that make for effective learning and if so what are these? From the perspectives of Japanese and Singaporean researchers and educators, what might be the different elements of teaching that will bring about better student learning?

An important avenue for inquiry in teaching is how to create teaching-learning processes that nurture students’ ability to deal with the unexpected as well as their application skills – competencies that are required of students to function in the twenty-first century. The research team suggests a cross-cultural analysis approach for future research investigating the cultural script of teaching.

The purpose of this paper is to explore teaching methods that can allow learners to be creative and proactive. The learners should be able to solve problems, make decisions, think critically, communicate ideas effectively and work efficiently. Teaching and learning are evolving and developing in many countries, with a focus concerning what is actually learned through effective teaching methods.

A qualitative research was carried out, identifying effective teaching methods and exploring their roles in teaching and learning in physical sciences in selected rural secondary schools. Face-to-face interviews with physical sciences teachers, school principals and curriculum advisers were used to collect data.

A range of teaching methods that may be integrated into teaching and learning activities is identified. The teaching methods ensure that topics are discussed and explored through interaction and sharing of perspective, views and values through which new learning can emerge. Viewed from this perspective, there is a need to create a stimulating, enriching, challenging and focused environment for physical sciences learners through the use of multiple teaching methodologies.

The improvement of science learner’s academic achievement requires also the teachers to develop new skills and ways of teaching the subject. Improving learner academic achievement in physical sciences requires an approach to improve the skills of teachers as well, which focuses on the effective use of teaching methods such as experiments. This means attempting to change the attitude of teachers to regard the processes of teaching and learning as central to their role. In addition, the achievement of learners in science could possibly solve the problem of shortages of engineers, skilled artisans, technicians, doctors and technologists for sustainable development. It is important to create conducive conditions for learning and teaching in physical sciences, and continue to progressively and within available resources, realise that collaboration, problem-solving and hands-on activities are effective teaching methods to improve learner academic achievement.

The learners should be able to solve problems, make decisions, think critically, communicate ideas effectively and work efficiently. The study is limited to the teaching methods used in physical sciences. Hands-on activities are essential in science teaching and learning.

The use of collaborations, peer teachings and hands-on activities allows learners emphasise the creation of a classroom where students are engaged in essentially open-ended, student-centred and hands-on experiments.

The paper is original work, in which face-to-face interviews were carried out. Qualitative research was carried out. The paper could assist educators in the teaching of physical sciences in secondary schools using the identified methods. The results were obtained from physical sciences educators, school principals and curriculum advisors in South Africa. Poor academic achievement in rural areas is a concern, and therefore, the paper provides effective methods which can be used by educators in the teaching of physical sciences in rural areas.

The study aimed to understand the effect of instructional coaching on teachers' implementation of a science teaching improvement programme and whether it varies in schools of different socioeconomic statuses.

The authors conducted an experimental study. A total of 59 seventh-grade classrooms from a representative sample of public schools from the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, were provided with research-based science educative curriculum materials (ECM) as resources to improve their teaching. A randomly selected treatment group received additional instructional coaching. Coaches met one-on-one with teachers on a weekly basis, providing pedagogical support to enact the ECM. After a 12-week intervention, the authors analyzed science teaching practices as evidenced in students' notebooks. The authors used a fidelity framework to understand the programme's implementation (with and without coaching), considering its adherence, dosage and quality, and compared how it varied across schools.

While teachers in both groups used the ECM in their science lessons (i.e. with high adherence), instructional coaching almost tripled science teaching time (i.e. the dosage) but did not increase the quality of implementation (i.e. the percentage of inquiry-based science activities taught). In low socioeconomic status schools, the effect of coaching on dosage was even more intense.

This study provides robust evidence on the impact of instructional coaching on teaching improvement programmes in science in developing countries, an under researched topic. The findings may contribute to developing targeted coaching interventions considering their effectiveness in different school contexts.