This paper traces the development over several years of an initiative involving student journals that was introduced into a tertiary science education course for pre‐service teachers to promote enhanced learning of how to teach science. Very soon after introducing the journals into course work the lecturer began engaging in ‘unplanned’ informal reflection (reflection‐in‐action and reflection‐on‐action) when she witnessed the shallow, often trivial nature of her students’ reflective writing and the lack of pedagogical insights they were gaining from the exercise. Motivated by her own ongoing scholarship the lecturer introduced purposeful coaching of reflective skills into her pedagogy to scaffold students’ learning and promote more useful reflection. The impact of these interventions on students’ reflective capabilities and learning were investigated using a formal action research cycle. Findings indicate that student teachers’ reflective skills improved and resulted in deeper and more focused thinking about how to teach science for learning.

Research about the benefits of formative assessment as a means of improving student learning has encouraged policy‐makers and teachers in countries like the UK, Australia and New Zealand to promote and use classroom‐based assessment for learning in the qualifications arena. However, recent research suggests teachers are implementing a narrow interpretation of formative assessment in classrooms using techniques that focus on assessment procedures and practices to assure students comply with criteria and achieve awards for external qualifications. This variation on ‘teaching to the test’ has led to the coining of the phrase ‘assessment as learning’ to indicate the instrumentalism that results from such restricted practice. This paper reports on findings from case studies of two schools in New Zealand where secondary school students are learning how to perform science investigations under direction, for a curriculum standard that is a component of a national standards‐based qualification. The findings reveal that students’ assessment and learning experiences reflect the emerging international trend of ‘assessment as learning’, but strategies for redressing some of the undesirable aspects of this limiting form of formative assessment in this New Zealand context are identified.

Science education researchers have developed a refined understanding of the structure of science teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), but how to develop applicable and situation-adequate PCK remains largely unclear. A potential problem lies in the diverse conceptualisations of the PCK used in PCK research. This study sought to systematize existing science education research on PCK through the lens of the recently proposed refined consensus model (RCM) of PCK. In this review, the studies’ approaches to investigating PCK and selected findings were characterised and synthesised as an overview comparing research before and after the publication of the RCM. We found that the studies largely employed a qualitative case-study methodology that included specific PCK models and tools. However, in recent years, the studies focused increasingly on quantitative aspects. Furthermore, results of the reviewed studies can mostly be integrated into the RCM. We argue that the RCM can function as a meaningful theoretical lens for conceptualizing links between teaching practice and PCK development by proposing pedagogical reasoning as a mechanism and/or explanation for PCK development in the context of teaching practice.

As a means of achieving scientific literacy goals in society, the last two decades have witnessed international science curriculum redevelopment that increasingly advocates a 'new look' inquiry-based approach to learning. This paper reports on the nature of the student-experienced curriculum where secondary school students are learning under a national curriculum that is intent on promoting students' knowledge and capabilities in authentic scientific inquiry, that is, inquiry that properly reflects that practiced by members of scientific communities. Using a multiple case study approach, this study found that layers of curriculum interpretation from several 'sites of influence' both outside and inside of the schools have a strong bearing on the curriculum enacted by teachers and actually experienced by the students, and runs counter to the aims of the national curriculum policy. Over-emphasis on fair testing limits students' exposure to the full range of methods that scientists use in practice, and standards-based assessment using planning templates, exemplar assessment schedules and restricted opportunities for full investigations in different contexts tends to reduce student learning about experimental design to an exercise in 'following the rules'. These classroom realities have implications for students' understanding of the nature of authentic scientific inquiry and support claims that school science is still far removed from real science