Teachers' and prospective teachers' explanations of liquid‐state phenomena: A comparative study involving three European countries

Abstract

As contact with liquids occurs from an early stage in individuals' lives, children construct explanations for liquids and liquid‐state phenomena. These may differ from the accepted scientific explanations, interfere with formal teaching, and even persist until entry into higher education. The objective of this investigation is to compare student‐teachers' and in‐service science teachers' explanations for liquid‐state phenomena, in three European countries. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire applied to 195 Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish in‐service science teachers. Data analysis revealed poor performance among participants, showing low percentages of correct answers. In addition, no systematic differences were found between participants from the three countries, and teaching experience seems to minimize some of the conceptual difficulties showed by in‐service teachers. Globally, science education seems to have had a limited effect on student‐teachers' and in‐service science teachers' conceptions. We conclude that more attention should be paid to the liquid state in both initial and continuing teacher education programs so that teachers can understand more clearly liquid‐state phenomena and succeed in explaining them to their students. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 349–374, 2007

Misconceptions of Turkish Pre-Service Teachers about Force and Motion

“…There are many studies suggesting that culture has no obvious effect on misconceptions about different topics of physics (Leite, Mendoza & Borsese, 2007). The research studies cited here and many others suggest that students and teachers in different cultures have similar kinds of difficulties in their understanding of the concepts of force and motion, and hold similar misconceptions.…”

The nature of the interplay among components of pedagogical content knowledge in reaction rate and chemical equilibrium topics of novice and experienced chemistry teachers

“…Many researchers ascribes teaching experience as the primary source of PCK development (Van Driel, De Jong, & Verloop, 2002;Van Driel, Verloop, & De Vos, 1998;Grossman, 1990;Magnusson et al, 1999;Van Driel, Beijaard, & Verloop, 2001), while others emphasizes that teaching experience alone does not lead necessarily to robust PCK (Leite, Mendoza, & Borsese, 2005;Friedrichsen et al, 2009). For instance, Lee, Brown, Luft and Roehring (2007) support that PCK can be improved through teaching experience; therefore preservice and novice teachers may possess limited or minimal PCK.…”

Elementary teachers’ science subject matter knowledge across the teacher career cycle

“…However, a review of the extant literature relative to the development of teachers' science SMK through teaching experience provides conflicting results. On one hand, studies have shown that teachers do learn science content through teaching experience (Arzi & White, ; Donna & Hick, ; Grossman, Wilson, & Shulman, ; Leite, Mendoza, & Borsese, ; Nixon et al, ; Smith, ; Strimaitis, Southerland, Kraft, & Schultz, ). Evidence for these findings is drawn from a variety of sources, including self‐report data (e.g., Donna & Hick, ), cross‐sectional studies (e.g., Nixon et al, ), long‐term longitudinal studies (e.g., Arzi & White, ), and shorter term studies (e.g., Smith, ).…”

“…Interestingly, the majority of existing studies have focused on secondary (Arzi & White, ; Leite et al, ; Nixon et al, ) or tertiary teachers (Strimaitis et al, ). Thus, it remains unclear whether these same results may be true of elementary teachers, whose SMK preparation differs dramatically from that of secondary and tertiary teachers who focus exclusively on science.…”