Dr Keith Taber
Position/Status
Senior Lecturer in Science Education and Programme Manager for the part-time PhD in Education
E-mail Address: kst24@cam.ac.uk
Phone: 01223 330569
Qualifications
BSc (Hons), PGCE, DPSE, MSc, PhD, ILTM, CSci, CPhys, MInstP, CChem, FRSC, FRSA
Membership of Professional Bodies/Associations
Royal Society of Chemistry
Institute of Physics
Association for Science Education
British Association for the Advancement of Science
British Educational Research Association
Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, manufacture and commerce
Higher Education Academy
Australasian Science Education Research Association
European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction
Profile
Keith Taber trained as a graduate teacher of chemistry and physics, and taught sciences in comprehensive secondary schools in England. He moved into further education where he taught physics and chemistry to A level, science studies to adult students, and research methods on an undergraduate education programme. He acted as the mentor for trainee science teachers on placement at the college. Whilst working as a teacher he earned his masters degree for research into girls under-representation in physics and his doctorate for research into conceptual devleopment in chemistry. He joined the Faculty of Education in 1999. Please refer to Keith Taber's web pages.
Dr. Taber was the RSC (Royal Society of Chemistry) Teacher Fellow for 2000-1, undertaking a project on Challenging Chemical Misconceptions (http://www.chemsoc.org/networks/learnnet/miscon2.htm). He was the CERG (Chemical Education Research Group) Lecturer for 2000. He writes a column (Reflections on Teaching and Learning Physics) for the journal Physics Education. He led the Cambridge project on teaching about ideas and evidence in science for the National KS3 Stategy (http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/keystage3/casestudies/cs_sc_ideas).
Dr. Taber is the moderator of an international electronic discussion list on learning in science. This list is intended as a forum for discussion among teachers, researchers and others who are interested in aspects of this topic. You may join the list at:
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/learning-science-concepts/
Academic Area/Links
Academic area - Science Education
Editorial Board member: International Journal of Science Education
International Advisory Board member: Chemistry Education Research and Practice (a journal published by the RSC, available free on the internet at: http://www.rsc.org/cerp)
Board of Reviewers: Science Education
Editorial Board Member: School Science Review
Editorial Advisory Board member: Teacher Development
Reviewer for a number of other journals
Chairman of the Royal Society of Chemistry's Chemical Education Research Group
Research Topics
Dr. Taber's main research interests are in aspects of teaching and learning in science: learners' ideas, misconceptions, alternative conceptions and alternative frameworks; conceptual understanding, conceptual integration and conceptual change and development; constructivism in science education; learner thinking and metacognition; explanations in science; teaching about the nature of science; challenging high attainers; notions of 'giftedness' (especially in science); how teachers can use diagnostic assessment to explore the nature and origins of learners' thinking in science.
Current Research Projects
Conceptual development in science: ECLIPSE
Meeting the needs of the most able in science (collaborative project): APECS
Course Involvement
Programme manager - part-time PhD in Education
Secondary PGCE - physics education tutor
MPhil in Educational Research - core team member
Research supervisor - MEd, MPhil, PhD
Topics of student research projects supervised include conceptual learning about the concept of field / astronomy topics / chemistry; thought experimentation; metacognitive aspects of physics problem solving; intuitive learning in physics; using drama-based simulations in teaching chemistry; coordination of knowledge in solving physics problems; science teacher beliefs and classroom behaviour; explaining phenomena in terms of particle theory. (Informal contacts from potential graduate students considering research at Masters or Doctoral level into aspects of science education are welcome.)
Publications include * :
Taber, K. S. (1991) Gender differences in science preferences on starting secondary school, Research in Science and Technological Education, 9 (2), pp.245-251
Taber, K. S. (1992) Science-relatedness and gender-appropriateness of careers: some pupil perceptions, Research in Science and Technological Education, 10 (1), pp.105-115
Taber, K. S. (1992) Girls' interactions with teachers in mixed physics classes: results of classroom observation, International Journal of Science Education, 14 (2), pp.163-180
Taber, K. S. (1995) Development of Student Understanding: A Case Study of Stability and Lability in Cognitive Structure, Research in Science and Technological Education, 13 (1), pp.87-97
Taber, K. S. and Watts, M. (1996) The secret life of the chemical bond: students' anthropomorphic and animistic references to bonding, International Journal of Science Education, 18 (5), pp.557-568
Watts, M. and Taber, K. S (1996) An explanatory gestalt of essence: students' conceptions of the 'natural' in physical phenomena, International Journal of Science Education, 18 (8), pp.939-954
Taber, K. S. and Watts, M. (1997) Constructivism and concept learning in chemistry - perspectives from a case study, Research in Education, 58, November 1997, pp.10-20
Taber, K. S. (1998) An alternative conceptual framework from chemistry education, International Journal of Science Education, 20 (5), pp.597-608
Taber, K. S. (1998) The sharing-out of nuclear attraction: or I can't think about Physics in Chemistry, International Journal of Science Education, 20 (8), pp.1001-1014
Taber, K. S. (2000) Case studies and generalisability - grounded theory and research in Science Education, International Journal of Science Education, 22 (5), pp.469-487
Taber, K. S. (2000) Multiple frameworks?: Evidence of manifold conceptions in individual cognitive structure, International Journal of Science Education, 22 (4), pp.399-417
Taber, K. S. and Watts, M. (2000) Learners' explanations for chemical phenomena, Chemistry Education: Research and Practice in Europe, 1 (3), pp.329-353
Taber, K. S. (2001) Constructing chemical concepts in the classroom?: using research to inform practice, Chemistry Education: Research and Practice in Europe, 2 (1), pp.43-51
Taber, K. S. (2001) Building the structural concepts of chemistry: some considerations from educational research, Chemistry Education: Research and Practice in Europe, 2 (2), pp.123-158
Taber, K. S. (2001) The mismatch between assumed prior knowledge and the learner's conceptions: a typology of learning impediments, Educational Studies, 27 (2), pp.159-171
Taber, K. S. (2001) Shifting sands: a case study of conceptual development as competition between alternative conceptions, International Journal of Science Education, 23 (7), pp.731-753
Taber, K. S. (2002) 'Intense, but it's all worth it in the end': the colearner's experience of the research process, British Educational Research Journal, 28 (3), 435-457
Taber, K. S. (2002) Chemical misconceptions - prevention, diagnosis and cure, 2 volumes, London: Royal Society of Chemistry (ISBN 0-85404-390-X)
Taber, K. S. (2002) Conceptualizing quanta - illuminating the ground state of student understanding of atomic orbitals, Chemistry Education: Research and Practice in Europe, 3 (2), pp.145-158
Taber, K. S. (2002) Compounding quanta - probing the frontiers of student understanding of molecular orbitals, Chemistry Education: Research and Practice in Europe, 3 (2), pp.159-173
Taber, K. S. and Coll, R. (2002) Chemical Bonding, in Gilbert, J. K. et al., (editors) Chemical Education: Research-based Practice, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers BV, pp.213-234
Taber, K. S. (2003) The atom in the chemistry curriculum: fundamental concept, teaching model or epistemological obstacle?, Foundations of Chemistry, 5 (1), pp.43-84
Taber, K. S. (2003) Mediating mental models of metals: acknowledging the priority of the learner's prior learning, Science Education, 87, pp.732-758
Taber, K. S. and Student, T. A. (2003) How was it for you?: the dialogue between researcher and colearner, Westminster Studies in Education, 26 (1), pp.33-44
Taber, K. S. (2003) Understanding ionisation energy: physical, chemical and alternative conceptions, Chemistry Education: Research and Practice, 4 (2), pp.149-169
Taber, K. S. (2003) Lost without trace or not brought to mind? - a case study of remembering and forgetting of college science, Chemistry Education: Research and Practice, 4 (3), pp.249-277
Taber, K. S. (2004) Conceptual development, in Alsop, Bencze and Pedretti (editors) Analysing exemplary science teaching: theoretical lenses and a spectrum of possibilities for practice, Buckingham: Open University Press
Taber, K. S. (2004) Learning quanta: barriers to stimulating transitions in student understanding of orbital ideas, Science Education, 89 (1), pp.94-116
Tan, D., Goh N. K. and Chia L. S. and Taber, K. S. (2005) Development of a Two-Tier Multiple Choice Diagnostic Instrument to Determine A-Level Students' Understanding of Ionisation Energy, Singapore: National Institute of Education.
Kind, V. and Taber, K. S (2005) Science, Teaching School Subjects 11-19 Series, London: Routledge.
Taber, K. S. (2006) Beyond Constructivism: the Progressive Research Programme into Learning Science, Studies in Science Education, 42, pp.125-184.
Taber, K. S. (2006) Constructivism's new clothes: the trivial, the contingent, and a progressive research programme into the learning of science, Foundations of Chemistry. (Published online: 31 May 2006, in press for print version)
Mclaughlin, C., Black Hawkins, K., Brindley. S., Mcintyre, D. and Taber, K. S. (editors) (2006) Researching Schools: Stories from a schools-university partnership for educational research, Abingdon: Routledge.