Structures and Strategies for Science Teacher Education in the Twenty-First Century

Overview & Synopsis

In order to determine the ways in which teacher preparation programs will need to change to meet the needs of preparing STEM teachers in the near future, it is necessary to ascertain what STEM teacher preparation programs are actually doing in the present. This chapter presents a comparative analysis of six different science teacher education pathways in order to portray, compare, and contrast the structures and strategies used by each. The central premise is that there is much to learn from what is already being done in this field from the different visions of science teacher education currently being enacted, and that calls to reform STEM teacher education often overlook these practices. No claims are made about the effectiveness of one structure, strategy, or pathway over another, but rather these science teacher education structures and strategies are presented as consequences of pragmatic choices about the strategic use of resources and decisions about what values to prioritize. Efforts to improve STEM teacher education can benefit from a richer understanding of these choices.