Opportunities to Learn within Practice-Based Teacher Education and School Contexts: Supporting Novice Elementary Teachers’ Content Knowledge for Teaching Science

Elementary teachers need support in developing their content knowledge for teaching science that foregrounds science concepts and practices. We know little about how teacher education provides opportunities to learn that potentially support both knowledge domains. We conducted a 4-year longitudinal case study of the opportunities to learn across a practice-based teacher education program (drawing on data sources such as syllabi, readings, slides) and preservice and in-service school contexts for three teachers (e.g. interviews with teachers). The practice-based teacher education program was founded on the work of teaching where novice teachers engaged with artifacts and approximations of teaching practice to support their learning and work with the high-leverage teaching practices. We found that although the practice-based program was intended to support novice teachers’ teaching practice, it also provided opportunities foregrounding novice teachers’ development of their pedagogical content knowledge and subject matter knowledge of the science practices. Also, during the participants’ in-service years, some opportunities foregrounding pedagogical content knowledge led participants to pursue other opportunities to learn science concepts. We discuss implications for how teacher educators can use opportunities to learn within practice-based programs to potentially support novice teachers in developing their content knowledge for teaching science.