Physics Teachers’ Professional Knowledge
I am interested in the problem of how physics teachers learn to
teach as a result of experiences in their teacher education program,
both on practicum and during preservice courses. Although the literature
often states that teacher candidates attach particular relevance to
their practicum experiences, my research seems to confirm the
established finding that the practicum may act as a conservative force
in education. Thus it seems particularly relevant to pay attention to
the ways in which experiences in methods courses can encourage teacher
candidates to challenge, reframe, and extend their prior assumptions
about teaching, learning, and the nature of physics. Findings from my
doctoral research indicate that a methods course can have a significant
impact on how physics teachers learn to teach, provided it is taught in a
coherent way.
Recent Publications/Presentations:
Bullock, S. M. (2010, March). Beyond “repeating the textbook” and “problem solving”: Teacher candidates talk about learning to teach physics. Paper presented at the National Association of Research in Science Teaching (NARST) Conference, Philadelphia, PA.
Bullock, S. M. (2009, October). Challenging the cultural routines of teaching and learning: Lessons from a physics methods course. Paper presented at the EDGE conference: Inspiration and Innovation in Teaching and Teacher Education, St John’s, NL.
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Constructing a Pedagogy of Teacher Education
Self-study of teacher education practices (S-STEP) is a
well-established methodology that helps scholars to describe, interpret,
and analyse their pedagogies. Although there is not one set methodology
used for self-study (Loughran, 2005), a defining characteristic of
powerful self-studies is that teacher educators come to understand their own practice differently as a result of engaging in self-study. Although there is a growing body of literature documenting the
transition from school teacher to PhD candidate to assistant professor
who teaches teachers (e.g., Berry, 2007, Bullock & Christou, 2009,
and Ritter 2009), the majority of teacher educators engaged with
self-study are tenured academics who have significant experience
teaching teacher candidates. Murray and Male (2005) noted how teacher
education “demands new and different types of professional knowledge and
understanding, including extended pedagogical skills, from those
required of schoolteachers” (p. 136). Little is known, however,
regarding the extent to which beginning teacher educators purposefully
develop pedagogies of teacher education as they struggle to fulfill all
of the other obligations associated with their new roles.
Pinnegar and Hamilton (2009) recently made a strong case that
adopting an ontological stance toward self-study underscores the “moral
commitment” of self-study research. As a new academic charged with the
task of teaching future teachers, each one of whom has the potential to
teach hundreds of children over a long career, I regard studying my
pedagogy as a moral imperative.
Recent Publications:
Bullock, S. M. (2009). Learning to think
like a teacher educator: Making the substantive and syntactic structures
of teaching explicit through self-study. Teachers and teaching: Theory and practice, 15(2), 291–304.
Bullock, S. M. & Christou, T. (2009). Exploring the radical
middle between theory and practice: A collaborative self-study of
beginning teacher educators.Studying Teacher Education, 5(1), 75–88.
Bullock, S. M. (2009). Becoming a teacher educator: The self as a
basis-for-knowing. In K. Pithouse, C. Mitchell, & L. Moletsane
(Eds.), Making connections: Self-study and social change (pp. 269-283). New York: Peter Lang.
Educational Informatics
Educational Informatics is the study of
the convergence of concepts from disciplines such as computer science,
information science, and education with a view to exploring and
understanding the relationships between learners and digital
technologies. I am particularly interested in the study of pedagogical
possibilities afforded by new digital technologies, particularly those
which offer promising ways in which to disrupt dominant,
transmission-oriented views of education. Currently, I am exploring the
ways in which digital technologies can help facilitate collective intelligence and the nature and cultural implications of “digital publics” (boyd, 2007).
Recent Publications/Presentations:
Bullock, S. M. (2010). The challenge of digital technologies to educational reform. Paper presented at the ED-MEDIA World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications, Toronto, ON.
Bullock, S. M., & Ritter, J. K. (2010, July). Blogging as professional development: A collaborative self-study between two beginning academics. Paper presented at the ED-MEDIA World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications, Toronto, ON.
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Climate Change Science
The issues surrounding climate change are undoubtedly an critical
part of public discourse in the 21st-century. What role do science
teachers have in this conversation? To what extent have teacher
candidates’ undergraduate experiences prepared them to engage students
in rich learning experiences based on climate change science? What role
can (or should) science teacher educators play in this preparation,
particularly if teacher candidates do not have strong backgrounds in
science? This research program explores these and many other related
questions.
Recent Publications/Presentations:
Hayhoe, D., Bullock, S. M., & Hayhoe, K. (2010, December). A kaliedoscope of understanding: Elementary teacher candidates' knowledge of climate change concepts and impacts. Paper presented at the American Geophysical Union Conference, San Franscisco, CA.
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