Implications for practice and teacher education

This chapter draws on the research evidence from cross-case and cross-culture analyses of the EQUALPRIME project to identify implications for science classroom practice. While there appears to be a general global consensus in the research community regarding the goals of science teaching and the competencies students should acquire in primary school, the evidence of this project points to key dimensions across which science provision in primary schools varies. The chapter addresses the questions: What are the commonalities and the differences in emphasis in framing these teachers’ practice in the three countries? Can the strategies-in-common identified across cultures that support reasoning be drawn upon to frame approaches to classroom practice that in some respects transcend local culture and context? Does the cultural framing of teaching and learning in schools inevitably impede any attempt to productively transfer what we have learnt from one cultural setting to another? This research has implications for teacher education at both the in-service and pre-service teaching levels. This chapter will also explore the following themes: the different perspectives from which primary science teaching can be explored; the use of video case studies in teacher education resources; video ethnography as a reflective tool for teacher learning; teacher knowledge and professional learning