The development of science teachers' knowledge on models and modelling: promoting, characterizing, and understanding the process

Abstract

Models play an important role in science education. However, previous research has revealed that science teachers' content knowledge, curricular knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge about models and modelling are often incomplete or inadequate. A research project was conducted that aimed at promoting and gaining an understanding of the development of beginning science teachers' knowledge in this area. The teachers, who were enrolled in a teacher's training programme, participated in a special course on models and modelling, and conducted a research project in their classes about this theme. The data gathered in this project support the discussion to the extent that both the activities of the course and the conducting of and reflection on their research projects contributed to the development of teachers' knowledge. From the results, we propose some guidelines for educational researchers interested in this area.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Fundação Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES, Brazil) and Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO, The Netherlands) for the financial support for the development of the research project from which this paper originated.

Notes

Such a project is a compulsory task of 300 hours work in postgraduate teacher education programmes in the Netherlands.