Science teacher candidates’ perceptions about roles and nature of scientific models

Learning through modelling in science: Reflections by pre-service teachers

“…Several PSTs stated that they had drawn a macroscopic picture of what they had seen. This finding is in line with multiple studies showing that PSTs hold naïve and simplistic views of models as replicas or copies of a real system prior to model-or modelling-based interventions (Danusso et al, 2010;Soulios & Psillos, 2016;Torres & Vasconcelos, 2017;Yenilmez Turkoglu & Oztekin, 2016). All science teachers should understand the meaning of a model beyond it merely being a copy or replica (Oh & Oh, 2011).…”

“…The PSTs who were interviewed emphasised how motivating it was to have the opportunity to model a phenomenon they observed themselves and to get to make several iterations of it. They claimed, in line with previous studies (Aktan, 2016;Torres & Vasconcelos, 2017;Yenilmez Turkoglu & Oztekin, 2016), that the use of models in school would make science more exciting and enjoyable and would involve pupils directly in the teaching and increase their urge to further explore. This experience supports Oh and Oh's (2011) suggestions that cyclic modelling can improve teaching practices and that modelling-based scaffolding frameworks can enhance engagement in scientific practice (Chiu & Lin, 2019).…”

“…Studies have shown that teachers describe models as artefacts for recalling and remembering content knowledge and as tools for simplifying, generalising and highlighting content (Aktan, 2016;Nielsen & Nielsen, 2019;Yenilmez Turkoglu & Oztekin, 2016). A desire to promote content knowledge from the curriculum rather than meta-knowledge about models can cause teachers to be more productoriented rather than process-oriented (Nielsen & Nielsen, 2019).…”

“…In-service teachers note that models can be used to assess pupils' content knowledge but that the assessment of modelling work can be challenging (Nielsen & Nielsen, 2019). However, several studies show that PSTs believe models and modelling can prompt interest and creativity among pupils and can make the teaching more diverse, accessible and concrete (Aktan, 2016;Nielsen & Nielsen, 2019;Torres & Vasconcelos, 2017;Yenilmez Turkoglu & Oztekin, 2016). Additionally, models can provide a concrete reference point for the subject under study (Nielsen & Nielsen, 2019) and can improve pupils' reasoning and arguing skills (Ryu et al, 2018;Torres & Vasconcelos, 2017).…”

“…PSTs have been found to hold naïve and simplistic views of models as only copies or replicas (Danusso et al, 2010;Soulios & Psillos, 2016;Torres & Vasconcelos, 2017;Yenilmez Turkoglu & Oztekin, 2016). This naïve understanding is even evident for PSTs holding degrees in physics, engineering and mathematics (Danusso et al, 2010).…”