Jan H. van Driel’s research while affiliated with Victoria University and other places

Cultivating in preservice science teachers (PSTs) the competence required to teach scientific models and modeling is a valued outcome of teacher preparation programs. However, science teacher educators face inherent tensions when designing and implementing teacher preparation experiences to achieve this outcome. In this systematic review, we first propose five sets of design tensions that science teacher educators need to navigate. We identify empirical intervention studies that aimed to develop PSTs' professional competence for teaching scientific models and modeling and analyze how the reviewed interventions addressed the design tensions, and examine their outcomes. Our analysis reveals that the reviewed interventions prioritized the development of PSTs' cognitive aspects of teacher professional competence for teaching scientific models and modeling while giving limited attention to affective–motivational aspects and the need to simultaneously develop aspects of PSTs' competence not specific to scientific models and modeling. The interventions were more successful in enhancing PSTs' declarative knowledge than enacted knowledge and affective–motivational aspects. However, the nature of modeling activities included in the interventions varied widely, posing challenges in identifying critical features that led to the identified positive outcomes. The interventions reported mixed outcomes in developing PSTs' enacted knowledge in teaching contexts, even when incorporating activities for knowledge application and knowledge transfer beyond the intervention context. We discuss the implications of these findings and provide recommendations for better‐preparing PSTs to teach scientific models and modeling. We also discuss the unique affordance of using the design tension framework to analyze the interventions.

School STEM education thrives on the quality of interdisciplinary pedagogical approaches, which inherently require science teachers to engage in productive and collaborative efforts with their colleagues from other disciplines. The sociological forces that shape the performance of teacher interdisciplinary collaborations have been relatively understudied in the existing body of research. Among these factors, power distance value (PDV) stands out as a key determinant of successful teamwork among teachers from diverse backgrounds. This issue takes on heightened importance in high PDV societies, such as China. To address this gap, our study delves deeper into the unexplored dimensionality of PDV, thereby shedding light on how teachers’ PDVs manifest in their collaboration for interdisciplinary STEM (iSTEM) education. The finding derived from our data analysis of 523 Chinese primary and secondary school teachers involved in iSTEM programmes supports a three-dimensional PDV model that comprises decision-making power inequality, asymmetric social distance, and hierarchical cultural value. This contrasts with the common practice of assigning individuals a one-size-fits-all PDV score in literature. Using a novel network model, we further provided a refined understanding of how teachers’ differential PDV orientations could give rise to conflicts that may stymie team efforts at advancing iSTEM initiatives. This enables informed decisions on the formation and management of iSTEM collaboration teams, ultimately supporting the enhancement and sustainability of interdisciplinary teaching practices.

Why was a summit needed? Despite decades of research, investment and policy development, the issue of gender and STEM engagement remains intractable. The problem of participation in STEM is deeply complex and involves multiple influences that often constitute barriers to equitable participation in STEM. The STEM communities have had a focus on girls in STEM in particular across these decades leading to interventions at a number of levels including curricular and pedagogical responses, careers advice, the use of role models, special events and single sex classes. Thus far, however, the intractability of the issue is evident in the little substantive change that has occurred. The summit This summit brought together national experts on this topic from across the different levels of education, industry and government for one day with the aim of engaging critically and making progress on this longstanding issue. The Summit aimed to move discussion and action on the issue of gender and STEM forward through an exploration of recent theorisations of gender to interrogate the gender and STEM issue. In doing so, the Summit considered new perspectives that we hope will inform a shift forward in gender equitable theorising and approaches to STEM education. Objectives of the event 1. To explore current research, debates and frameworks in terms of gender disparities within STEM fields. 2. To examine current policies and practice to shape a way forward. 3. To explore intervention initiatives and strategies for upscaling. In this paper we present an analysis of the presentations and discussions during the day, organised by themes.

As science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) education continues to be a focus in many schools internationally, STEM teacher learning programs have arisen to support teachers with this integrated approach. Common to STEM teacher programs is teachers creating integrated STEM curriculum; however, missing from this research is how teachers develop the knowledge and skills needed to undertake this curriculum design. Consequently, for those designing STEM teacher programs, the literature provides limited understanding of how to support teachers’ learning of integrated curriculum design. This qualitative study investigated STEM teacher programs at ten Australian universities to identify the learning experiences that are perceived to be most valuable by teachers and teacher educators when learning how to design STEM education curriculum. Analysis of curriculum documents and the experiences of 23 individuals involved in STEM teacher programs (i.e., teacher educators, teachers) highlighted that a range of learning experiences is valuable for supporting teachers to develop the necessary knowledge and skills for STEM education curriculum design. Due to their breadth of learning potential, activities like STEM teaching resource analysis, and immersion in STEM education have a particularly important role to play in supporting teacher learning of the content, integration, and teaching required for STEM curriculum design.

In foreign language learning, it is important that learners become autonomous and learn how to self‐regulate their learning to continue language development. This article presents a self‐evaluation procedure designed to promote self‐regulation in speaking skills in a foreign language. This self‐evaluation procedure was tested in a quasi‐experimental study among 329 secondary school students in the Netherlands to investigate to what extent changes occurred in students’ self‐regulation of their speaking skills and to what extent students perceived the self‐evaluation procedure as motivating and adaptive to their needs. The results showed that shifts were found in the focus of students’ diagnoses and improvement plans for their own speaking performances. It was also found that the perceived need for teachers’ assistance decreased. Moreover, students found support to be adaptive and appreciated the activities in the self‐evaluation procedure—especially producing and executing an improvement plan. In conclusion, this study contributes to the development of knowledge about guiding students’ self‐regulation of speaking skills by adding concrete design principles to realize such a learning process.

This pilot study seeks to investigate how an experienced mathematics teacher educator modified instruction while teaching a group of adult volunteers about how to teach fractions. An ecological model of educator noticing and decision making was used to draw attention to environmental cues the educator relied on to guide action mid instruction. Having identified decision cues, the educator perceived in the lesson, computer assisted analysis was developed to provide more detailed analysis of the cues. This resulted in the development of algorithms that could identify changes in student posture and the way students placed number cards on a number line that corresponded with the cues the educator recalled post lesson. By identifying what an experienced educator looks for mid-lesson, and the cues they attend to, we hope to enhance the training of mathematics teacher educators in the future.