ERIC Number: EJ1307977
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Jun
Pages: 28
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1609-4913
EISSN: N/A
Science Teacher Education on Nature of Science through Explicit and Reflective Curriculum Development
Manassero-Mas, María-Antonia; Vázquez-Alonso, Ángel
Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, v20 n2 Article 2 Jun 2021
Nature of science (NOS) is a key component of scientific literacy, so science teacher education on NOS is critical to ensure students' scientific literacy. According to mainstream NOS literature, explicit and reflective interventions are recommended to effectively teach NOS. This paper presents an experience for the initial education of secondary science teachers, which focuses on teachers' professional and pedagogical content knowledge development on NOS. A mixed-method approach involving quantitative and qualitative activities was applied to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention to improve teachers' NOS understanding. The quantitative activity was carried out through a quasi-experimental design with pre-post-test assessments, and the qualitative activity involved the teachers' development of a teaching-learning sequence on a controversial science historical case and their self-reflections on their NOS beliefs, as expressed in the sequence and the answers to the test. The participants are two cohorts of Spanish high-school science teachers enrolled in the Master's course to earn their pre-service education license to teach in Spanish schools. The results diagnosed pre- and post-test teachers' NOS beliefs, their actual improvements, and their self-assessments of their understanding of and changes on NOS. The findings showed an overall modest improvement of teachers' NOS understanding, the differential impact of treatment across cohorts, teachers, and NOS issues, and the difficulty of the self-reflection processes to develop teachers' awareness of their NOS beliefs. Furthermore, this ability was positively and significantly related to post-test and improvement indexes. Finally, the impact, generalization, improvement, and limits of the intervention model are discussed.
Descriptors: Science Education, Preservice Teacher Education, Graduate Students, Young Adults, Secondary School Science, Curriculum Development, Professional Development, Direct Instruction, Reflective Teaching, Instructional Effectiveness, Scientific Literacy, Scientific Principles, Beliefs, Concept Formation, Investigations, Science and Society, Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Foreign Countries
Hong Kong Institute of Education. 10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong. Tel: +011-852-2948-7650; Fax: +011-852-2948-7726; e-mail: apfslt@sci.ied.edu.hk; Web site: http://www.ied.edu.hk/apfslt
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Spain
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A