Introduction. In Contemporary Science Education, There

My area of interest deals with teacher efficacy in STEM education. The article I have chosen discusses issues related to teacher efficacy, standardizing STEM education, using educational theories, pedagogical approaches, increasing teacher capacity and supports provided to teachers in STEM education. This topic is relevant because it supports the idea of building the efficacy of educators in STEM that is needed to prepare our students for the 21st century global workforce.

Hudgins, B.B., & Riesenmy, M.R. (1994). Teaching self-direction to enhance children’s thinking in physical science. Journal of Educational Research, 88(1), 15.

As educators, we are instructing our students not only in matters of scholarship, but in matters of self. Expression through confidence of autonomy, self-efficacy, and intrinsic motivation are integral to the development of any individual.

Surveys, according to Lovelace & Brickman (2013), are able to divulge information critical to the educator’s pedagogical practices, since practitioners can measure how students’ attitudes toward math and science influence their learning. Attitudes toward science are either positive or negative, and these innate feelings and predispositions affect students’ ability to learn science and math and acquire mastery of the subjects. Thus, educational practitioners use these psychometric measurements, in conjunction with learning outcomes to draw conclusions about levels of efficacy in their own instructional

A 2, 500 word assignment which examines the role of the learning mentor and analyses the strategies used in supporting science, evaluating the impact on pupils’ learning.

This framework builds on previous high quality works in science education: Science for All Americans (1989), Benchmarks for Science Literacy (1993), and NSES (1996). Unlike these previous standards, the importance of having the scientific and educational research communities was taken into the process for developing the framework. Thus, the most current research on science and science learning was grounded when identifying the science that all K-12 students should know, which increased its scientific validity and accuracy. The second step was facilitated by Achieve, Inc. with the recognition of the importance of state and educator leadership in the development of the actual standards. Thus, state policy leaders, higher education, K–12 teachers, and the science and business community were involved when developing Next Generation of Science Standards

As Whitehead says, “If a science forgets its heroes, it is lost.” Learning about nature of science and its social and cultural aspects will enhance of our understanding that science is a human endeavor. Science is a way of explaining natural phenomena by using interpretations and interferences with experimental data and observations. However, including history of science in our teachings, as well as a laboratory part, is a great way to illuminate students about the evolution of science and how scientists can take risks and sometimes fail while seeking information. Whether they study science fields or not, this history will encourage students to make and learn from mistakes while engaged in scientific practices that will expand their

Based on the NSTA Position statement, the curriculum of science from kindergarten through 12 grades has kept changing during the century of rapid development of science. Those changes increase the complexity of teaching and learning science. Teachers are required to design the science class that provides sufficient and effective activities of science to students. In addition, students are expected to complete the task by following the instruction and to adopt the factual knowledge replacing the superficial information or isolated facts. The importance of science programs is to assist students to adapt the community of the well-developed science, and develop student’s self-assessment skills.

According to Susman (2013), “science is a moving target, forever advancing and getting more complicated. It’s hard to keep up and really hard to catch up. What you learn in high school is often so different by the time you have kids of your own that you can’t easily help them with their science homework. Science changes faster than iPod models”. In this case study, Clifton High School principal believed that “students learn Science by doing, not simply by watching” (Picciano, 2011, p. 182). In 2009, the principal had trouble recruiting qualified science teachers and providing a full Science teaching program.

The purpose of this article is to inspect the possible link between teachers’ visions of the growth of scientific knowledge and the methods they use to help students construct a knowledge of science. Teachers’ views about science influenced not only lessons about the nature of science but also shaped an implicit curriculum concerning the nature of scientific knowledge. The study used sampling to find seven teachers. During the interview, the teachers were questioned about their syntactical knowledge. Syntactical knowledge refers to by Brickhouse as the methods used in a discipline to construct knowledge (e. g. , how experimentation and evidence influence the generation of scientific theories, how theories are used in generating new knowledge,

(2017) aimed to study effects of gender, interest, self- efficacy on children’s epistemic knowledge of science. Their subjects included 489 students from eight different Taiwanese high schools. A 36-item questionnaire developed by them was provided to the subjects. Their results did show minor differences but much to contrary belief, females had performed better. It was found that the female participants were better ay “understanding the meanings and limitations of measurement in science”.

While I was doing my field observation last semester, I notice one thing that motivates more student is hands on activities, not only motivates them but they learn more. Chen states an encouraging new report show that first year's outcome middle school students learn more in science classrooms that adopt a well designed, project focused curriculum. For students to choose a topic that can relate to them is important.

Using the survey and interviews of teachers, I wanted to answer the question “What is causing fewer females than males to pursue higher level science classes during grades 11 and 12?” I gathered both qualitative and quantitative data from these activities. From the survey, given to 11th and 12th grade female students who were either have taken or will be taking an AP science classes or regular science class this year, it was evident that there is a lack of interest with science outside the classroom, but most believe they have a good understanding in scientific tasks. This survey was given to 23 female students who met the criteria. Out of the 23 females, nine of them have been or would be in an AP science course. Of the female students who have been enrolled in an AP science course, 89% feel like they have a lot of success in science and 78% of them feel these courses help with their future career choice, yet even though they believe their teachers have made science exciting, all of them believe the school lacks the opportunities for pursuing science related fields. The difference between the female students in AP courses and those who are not, have a different outlook on how they feel regarding being successful. The remaining 14 girls, 78% of them feel successful within their science courses.

Lohman (2006) has found that self-efficacy is an essential aspect that affecting teachers' participation in learning activities. As a result, professional development activities have the potential for both positive and negative implications for teachers (McLaughlin & Talbert, 2006) resulting in the powerful ability to change teachers‟ individual behaviors. As the above studies indicate self-efficacy of teachers is an important factor in education and one of the key factors influencing teachers‟ participation in professional development activities.

philosophies as a teacher: to get students to think about science as a process, and to