High School Science Teachers’ Conceptualisations of Teaching and Learning: theory and practice

Abstract

Summary One focus of classroom based research in recent years has been the exploration of the relationships between teachers’ personal beliefs about the teaching/learning process and their classroom practice, and, in the context of science education, between teachers’ epistemological beliefs and classroom actions. This paper, based on two case studies of classroom practice, examines the beliefs and actions of two high school science teachers in relation to their involvement in a curriculum development exercise which was being undertaken by the Children's Learning in Science Project (now the Children's Learning in Science Research Group) based at the University of Leeds, UK.