How can physics education be designed and enacted in such a way that it is in agreement with the Nature of Science (NOS) and fosters conceptual understanding in electricity? The results of the studies may have implications for practice. Teachers and teacher educators need to develop a balanced perspective on conceptual understanding in relation to inquiry and take into account the tensions that were identified. For the topic of electricity, teachers may learn from the local instruction theory and pedagogy developed in this dissertation. Both teacher education institutes and professionalization efforts need to prepare teachers for this type of instruction. This will be fostered if teachers and teacher educators develop an understanding of NOS. A noticeable classroom impact of teacher learning may be expected if teachers work cooperatively on the same issue, related to a concern about student learning, if expertise is available on the content and pedagogy, and if classroom coaching and feedback are part of the project. The criteria to evaluate textbooks may be helpful for authors of learning materials if they intend to foster model-oriented activities and inquiry, but also for practitioners for the selection of these materials and in teacher education to prepare for a systematic evaluation of learning materials for physics.
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In this chapter, we discuss the education of secondary school mathematics teachers in the Netherlands. There are different routes for qualifying as a secondary school mathematics teacher. These routes target different student teacher populations, ranging from those who have just graduated from high school to those who have already pursued a career outside education or working teachers who want to qualify for teaching in higher grades. After discussing the complex structure this leads to, we focus on the aspects that these different routes have in common. We point out typical characteristics of Dutch school mathematics and discuss the aims and challenges in teacher education that result from this. We give examples of different approaches used in Dutch teacher education, which we link to a particular model for designing vocational and professional learning environments.We end the chapter with a reflection on the current situation.
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Systems thinking is a complex skill for learners in secondary education. We argue that qualitative representations can be valuable tools to actively engage in learning this skill. However, the effectiveness of these tools is currently hampered by complexity and the lack of instructional embedding. In this contribution, we present our developments on scaffolds for learning, instructional formats, and automated support in order to unleash the potential of qualitative representations for secondary education.
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