Learning to Teach Science Beyond Talk of Reform

Learning to Teach Science: Tom Russell and Andrea K Martin, Queen's University, CanadaIn
general, the science education community is steeped with talk of reform
but there tends to be much pessimism as to our ability/willingness to
put those words into action.  Russell and Martin point out three big
things we should consider in order to move beyond the "Rhetoric of
Reform."1)    Science teacher educators tend to be reluctant to
practice what they preach; their own teaching isn't likely to reflect
what the research suggests new and experienced educators should do. 
Teacher educators who speak of reform but do not act in reform oriented
ways, are ignoring the reality that we learn to teach more by what is
modeled than by what is told.2)    Teachers are called to engage in
"reflective practice" yet there is little evidence that they are
actually being taught how to reflect and/or what to reflect on.  There
is also little evidence that teacher educators are themselves employing
focused reflection to reform their own practices.3)    Science
education research calls for students' prior knowledge to be explored
in order to build a foundation upon which conceptual change can occur
but the parallel complexity of conceptual change on prior views of
teaching and learning, held by pre-service teachers, is overlooked. 
Pre-service teachers' prior knowledge must be evoked in order to
inspire new teachers to develop best practices supported by research
evidence.