How to Become a Good Science Teacher

Looking at how to become a good science teacher? Whether you are a brand new teacher about to enter the science classroom or a veteran teacher that has been in the classroom for years, I guarantee you that if you are reading this blog post right now, you are a good science teacher, actually probably a great science teacher! The fact that you show initiative to read posts like this shows that you care to grow!

Although some opinions may vary on what makes a good science teacher, there is actually a specialized body of teacher knowledge that is essential for effective teaching, pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), and term coined by Lee Shulman (1986).

I became very familiar with the frameworks surrounding PCK during graduate school and actually studied preservice science teachers’ PCK for my dissertation work.

In this post, I will not go all academic on you, but I’ll give an overview of the key things that are looked for when measuring science teachers’ PCK. There are a lot of resources to teach you how to become a good science teacher.

What Makes a Good Science Teacher?

So, what are the characteristics of a teacher that make you “high-quality” and awesome in the classroom? According to research, teachers that have effective teacher characteristics are those that possess a high level of PCK.

So, what are the qualities of good teaching that are a part of PCK? When doing my research to measure PCK, I used the framework by Park & Chen (2012) and Park & Oliver (2008). I definitely want to give them credit!

In this framework, there are five different categories that cycle and integrate with each other. When teachers make connections with these five categories, the higher their PCK is, and in turn, the higher quality teacher that are stated to be.

They are:

• Orientation to Teaching Science: This is teachers’ beliefs about the purposes of learning science, their decision making in teaching, and their beliefs about the nature of science.
• Knowledge of Students’ Understanding in Science: Teachers should be aware of how their students learn, their misconceptions, and other difficulties.
• Knowledge of Science Curriculum: This include a teacher’s knowledge of science curriculum materials, vertical and horizontal curricula, etc. Teachers should be aware and know about curriculum goals and materials and how they are implemented in the classroom.
• Knowledge of Assessment of Science Learning: Teachers should understand student performance and how to assess it.
• Knowledge of Instructional Strategies and Representations: Teachers should know how to introduce concepts. They should be aware of specific strategies and representations to use for the topics they teach.

What distinguishes novice teachers from those that are experts is how high their PCK is and how these characteristics are implemented and connected in their teaching.

How To Become an Effective Science Teacher

Now that we know the teacher traits that are suggested are needed in teaching science, how do you get to the point of being a good teacher? It truly takes time and experience. Read more about how to become a good science teacher.

Preservice Teachers

If you are a preservice teacher that takes a traditional path to education, you do have a leg up in some of these things. PCK development, for these teachers, ultimately begins in the teacher education program. You learn a lot of content knowledge when you take your science courses in school, but additionally, you also learn a lot of the pedagogical knowledge.

You learn about different strategies that can be used to teach topics, you learn about science curriculum, you learn about different ways to assess students, and more!

Lateral Entry Teachers

If you come into teaching a different way, you may lack some of the pedagogical skills that are learned in college, but you likely know more content knowledge and other skills than those they enter the field traditionally.

One of the benefits of being a lateral entry teacher is that you are learning a lot of the pedagogical knowledge as you are simultaneously teaching in the class. It’s much easier to apply what you learn as you are in the classroom!

Those In the Classroom Now

So, maybe you are reading this, and you’ve been in the classroom for a while. That’s awesome! You likely possess a higher PCK due to your experience.

How to Become a Good Science Teacher – What Next?

If you are looking to become an even better science teacher, here are some things to look at. This is my personal opinion list!

• Learn more about pedagogical content knowledge. In doing this, you will become more aware of what the research is saying about effective science teaching.
• Get to know your students! I think that this is HUGE now. You hear it everywhere that you need to build relationships with your students. Teaching is a lot different that what it used to be. Students have so many needs. If you want to focus on one of the characteristics of the framework, focus on Knowledge of Students’ Understanding in Science, because in addition to what they understand in science, for this component, you need to understand your students.
• Becoming an effective teacher takes time. There’s a lot to learn and it doesn’t happen overnight. In my research with preservice teachers, their PCK was actually inconsistent and didn’t show much growth. It takes time in the classroom and time with your students to grow. Just take a step at a time.

Now that we’ve talk about more of the research stuff, I’ll lay out another personal opinion. One of the things that I think makes a good science teacher is those that you are willing to learn, and you care for your students. If that’s you, you’ve got this!

I love the topic of PCK. I hope to share more information in future posts!

Effective Teacher Characteristics – More Resources

Looking for more resources on how to become a good science teacher?

• If you’d like to look into my graduate research, you can check it out here.
• To learn more about the original PCK research, check out Lee Shulman’s work.
• Learn more about PCK from my graduate advisor!
• Stay motivated as a teacher!
• Learn how to access free research papers.
• What to teach and what to leave out

Help your students master science content!

References:

Park, S., & Chen, Y. (2012). Mapping out the integration of the components of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK): Examples from high school biology classrooms. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 49(7), 922–941.

Park, S., & Oliver, J. (2008). Revisiting the conceptualization of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK): PCK as a conceptual tool to understand teachers as professionals. Research in Science Education, 38(3), 261-284.

Shulman, L. S. (1986). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher, 15(2), 4-14.