A Comparative Study on the Roles of Science Teachers Published in English and Chinese

Abstract

Science teachers play a crucial role in the science education system, significantly influencing the development of students. However, existing research highlights issues such as a wide age span and uneven quality among science teachers, which undermines the effectiveness of science education. In addition, the role of science teachers can be ambiguously defined, leading to confusion about their responsibilities. To better understand the current situation and future development trend of research on the role of science teachers in China and overseas, this study compares and analyses a total of 30 documents on the role of science teachers in Chinese or English. The documents were from Web of science or CNKI databases. Content analysis was applied on time of publication, number of papers, research topic, and similarities and differences of the role development of science teachers in China or overseas. Results show that: (1) At present, the development trend of research on the role of science teachers published in English and Chinese is relatively flat and has not received due attention. Most mainstream research paradigms are still in the stage of theoretical exploration; (2) Research themes of the role of science teachers mainly included five aspects: Role expectation, role orientation, role identification, role transformation, and role; (3) the “should be” research published in Chinese and the “real” research published in English should be combined and form a positive interaction. This study is helpful to systematically analyze the current situation of research on the role of science teachers, with a view to providing a basis for subsequent research on the role of science teachers.