Jennifer Mansfield is a science teacher educator in the Faculty of Education, Monash University. Jennifer's passion for science and science education has seen her work as a scientist and secondary school science teacher before transitioning into pre-service teacher education. Her research interests include the development of teachers' professional knowledge of practice and the development of teachers understanding and attitudes about science education, in particular science as a human endeavour and the nature of science.

Current reserach projects

Exploring Problem Based Learning in schools: This ARC funded research project involves working with teachers to generate research-informed principles of practice for Problem-Based Learning (PBL) in STEM education. For more information, please visit the project website.

Enhancing the quality of practical work in schools to support student learning: Encouraging pre-service teacher critical thinking about the selection, planning and implementation of practical work in secondary science classrooms. I am interested in extending this research to include in-service teachers.

Comparing the nature of education and biomedical students’ views about the nature of science (NOS) and scientific inquiry (SI). This cross-faculty project aims to explore tertiary students' views about NOS and SI, in particular, understanding about the role of creativity and imagination in scientific endeavour. This research involves working with Students as research Partners (SaRP) as a way of developing graduate attributes and employability skills.

Pedagogical equilibrium (PE) as a lens for teacher knowledge development: This research aims to explore the usefulness of PE for capturing and framing the development of teachers’ professional knowledge of practice.

Please feel free to contact me for further information about these research projects.

 Other research interests:

• Critical and creative thinking, especially in science and science education
• Primary and secondary science education
• STEM education
• Practical work in science education
• Biology education
• Action research and self-study
• Science as a human endeavour and the nature of science
• Teacher professional knowledge development and teacher professional learning
• Promoting scientific literacy in primary, secondary and tertiary sectors

External profiles:

Research Gate

Google Scholar

Teacher professional learning and teacher professional knowledge development, the use of practical work in science, teaching science as a human endeavour, problem-based learning in STEM education, self-study and teacher action research, biology education, primary science learning and teaching