A Framework for Examining Teachers’ Practical Knowledge for STEM Teaching

What a teacher needs to know and do when teaching specific disciplines effectively has attracted scholarly attention for many decades. The knowledge requisite for effective STEM teaching has gained attention as a result of the recent STEM education movement around the world. Furthermore, it is assumed teaching STEM demands that teachers teach in a completely different way. This chapter discusses these issues and proposes a theoretical framework for examining and analyzing teachers’ practical knowledge for STEM teaching. We draw on and synthesized literature on STEM education and teacher knowledge to identify facets of and a framework for teacher knowledge needed for effective STEM teaching. We also describe the design of an interview protocol that allows empirical studies of the knowledge facets delineated in the framework.