The Development of pedagogic content knowledge in science and mathematics to different teacher training models

There is currently a serious national and international shortage of secondary science and mathematics teachers highlighting the need to provide training systems that will attract students into these areas. There is a dearth of research focussing on the relative benefits of different models of training science teachers. This project aims to determine the relative effectiveness in terms of their development of deep understanding of the subject matter and pedagogic content knowledge for: undergraduate (four year single and double degree); graduate 'end on' (three plus one years); and retraining models for secondary science and mathematices teachers. The expected outcomes include: a better understanding of how teachers develope deep understanding of their subject areas and the relative benefits of the different training models; an indication of the preferred model(s) for the UC context; ad preparation as a pilot study for a larger cross-institutional national longitudinal study.