MasterClass in Science Education: Transforming Teaching and Learning

Description

Worried about teaching natural selection, submicroscopic particle models or circuits? Keith S. Taber explores a range of issues faced in secondary science teaching and discusses strategies for teaching the nature of scientific knowledge, making practical work effective and challenging gifted young scientists. MasterClass in Science Education shows how to become a master science teacher by developing and adopting the habits and mind-set of a teacher-as-scientist. The author introduces the three pillars of this approach: subject knowledge, pedagogic knowledge, and classroom research. The body of subject knowledge in the sciences is both vast and constantly evolving as it is challenged, updated and developed, and this text supports you to understand the dynamic nature of knowledge and the implications this has for your teaching. Taber shows how to use a knowledge-in-action approach, enacting knowledge in the complex and dynamic classroom environment. He supports you to critically examine classroom experiences, drawing on a wide-range of research-informed perspectives that offer insights into facilitating effective student learning. He also guides you to understand how to use recommendations from published research studies as components of a toolkit to improve your teaching and learning.

Keith S. Taber is Professor of Science Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge, UK.

I like this book ... The content gives the reader something to sink your teeth into. I feel quite reassured that if I am suddenly asked to deliver a Physics scheme of work to GCSE students, then using the knowledge-in-action approach, enacting knowledge in the complex and dynamic classroom will ensure that students are working towards positive outcomes. * UKEdMagazine * A particularly useful section in the first part of the book looks at a range of tools with which to present scientific ideas and knowledge ... [This book] provides support for teachers who want to develop their professional skills. * School Science Review *