Professional teacher knowledge in mathematics and science - development from student to teacher

Abstract

We are going to develop the teacher education programme for compulsory schoolteachers in mathematics and science. The prospective teachers are to study mathematics and science out of a teacher's perspective. That means making them aware of the alternative views of scientific phenomena held by children and engage them in serious reflection on how this knowledge about children's ideas guides the transformation of subject matter content in the planning of instruction. Subject matter knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge will be explicitly expressed, integrated and structured in a way that gives the prospective teachers a progressive development of their teacher knowledge base. We will identify and focus on central multidisciplinary concepts in order to achieve a holistic view of science. School-practice and theory will be co-ordinated to give the prospective teachers opportunities to reflect on practical teaching situations and student responses. Experiences of how pedagogy and content knowledge interact will be analysed and discussed in seminars together with their tutors and teacher educators.