Nitrogen (N) in the agricultural production system influences many aspects of agroecosystems and several critical ecosystem services widely depend on the N availability in the soil. Cumulative changes in regional ecosystem services may lead to global environmental changes. Thus, the soil N status in agriculture is of critical importance to strategize its most efficient use. Nitrogen is also one of the most susceptible macronutrients to environmental loss, such as ammonia volatilization (NH3), nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, nitrate leaching (NO3), etc. Any form of N losses from agricultural systems can be major limitations for crop production, soil sustainability, and environmental safeguard. There is a need to focus on mitigation strategies to minimize global N pollution and implement agricultural management practices that encourage regenerative and sustainable agriculture. In this review, we identified the avenues of N loss into the environment caused by current agronomic practices and discussed the potential practices that can be adapted to prevent this N loss in production agriculture. This review also explored the N status in agriculture during the COVID-19 pandemic and the existing knowledge gaps and questions that need to be addressed.

Nitrogen losses and potential mitigation strategies for a sustainable agroecosystem

Most of the research examining the relation between instructional quality (INQUA) and mathematics teachers’ competence was restricted to a limited set of competence facets. Furthermore, mostly variable-oriented approaches were applied that assume homogeneity of teacher competence. In our study, teacher competence is conceptualized as a comprehensive multi-dimensional construct including a broad range of subject-specific and generic facets regarding mathematics teachers’ knowledge, skills and beliefs, all assessed in a standardized way with well-established instruments. In our person-oriented approach, applying latent profile analysis, we examined whether it was possible to identify subgroups of teachers with different competence profiles. These profiles were then related to the generic and subject-specific INQUA implemented. The exploratory study was carried out with 77 secondary mathematics teachers from Germany as part of the projects TEDS Instruct and TEDS Validate. The data revealed four competence profiles that differed quantitatively and qualitatively. The profiles were related to different types of INQUA, and the relations indicate a need of strong levels of knowledge and skills for high INQUA but a lesser relevance of learning beliefs related to the dynamic nature of mathematics. In addition, our results indicate a need of a stronger subject-specific operationalization of INQUA in contrast to previously dominating generic conceptualizations.

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Profiles of mathematics teachers’ competence and their relation to instructional quality

In recent years, teacher noticing has emerged as a construct to capture the dynamic and situational aspects of teaching expertise that underlies teachers’ in-the-moment teaching decisions and actio...

Teacher noticing in science education: do you see what I see?

“Learning by design” is a widely used approach for developing teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) in the context of designing technology-enhanced instruction. This approach offers teachers the opportunity to learn from colleagues with different areas of expertise. Despite the critical importance of teachers' collaborative discourse in mediating teacher learning in the design process, there has not yet been a TPACK review to analyze how researchers investigate this discourse. After a systematic literature search, we identified eleven TPACK studies from seven geographical regions that investigated teachers' collaborative discourse, and then examined how the researchers had structured and analyzed this discourse and integrated their findings. Our analysis identified four strategies used by the researchers to structure and promote teachers' collaborative discourse. We found that most studies relied on the “coding and counting” data analysis method to reveal the distribution of TPACK (sub)sets expressed in the collaborative discourse but not the dynamics of the knowledge construction process or the progression of the discourse. Although the studies generally provided initial evidence for the efficacy of the design process, this evidence was rarely based on changes in teachers' TPACK as enacted during classroom instruction or on the quality of the design outcomes. We thus propose a new conceptual framework that emphasizes the reciprocal knowledge exchange process between the TPACK of individual teachers and the knowledge shared by teachers through collaboration. This framework refocuses the attention of researchers on investigating and connecting teachers’ individual and collective TPACK and their development during the learning by design process.

Toward a framework that connects individual TPACK and collective TPACK: A systematic review of TPACK studies investigating teacher collaborative discourse in the learning by design process

This paper concludes the Special Issue (SI) ‘Probing the Amalgam: the relationship between science teachers’ content, pedagogical and pedagogical content knowledge’. We review the five papers (Sorg...

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Resolving the amalgam: connecting pedagogical content knowledge, content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge

This chapter chronicles the developmental journey of a model for teacher pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in science education, now identified as the Refined Consensus Model (RCM) of PCK, that represents the contributions and collective thinking of two dozen international researchers in science teacher education. This journey starts by recounting the process that led to an update and significant revisions to the model of teacher professional knowledge and skills including PCK (informally known as the 2012 Consensus Model (CM)). Then, we unpack and describe the different components of the model in both diagrammatic form and in explanatory text. The RCM describes the complex layers of knowledge and experiences that shape and inform teachers’ practice and mediate student outcomes. A key feature of this model is the identification of three distinct realms of PCK—collective PCK, personal PCK, and enacted PCK. These realms are used to situate the specialised professional knowledge held by different science educators in different settings ranging from the collected knowledge understood by many to the unique subset of knowledge an individual teacher draws upon. The model also recognises that the broader professional knowledge bases are foundational to teacher PCK while the learning context a teacher is working in can greatly influence the teaching and learning that takes place.

Ineke Henze-Rietveld

Papers

The Refined Consensus Model of Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Science Education