ABSTRACT
Ideally, teachers ought to be eased into transitions, and be provided with ample time and support to learn or refamiliarize themselves with the content prior to teaching it. Such teachers would also need to acquaint themselves with the curriculum, the various ways to make the subject understandable to students, and the ideas that students are likely to hold. Teachers with an apprehension about teaching a particular science topic may feel an ethical responsibility not to inflict their own attitudes and confusion about science on their own students—a mark of thoughtful teachers who want to do a good job. Different teachers respond in different ways to a need to learn new science content. A college degree in a science field is easy to interpret as a consumer guarantee that someone knows his or her subject well enough to teach it to children, and most parents and administrators generally hope that this is true.
