Science Teachers’ Perceptions: Similarities and Differences in the U.S., England, Singapore and Japan

Abstract

The prospect of using internationally generated comparative data, augmented with practice patterns, to provide useful information from which countries can learn from each other, is gaining acceptance from the increasing popularity of such an approach (Stigler and Hiebert, 1999). Using the survey data from TIMSS we examine the beliefs of teachers in the U.S., England, Singapore and Japan, and find little national variation in many teachers’ perceptions of core practices in science teaching, indicating that science teachers the world over share the same common core practices. However, there is one key difference among their practices, which signals a departure in the way teachers in Japan and Singapore operate vis‐à‐vis those in the U.S. and England. This key difference is attributed to cultural differences in the U.S. and England, when compared to Japan and Singapore.