In-Depth Teaching as Oriented-Research About Seasons and the Sun/Earth Model: Effects on Content Knowledge Attained by Pre-Service Primary Teachers

Abstract

Pre-service primary teachers mostly have negative attitudes towards science teaching and learning, and their science background is usually low. This usually results in them feeling unable or unconfident to teach science at school. A previous step to improve their willingness to teach science to children is that they feel they can learn in-depth any science core idea. To do that, a course conducted as oriented-research about a core science problem was developed and used to evaluate the influence of their previous science background and initial attitudes towards science teaching and learning on content knowledge attainment. The chosen science idea was about diurnal astronomy (Sun movements and the Sun/Earth model). Content knowledge attainment was assessed using learning indicators, which represent what pre-service teachers should “know” and “know how” on this science core idea. Overall, pre-service teachers achieved high learning levels on this topic, and no significant differences in content knowledge attained by students according to both initial attitudes and science background were found. This suggests that this teaching methodology could be useful for pre-service teachers to achieve a thorough knowledge on science core ideas, which is considered to be an important step to improve their willingness to teach science at the primary school. Keywords: astronomy education, science content knowledge, teacher education.

Sustainable Change in Primary Science Education: From Transmissive to Guided Inquiry-Based Teaching

“…Another difference was the operationalisation of indicators to evaluate the achievement of the objectives at every stage, which has not been previously considered in other studies. Another difference is that the teaching sequences represent a learning itinerary throughout primary school on one of the subjects most "rejected" by primary school teachers: Matter and Energy [18]. Students' learning about the existence of different and common properties in "all things" from 1st to 6th grade (with concepts such as mass, density, and electric charge in the later grades), assessed by pre-and post-tests, was much better when compared to control groups, and these results will be published elsewhere.…”

“…In fact, different studies have shown that inquirybased teaching has a significantly positive influence on early childhood and elementary school students' learning compared to traditional teaching (see, e.g., [12,[14][15][16][17]). Moreover, it does not only lead to better learning outcomes, but also improves students' attitudes towards science [18], and therefore it contributes to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4; quality education) in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development [19], which aims to increase the number of young people with the necessary skills to access employment, decent work, and entrepreneurship. These competences include scientific skills and knowledge to be able to respond to current social problems.…”

¿Es factible cambiar la enseñanza de las ciencias en primaria?

“…Recientes investigaciones han puesto de manifiesto las relaciones entre las emociones y el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje (Zembylas, 2004;Marbá y Marquez, 2010;Mellado et al, 2014;Martínez-Torregrosa et al, 2018). Por ello, se les mostró una lista con algunas de las emociones básicas que sienten los maestros ante la enseñanza y aprendizaje de las ciencias y se les pidió que seleccionaran las sentidas durante el curso.…”

Experimental Research on Enhancing Effectiveness in Teaching the Nature of Seasons

“…Cary Sneider and colleagues reviewed 41 articles detailing teaching strategies, practices, and di culties in learning and teaching the topic of seasons in different countries up to 2011. Since 2011, studies in this eld have pointed out that the di culties in teaching astronomy concepts stem from the complexity of astronomy concepts, the di culty in perceiving them, the prevalence of abstract concepts, and the need to think in three dimensions (Corrochano et al, 2017;Torregrosa et al, 2018).…”