Anyone involved in science education will find that this text can
enhance their pedagogical practice.
It describes new, model-based teaching methods that integrate social and
cognitive perspectives for science instruction.
What's more, it presents research that describes how these new methods
are applied in a diverse group of settings, including middle school
biology, high school physics, and college chemistry classrooms.
Within these settings and subject areas, key concepts such as the
structure of the lungs or cells, molecular structures and reaction
mechanisms, or causes of current flow in electricity, have been
notoriously difficult for many students to learn.
The studies presented in this book focus on a variety of successful
teaching strategies, such as discrepant questioning, analogies,
animations, model competition, and hands-on activities.
Five different levels of teaching strategies are described, from those
implemented over months (e.g., designing the sequence of units in a
curriculum) to those implemented over minutes (e.g., tactics for guiding
discussions).