Continuous professional development of chemistry teachers is essential for any effective chemistry teaching due to the evolving nature of the subject matter and its instructional techniques. Professional development aims to keep chemistry teaching up-to-date and to make it more meaningful, more educationally effective, and better aligned to current requirements. Presenting models and examples of professional development for chemistry teachers, from pre-service preparation through to continuous professional development, the authors walk the reader through theory and practice. The authors discuss factors which affect successful professional development, such as workload, availability and time constraints, and consider how we maintain the life-long learning of chemistry teachers. With a solid grounding in the literature and drawing on many examples from the authors' rich experiences, this book enables researchers and educators to better understand teachers' roles in effective chemistry education and the importance of their professional development.

This book presents a systematic literature review focusing on studies examining teachers’ participation in professional development (PD) within Germany, Austria, and Switzerland since 1990. It has identified 81 relevant studies and summarizes the results while answering the following research questions: What are teachers’ self-reported reasons participate in formal PD? What barriers do teachers report that prevent them to participate in formal PD? What individual and context characteristics are associated with teachers’ PD behavior? Teachers’ PD is considered to be an important part of the teaching profession. It is seen as a tool for constant further development for teachers to adapt to changing standards in schools and classrooms, requirements for students, and personal challenges associated with the daily work in school. However, it is repeatedly claimed that there is no sufficient research with regard to teachers’ participation in formal PD, as well as of aspects that may influence their PD behavior. In spite of a large number of studies that contribute to this question within Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, only a few of them are cited regularly. Since much of this research is published in German, the results are not accessible for international researchers and comparisons between different countries. This comprehensive review makes these result accessible.

The Politics of Teacher Professional Development: Policy, Research and Practice provides innovative insights into teachers’ continuing development and learning in contemporary western contexts. Rather than providing a list of "how-tos" and "must dos," this volume is premised on the understanding that by learning more about the current conditions under which teachers and other educators work and learn, it is possible to understand, and consequently improve, the learning opportunities teachers experience. Teacher professional development is not simply construed as an isolated series of events, such as day-long workshops marking the beginning of each school year or term, or individualistic "one-off" activities focused on new teaching approaches, curricula or assessment strategies. Rather, through application of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s understanding of social practices as contested, teacher professional development is revealed as a complex social practice which exists as policy, as a research product and process, and as an important part of teachers’ work. The book reveals how PD as policy, research and teachers’ work are inherently contested. An extended series of case studies of teacher professional development practices from Canada, England and Australia are employed to show how these tensions play out in complex ways in policy and practice.

The main theme of the proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Teacher Education and Professional Development (InCoTEPD 2019) is ‘’Teacher Education and Professional Development in Industry 4.0". The papers have been carefully grouped under the subthemes of teacher education and professional development, curriculum, learning materials, teaching-learning process, technology and media, and assessment in Industry 4.0 education. They also cover vocational education in the era in question and one section is devoted to Industrially disadvantaged societies. As these papers were presented at an internationally refereed conference dedicated to the advancement of theories and practices in education, they provide an opportunity for academics and professionals from various educational fields with cross-disciplinary interests to bridge the knowledge gap and promote research esteem and the evolution of pedagogy.

Innovations in Science Teacher Education in the Asia Pacific

Teacher professional development is subject to reform as a consequence of three, often interwoven influences: innovation, politics and pedagogy. For example, recent decades have seen learning and teaching take centre stage. As technologies have become more accessible and relevant, so professional development has had to keep pace, in order to provide teachers with an opportunity to develop skills and experiences to deal with this innovation. In terms of politics, as the prescription of input and the measurement of output are regulated and deregulated by the State, so teacher professional development shifts to meet accountability and credibility demands. Likewise, as our understanding of learning and teaching evolves, in terms of knowledge, processes, dispositions and evaluation, subsequent teacher professional development programmes responded to these current or in-vogue research findings. This new and much-needed book describes how teacher professional development in science education, from initial teacher education to continuing professional development, continues to face and address the various challenges that arise as a consequence of innovation, politics or pedagogy.

This book focuses on developing and updating prospective and practicing chemistry teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge. The 11 chapters of the book discuss the most essential theories from general and science education, and in the second part of each of the chapters apply the theory to examples from the chemistry classroom. Key sentences, tasks for self-assessment, and suggestions for further reading are also included. The book is focused on many different issues a teacher of chemistry is concerned with. The chapters provide contemporary discussions of the chemistry curriculum, objectives and assessment, motivation, learning difficulties, linguistic issues, practical work, student active pedagogies, ICT, informal learning, continuous professional development, and teaching chemistry in developing environments. This book, with contributions from many of the world’s top experts in chemistry education, is a major publication offering something that has not previously been available. Within this single volume, chemistry teachers, teacher educators, and prospective teachers will find information and advice relating to key issues in teaching (such as the curriculum, assessment and so forth), but contextualised in terms of the specifics of teaching and learning of chemistry, and drawing upon the extensive research in the field. Moreover, the book is written in a scholarly style with extensive citations to the literature, thus providing an excellent starting point for teachers and research students undertaking scholarly studies in chemistry education; whilst, at the same time, offering insight and practical advice to support the planning of effective chemistry teaching. This book should be considered essential reading for those preparing for chemistry teaching, and will be an important addition to the libraries of all concerned with chemical education. Dr Keith S. Taber (University of Cambridge; Editor: Chemistry Education Research and Practice) The highly regarded collection of authors in this book fills a critical void by providing an essential resource for teachers of chemistry to enhance pedagogical content knowledge for teaching modern chemistry. Through clever orchestration of examples and theory, and with carefully framed guiding questions, the book equips teachers to act on the relevance of essential chemistry knowledge to navigate such challenges as context, motivation to learn, thinking, activity, language, assessment, and maintaining professional expertise. If you are a secondary or post-secondary teacher of chemistry, this book will quickly become a favorite well-thumbed resource! Professor Hannah Sevian (University of Massachusetts Boston)

This book discusses the scope of science education research and practice in Asia. It is divided into five sections: the first consists of nine chapters providing overviews of science education in Asia (China, Lebanon, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, Oman, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand). The second section offers chapters on content analysis of research articles, while the third includes three chapters on assessment and curriculum. The fourth section includes four chapters on innovative technology in science education; and the fifth section consists of four chapters on professional development, and informal learning. Each section also has additional chapters providing specific comments on the content. This collection of works provides readers with a starting point to better understand the current state of science education in Asia.

This dissertation explores teachers' informal learning experiences. It examines a group of inquiry science teachers, generating hypotheses about the nature of their informal learning experiences, the resultant learning, how those experiences affect their professional lives, and the implications for education policy. It also provides an example of how to operationalize informal learning measures within an evaluation of a particular professional development program. The author conducted interviews with 20 teachers and used the interview results to develop an informal learning survey that was completed by 39 teachers. Results indicate that many teachers believe they do engage in valuable informal learning experiences. This learning has the potential to influence the effectiveness of teachers' formal learning experiences, what teachers do in their classrooms, and possibly students' learning. Results of this dissertation and of follow-up research can lead to increased effectiveness of teacher training programs by suggesting better design and more efficient program administration by states and districts. They can also provide the basis for improved research on teacher training effectiveness and help guide states' and districts' teacher-recruiting efforts by identifying adults who have already acquired specific teaching-relevant knowledge and skills.

The 2008 Physics Education Research Conference brought together researchers studying a wide variety of topics in physics education. The conference theme was “Physics Education Research with Diverse Student Populations”. Researchers specializing in diversity issues were invited to help establish a dialog and spur discussion about how the results from this work can inform the physics education research community. The organizers encouraged physics education researchers who are using research-based instructional materials with non-traditional students at either the pre-college level or the college level to share their experiences as instructors and researchers in these classes.