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Efforts to promote conceptual, student-centered instruction rely on teachers' capacity and readiness to adopt reformed teaching practices. Yet it is not clear how teachers understand and implement such practices. This book describes my collaboration with one fifth-grade teacher to use concept-oriented instruction in a revised unit on force and motion. I qualitatively explored changes in the teacher's content knowledge, teaching beliefs, and classroom practices, and changes in students' science knowledge. The teacher's colleagues also chose to participate in the revised unit, with strong influence on the enacted lessons. The results show relationships between specific practices and student learning. In addition, I describe personal and contextual factors--some promoting change, others resisting it--that affected instruction during the unit. I discuss possible implications for professional development and future research. This book is appropriate for educators and school administrators concerned with resistance to change, as well as researchers interested in educational reform.
