Teaching Youth Again: Reflecting on Renewal

Most of the professors contributing to this book had spent several years away from teaching children and adolescents, and they yearned to return to K-12 teaching to prove to themselves that they could (still) be effective teachers of youth. They could not move forward as credible people of reform and reform-based practices without putting into practice with K-12 students what they espoused as science educators. The preservice and in-service teachers with whom they worked needed to know, for example, that inquiry learning could be supported in the context of their schools and with their students (Lunenberg et al. 2007). By teaching again, they also aspired to updating and strengthening knowledge and skills in practice, practical knowledge for leading productive learning environments for science (Van Driel et al. 2001). Most of the contributing authors sought to regain credibility with fresh experiences teaching youth of diverse backgrounds and in schools with twenty-first-century technology and high-stakes testing. More boldly, a few ventured into teaching science for the first time, working with learners in grades below their prior teaching experience.