Today, I received a copy of the 2nd Edition of The Art of Teaching Science.  Mike Dias and I worked for the last year and a half on the revision, and we were very happy to receive a copy of the book.  

The 2nd Edition of The Art of Teaching Science was organized into four parts.  We geared the revision and organization of the text to align with science education programs situated in classrooms, rather than as isolated courses of study at the university.  Following the earlier versions, we emphasized the contextual dimension of learning to teach, and provided experiences throughout the book that would coincide with students experiences in schools with mentors, peers and students.  

For the 2nd Edition of the book, we developed an extensive Companion Website.  In truth, the Companion Site was developed to provide users of the book with resources that we were not able to include in the book because of the desire to shorten the manuscript.  

The Art of Teaching Science Companion website

The Second Edition carried forward four pedagogical learning tools that are unique and fundamental to The Art of Teaching Science, and they are:

• Inquiry Activities
• Case Studies
• Science Teacher Talk Interviews
• Global Perspective

Inquiry Activities: We have included 33 Inquiry Activities that are embedded in the text, and are designed as way to bring social constructivism to the book.  The Inquiries are designed as collaborative activities, and can be used to engage learners in investigations, discussions, debates, observations, reports, and interactions on the key ideas developed in The Art of Teaching Science.  Here are a few examples of Inquiry Activities that you can read online to review this pedagogical learning tool.

    * Exploring Your Initial Ideas About Science Teaching

    * Designing a Science Tool Kit

    * Developing Science PCK

    * How Do Students Learn Science

Case Studies: In the Second Edition we refer to the case studies as “cases to consider,” and we use them to open each chapter.  In many ways the case can be used to enable readers to compare and contrast their pre-existing ideas about the content of the chapter.   We also have included additional cases on the Companion Website which can be located within each Chapter link in the Student Resources section.  You can read an example of “The Student Who Just Can’t Relate to This Physics Stuff.” 

Science Teacher Talk Interviews: These are “wisdom-of-practice” interviews that we conducted with three groups of 24 teachers.  The first group of six teachers was interviewed for the 1992 publication of Minds on Science, the second group, comprised of nine experienced teachers representing five countries, and three first-year teachers who were graduates of the TEEMS Program were interviewed for the First Edition of The Art of Teaching Science, and 6 additional teachers for the Second Edition.  We used a questionnaire which was developed for Minds on Science, and modified for the editions of The Art of Teaching Science.  The interviews are organized by chapter.  You can go to the Companion Site and read the interviews. Here is a link to the interviews for Chapter 1. 

Global Perspective:  Because of my involvement with the Global Thinking Project, which emerged from the AHP Soviet-Exchange Project discussed elsewhere in this website, I asked educators from several countries to write short essays describing science education in their respective countries.  For the Second Edition, you will find outstanding essays describing science education in:

·   Australia by Roger T. Cross

· Chile by Claudia Rose

· China by Ronald F. Price

· Ghana by Charles Hutchison

· Japan by Shigehiko Tsukahara

· Russia by Sergei Tolstikov

· Turkey by Fatih Tasasr