Science Teaching and Science Teacher Education

Abstract

There is an inherent difficulty in science teaching whereby complex and abstract concepts and ideas need to be taught in ways that make them accessible and understandable for learners. As a consequence, teachers' attempts at simplification may inadvertently reduce such subject matter to propositional forms that, sadly, foster reliance on rote learning as opposed to encouraging the development of rich and deep understandings. Paradoxically, many science teachers themselves come from that sub-set of students who successfully managed to learn science despite the difficulty and associated teaching and learning tensions within this very situation. Therefore, it is not hard to see how they may in fact actually find themselves unwittingly recreating the same situation again for their own students, all of whom are not likely to learn ``just like they did''.