תקציר:

The goal of this article is to expose teachers’ knowledge in the context of the special challenges they face when teaching higher order thinking. The study rationale is that understanding teachers’ knowledge is a prerequisite for designing effective teacher training programs. The study addressed 2 questions: (1) How well do teachers understand their students’ reasoning difficulties? and (2) What do teachers know pedagogically regarding these difficulties? Subjects were 37-83 junior high and high school science teachers. Data was collected during in-service professional development courses using four different methods: audio taping course discussion; work sheets that teachers wrote during the courses; self-report questionnaires in which teachers described lessons they had taught in their own classrooms; and reflective analysis of classroom instruction. The findings show that teachers are proficient in diagnosing students’ thinking difficulties and that they often apply a "transmission of knowledge" pedagogy even when teaching higher order thinking. The consequence of this pedagogy is a decrease in the cognitive level of tasks, which reduces students’ opportunities to engage in active thinking. Teachers’ reflective analysis of classroom instruction revealed several successful and non-successful patterns for treating students’ cognitive difficulties. Implications of the findings for teachers’ professional development are discussed.