What knowledge do you need to become a science teacher? To help you in this quest the content in the book has been organized around a set of unifying themes of science teaching, that taken as a whole, consititute a partial answer to the question: What does a person need to know to be a science teacher? Some science educators refer to unifying themes as conceptual themes. A conceptual theme is a big idea---a unifying notion---an organizational structure. The conceptual themes that been have chosen are well documented in the literature, they make sense to the practicing science teacher.
The themes are clustered into three organizers: the nature of science, the nature of teaching, and nature of learning and the learner (Figure 1.1).
Figure 1.1: The Themes of Science Teaching
The conceptual themes should be recognizable to you, and furthermore, you come to this course with knowledge and ideas about these conceptual themes. I suggest that the place to begin your study of science teaching is to evaluate your present views about teaching, learning, students and the curriculum---in short, what do you bring to this course in terms of knowledge, attitudes and appreciatioins about science science teaching.