Opportunity for change? The experience of being a new teacher educated to develop the way science is taught in schools

Bringing new approaches to science teaching such as interdisciplinary, problem-based teaching into schools has proved a slow and difficult process. One of the means to bring about the change is through teacher education. This study is a qualitative study inspired by constructivist Grounded Theory which explores how four new teachers educated from programmes with an explicit focus on changing science teaching in schools, experience the transition from being a teacher student to being a teacher. The study found that new teachers were able to transfer approaches to science teaching from education to profession in the cases where 1) their teaching profile gave them the flexibility to plan interdisciplinary science teaching, 2) education and discourse in the schools aligned, 3) they were supported by management and 4) they experienced support in a community of practice with people they had studied with.