Richard Brock

Previous research has examined students’ understanding of isolated lenses. This study extends that research to examine misconceptions of two-lens systems in a multiple case study. The study recruited five 17–18 year old students attending an optics summer school—in this article we focus on case studies of three of those participants. Participants interacted with an optical bench with a set of convex lenses and were asked to predict image formation in the case of a single lens and for two-lens systems. We found that although participants demonstrated reasonable understanding of single lenses, they generally showed misconceptions of the functioning of two-lens systems. For example, the participants failed to recognise that the image of the first lens would form the object of the second lens. Those teaching optics might note the caveat that whilst understanding isolated lenses is a necessary prerequisite for understanding two-lens systems, it is not a sufficient basis for appreciating the systemic properties of more complex arrangements.

Research reports that interesting but irrelevant information, seductive details, in teaching material can impede learning. In science education, the inclusion of historical narratives in lessons to promote interest has been recommended but may hinder learning. This study examines the impact of seductive details on UK high school students' knowledge retention from video explanations. The research adopted a mixed methods approach. In the first study, an online survey (N = 101) randomized participants to watch video explanations of two physics topics (dark matter and tracers), with seductive details or without, and compared pre‐, post‐, and delayed knowledge test scores. Six participants were interviewed. In the second study, nine participants took part in a think‐aloud protocol while watching videos to examine perceptions of the videos. In the first study, the seductive details in one topic (dark matter) harmed learning (p > 0.01, η² = 0.114), but not in the second (tracer, p = 0.166). Data from the think‐aloud task indicate an explanation for the mixed effect. Seductive details may both impede learning but also promote attention to core content, chunk material, and provide structure into which new content can be anchored when prior knowledge is low. Seductive details should be used with caution. They have the potential to impede learning, but, in some contexts, their negative impact on learning may be limited. Their effects depend on the context. The inclusion of seductive details in video explanations should not be ruled out, and we present guidance for reducing the impediment that interesting but inessential details can cause.

Creating and critiquing explanations of phenomena is a significant goal of many scientific disciplines and therefore also a learning goal of science education. A significant source of explanations is science textbooks; however, the large corpus of text in textbooks means that manual review of explanations by individual researchers is extremely time consuming. In this paper, we introduce a text-mining approach for identifying legitimate and illegitimate forms of teleological explanations in school physics and biology textbooks. An ongoing debate exists about the legitimacy of teleological explanations, that is, explanations which account for a phenomenon by reference to a final end, purpose, or goal. Until recently, researchers tended to view teleology as an illegitimate form of scientific explanation. Recent theoretical cases in biology and physics have emphasized that legitimate teleological explanations exist in both domains. Eight science textbooks used in England and internationally were analyzed for instances of teleological explanations. The analysis reveals the efficiency of the text-mining approach for automating the analysis of textbooks and its potential as a research approach in science education. In considering text mining as a research approach, we report terms that are likely to be associated with legitimate teleological explanations. We found that legitimate teleological accounts are used by textbook authors, and we present novel categorizations of these forms of explanation. We argue that text mining can be a useful approach in science education research and our findings suggest guidance for both textbook writers and teachers related to their selection of legitimate explanatory forms.

Since early 2020, COVID-19 has had a substantial impact on teacher education. We consider novel aspects of how pre-service teachers have collaboratively developed their professional identities during the pandemic. Drawing on findings from forty-five interviews with pre-service high school teachers working in England during September 2020 – June 2021, we share how collaborative identity development was central and occurred in a variety of spaces, communities and modes. Collaborative identity development featured in how pre-service teachers saw themselves making a positive contribution to society through education and, in strong subject connections. Reflection that is collaborative, personalised, iterative, and separate from notions of formal progression enables positive identity work. Notions of identity are absent from international policy initiatives in ITE (Initial Teacher Education). This case study provides insights for policy makers in and beyond England who aim to support teachers at the beginning of their career so that they are retained.

Teachers and teacher education are often presented as “problems” to be solved, with policy solutions that focus on ways to make teachers “better” and improve teacher “quality” by introducing prescriptive strategies. We investigate the ways Covid-19-related changes to university and school-based facets of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in England influence teacher quality in relation to both student teachers and early career teachers, working in secondary schools. Drawing on 34 interviews with school leaders, school mentors and ITE tutors, we critically explore the ways in which teacher quality was developed through key aspects of teachers’ pedagogy and practice during the pandemic crisis when schools were closed and teaching moved online. Our findings show that the pandemic crisis has highlighted the different facets of teacher quality which arguably disrupt narrow and prescriptive understandings of what constitutes “quality” in policy terms. Although there were many instances of challenge in the development of new and student teachers, our data also shows how ITE tutors, school mentors and leaders responded creatively to the crisis. Participants highlighted the opportunities afforded by the pandemic to develop diverse and innovative pedagogies and practice, enhance students’ subject knowledge, as well as overcome some of the challenges in other areas of pedagogy and practice. Furthermore, the study shows that teacher quality was not substantially reduced despite the challenges arising from the pandemic and concerns that pre-service teachers would not be ready and prepared for a career in the classroom.

Whilst teaching about the nature of science (NOS) is a significant goal of science education, there remains debate about specifying the NOS and appropriate pedagogies and approaches to researching the NOS. A neglected, but conceptually and practically significant, problem is the proliferation of NOS-related learning goals such as NOS beliefs, views, understandings and knowledge. In this theoretical paper, we argue that such goals are often poorly defined, and different goals cohere with different pedagogical and research strategies. We propose a novel three-part taxonomy of NOS learning goals (as NOS beliefs, knowledge and understandings) and contend that different approaches are appropriate for teaching and assessing NOS beliefs, views and knowledge. An NOS belief refers to a positive attitudinal stance towards some proposition that lacks justificatory support or cannot easily be judged true or false. NOS knowledge indicates justified true beliefs related to the NOS. NOS understanding denotes a grasping of how a collection of NOS knowledge is related. The goals vary by the extent to which they can be judged true or false and the degree of justification they require. For NOS beliefs, a range of stances is acceptable; NOS knowledge must be a true and justified belief; in the case of NOS understanding, teaching and assessment should focus on the appreciation of relationships between justified true beliefs. The novel taxonomy brings needed clarity to a confused aspect of NOS research and may lead to the development of NOS pedagogies and assessment tools more precisely targeted to well-defined learning goals.