In a previous study, Puk and Stibbards (2010) demonstrated that a cohort of teacher candidates entering into an ecological literacy, Bachelor of Education program had very immature understanding of complex ecological concepts. Specifically, written definitions were either absent entirely, very vague, or missing essential criterial attributes, as well as lacking consistency in terms of their meanings. The current study was conducted at the end of the program with the same cohort and concepts in order to determine the effect that the ability to define these concepts and their growth in conceptual understanding of these concepts from pre-course to post-course. The preservice course in ecological literacy in which these teacher candidates were enrolled featured dynamic, embodied activities that seek to promote deep understanding of the complexity found in the intersections between natural systems and human systems. The current study found that there was significant growth in developing more mature definitions of key ecological concepts, which is attributed in part to the use of these emergent instructional activities. In addition, teacher candidates expressed a new, discerning approach to the general usage of some of the concepts as demonstrated by their critical assessment of their own definitions. The findings suggest that growth in ecological concept development and conceptual understanding for teacher candidates can be achieved through the use of nature-embedded, embodied experience.

The shortage of science teachers in the United States and throughout the world indicates a collective need to recruit more students into the science teaching field and to retain current science teachers. This study explores the profiles of U.S. science teacher candidates and investigates what attracts and discourages these pre-service teachers into teaching science. Through the use of survey and structured interview approaches we investigated the profiles of pre-service elementary, middle school, and high school teachers (n = 109) who were interested in teaching science. Common findings among this set of science teacher candidates included: positive science experiences with K-12 teachers during childhood, beliefs that certain teacher preparation content courses were roadblocks to becoming certified, unfamiliarity with the employment market for science teachers, and a lack of being recruited to teach science. Based on these profile characteristics of science teacher candidates, teacher educators may pursue specific strategies to encourage more teachercandidates to select science as their teaching field.

Invertebrates perform many beneficial and essential ecological services for humans. Despite this, the general public tends to view them negatively. Preservice elementary teachers often find themselves in a tenuous position because they possess the same negativity toward invertebrates as the general public but have been commissioned by United States of America national and state standards to teach their future students about the very invertebrates they distain. This study investigated the effect frequent direct contact with Madagascar hissing cockroaches (Gromphadorhina portentosa) in an educational setting had on preservice elementary teacher‟s arthropod (i.e., a subset of invertebrates) attitude and likelihood of arthropod incorporation in future science curriculum. A pre/post randomized design with a control group was used for the study. Preservice elementary teachers that received frequent direct contact with Madagascar hissing cockroaches in an educational setting during their preservice training programs had their attitudes and beliefs changed in a positive way toward that arthropod but not toward other arthropods. Implications concerning this finding, and other findings associated with the study, are discussed.

Research acknowledges that reform efforts in education often face resistance, particularly on the part of teachers. This study attempts to get to a better understanding of the reasons of resistance to change on the teachers' side through utilizing the structure of scientific revolutions as described by Thomas Kuhn as an analogy. To this end, a recent curriculum reform in science education in Turkey is taken as a case. The previous and new biology curricula are analyzed comparing their emphasis, approaches to the nature of scientific knowledge, theories of learning, and models for teaching and approaches to the assessment of learning. This analysis revealed that the curriculum reform experienced in Turkey has introduced a new conceptual and theoretical framework for teachers, which is fundamentally different from the previous one. To this end, the study discusses that understanding the new paradigm introduced by the new curriculum could be one of the major barriers that teachers face in the implementation of the curriculum reform.

Outdoor education in rural and agricultural surroundings offers many possibilities for learning and studying different school subjects as well as teaching. This study aims to explore the development of an educational rural camp school, Eco Learn, and to investigate pupils’ expectations and experiences and teachers’ experiences of carrying out the developed programmes. The development of programmes was a participatory process that included representatives from all parties that were involved (e.g. teachers, farmers, pupils). A mixed methods approach was used; quantitative (questionnaire) and qualitative (interviews, observation, open questions) methods that support each other. Analysis was done by inductive content analysis. A general increase in positive attitudes towards learning and studying in rural settings amongst the pupils after participation was found. The urban pupils expected more romantic countryside values and the rural pupils learning processes and products. Outdoor education in rural settings combined with preparatory activities was found as a positive experience for pupils’ learning by both the pupils (about 80%) and the teachers (about 70%), and it was evaluated as a better learning environment than an ordinary classroom. In general, results reveal many positive educational values of outdoor education in rural settings and a linkage between affective and cognitive values. Finnish teacher training is urged to take this type of education more effectively into the curriculum for teacher studies.

After taking seriously the idea that nature should have human rights argued by Cormac Cullinan in Orion Magazine (January/February 2008), we examined the lessons that could be learned from the tree that owns itself in Athens, Georgia. The point is to engage others in environmental and science education in a critical conversation about how school would have to prepare students to deal with rights for plants, as distinct from sentient animals and inanimate objects. As discussions of rights often neglects the interests and inference rights of non-sentient plants in the school curriculum and these nonhuman species are objectified for human needs, there is very little written about plant rights in science education. This essay is an imagined question of what science education would look like if rights for plants were adopted by humans. We address the idea of rights for the Tree that Owns Itself in Athens, Georgia, United States, and what science educators and their students can and should learn from addressing these rights. We explore rights for plants more specifically through consequentialist and nonconsequentialist reasoning and the nurturing relationship between humans and nonhuman species. We connect with scholars who argue for biocentric pluralism as a guiding philosophy, while using this theory to develop some educational implications of rights for nature within science education respectively.