Acquisition of Science Subject Knowledge and Pedagogy in Initial Teacher Training

In December 2009, the Wellcome Trust commissioned Roger Lock and colleagues at the University of Birmingham to carry out a study of the subject content of one-year postgraduate training courses for secondary science teachers.

Realising that most secondary science teachers are required to teach outside their science specialism, the Trust was interested to know how trainees acquire subject knowledge (as opposed to general teaching skills), and whether there are significant variations between institutions.

The study involved more than half of Initial Teacher Training (ITT) institutions in universities in England and Wales. It used a combination of document analysis, questionnaires and interviews with tutors and trainees: in all, 54 per cent of tutors and 245 trainees from six case study universities responded to questionnaires. Respondents were self-selected in the sense that they volunteered to take part in the study, but they were distributed fairly evenly both geographically and by type of institution.

Download full report [PDF 650KB]
Download overview and commentary on report [PDF 181KB]

The Wellcome Trust held a seminar in November 2011 to discuss the findings of this study and the context of the changing policy environment for teacher training. The seminar - which was attended by policy makers, charitable trusts, professional bodies, teacher training practitioners and teachers - aimed to explore ways of ensuring that science teachers in secondary schools (11-19) have the necessary subject knowledge and expertise to meet the needs of young people of all abilities.

A summary report that combines the key findings from the report and the seminar can be downloaded here [PDF 300KB].