Teacher education strategies and structures
For students to benefit from activity-based learning requires a different style of teaching, one in which the teacher adopts a role as facilitator, not as leader. Therefore teachers of science must be trained as learning facilitators and they must be equipped with the necessary skills in this area so that they can work effectively in the classroom situation.
Of particular interest is the question of how teacher education can be developed so that the teacher gains maximum benefit from pre-service education and continues in professional development thereafter.
Current projects include:
- Explicit approaches of developing prospective and practicing teachers’ conceptions of the Nature of Science (Clíona Murphy)
- Interdisciplinary physics and chemistry for teaching junior science (Eilish McLoughlin, Odilla Finlayson).
- Teaching Physics by Guided Inquiry (Paul van Kampen)
- Case studies for training tutors in mathematics and science (Brien Nolan, Eilish McLoughlin, Odilla Finlayson, Michael Parkinson).
- Teacher support for primary science in 15 Kerry Schools (Paula Kilfeather)
- Student reachers' experiences of history, geography and science: An all-ireland collaborative longitudinal study (Janet Varley and Clíona Murphy)
