ERIC Number: EJ1299679
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Jun
Pages: 34
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0826-4805
EISSN: N/A
Primary Physical Science for Student Teachers at Kindergarten and Primary School Levels: Part II--Implementation and Evaluation of a Course
Interchange: A Quarterly Review of Education, v52 n2 p203-236 Jun 2021
This is the second of two papers on a novel physical science course for student teachers that develops and uses an imaginative approach to Primary Physical Science Education. General philosophical, cognitive, developmental, and scientific issues have been presented in the first paper; here, we briefly recapitulate the most important aspects. In the main part of the current paper, we present in some detail concrete elements of the implementation of the course at three Italian universities where Primary Physical Science Education has been taught for more than 6 years. After a brief description of the course structure, we discuss which parts of macroscopic physics are taught, and how this is done in lectures and labs. Most importantly, we show how the science is entwined with methods related to pedagogy and didactics that (1) help our students approach the science and (2) can be transferred quite readily to teaching children in kindergarten and primary school. These methods include the design of direct physical experience of forces of nature, embodied simulations, writing and telling of stories of forces of nature, and design and performance of Forces-of-Nature Theater plays. The paper continues with a brief description of feedback from former students who have been teaching for some time, and an in-depth analysis of the research and teaching done by one of the students for her master thesis. We conclude the paper by summarizing aspects of both the philosophy and the design of the course that we believe to be of particular value. [For "Primary Physical Science for Student Teachers at Kindergarten and Primary School Levels: Part I--Foundations of an Imaginative Approach to Physical Science," see EJ1260267.]
Descriptors: Elementary School Science, Physical Sciences, Student Teachers, Preservice Teacher Education, Foreign Countries, Science Education, Methods Courses, Kindergarten, Teaching Methods, Curriculum Implementation, Course Evaluation
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Elementary Education; Higher Education; Postsecondary Education; Early Childhood Education; Kindergarten; Primary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Italy
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A