Science Teachers’ Professional Knowledge

Abstract

The meaning of “teacher knowledge” as a construct has evolved over time as it has been interpreted and cast in differing ways from diverse perspectives by different scholars. The main tension that underlies the understanding of the nature of teacher knowledge can be traced back to the dichotomy between theory and practice. With an interest in the epistemological aspects of research programs on teacher knowledge, Fenstermacher (1994, p. 3) made a distinction between “the knowledge that teachers generate as a result of their experience as teachers” and “the knowledge of teaching that is generated by those who specialize in research on teaching.” He designated the former as “teacher knowledge: practical” and the latter, “teacher knowledge: formal.” He argued that both theoretical and practical knowledge can enjoy legitimate epistemological status in knowledge claims as long as the demands for justification are meet. Most research programs in the 1960s and 1970s were concerned with formal knowledge and involved understanding teacher knowledge from a theoretical or propositional stance. In these research programs, teachers were the objects of research, the “known” in Fenstermacher’s term, and the researchers often saw themselves as producer of knowledge about effective teaching. The 1980s saw the rise of several new research programs with a particular interest in teachers’ action in practice and the beginning of the shift in focus from propositional to practical knowledge. In these research programs, teachers were seen as the “knower” and the coresearcher or coproducer of knowledge about teaching (e.g., teacher as researcher). Researchers adopted various terms to refer to teacher knowledge, each emphasizing a particular characteristic of teacher knowledge. These terms included “personal practical knowledge,” “professional craft knowledge,” “practitioner knowledge,” “knowledge in action,” and “local knowledge.” It would be more productive to see Fenstermacher’s distinction as a heuristic device in analyzing teacher knowledge claimed in various research programs rather than as exclusive categories that