Teaching Science : Contributions of Research for Planning, Practice & Professional Development

This book is written with two main audiences in mind: science education researchers and science teachers (or other educational professionals in technology and engineering). The authors think that this format is also ideal to disseminate more widely among professionals in science and technology education the research contributions and guidelines most relevant for their practice. This book is the result of a collective work of research in science and technology education developed by the authors team, composed of 13 researchers from three different countries (Portugal, Brazil and Angola) for over nearly 20 years. The research, developed in a scholarly context, has focused on science teaching practices, including inside the classroom and on how to become more effective in promoting students learning quality. The authors looked at science teaching practices in different contexts: general education (from K-12 to higher education), initial teacher training and teacher professional development. With this book, the authors aim to further disseminate their research, which is already published for a scholarly audience (mainly through several peer-reviewed journal and conference papers), by compiling the main research results in a concise and perhaps more accessible format. However, each chapter presents new aspects of the research already developed or puts it in the perspective of current research knowledge. The book is organised into four parts: Part I -- Contributions of Research to Planning Science Teaching; Part II -- Contributions of Research to Science Teaching Practices; Part III -- Contributions of Long-Term Research to Improving Science Teaching Practices; Part IV -- Contributions of Research to Professional Development. Part I focuses on a dimension of teaching practices that is central to their quality and effectiveness as well as their design and planning. That is where it all begins. Although it is the subject of research attention, it tends to be reduced to its operational aspects in the daily practice of teachers. Part II presents several specific research contributions that result from the study of science teaching practices in the context of the classroom. There are aspects of teaching practices that hardly change or change slowly. It takes long-term research to study them. Part III highlights these lesser-known aspects of teaching practices and the very processes that take place to increase the quality of teaching practices in a progressive and consistent way. Another aspect that needs to be ensured in order to improve teaching practices is giving attention to professional development, with the emphasis on increasing the quality of teaching practices. Part IV presents contributions from our research in this context.