Abstract
Several studies have suggested that preservice teacher education has little impact on student teacher conceptions about various facets of teaching and learning. Most of these studies refer to generic teaching and learning, and very few have related to primary science in particular. To explore this area eight primary student teachers were interviewed on six occasions during the first two years of their Bachelor of Teaching degree. This paper reports the findings from part of these interviews. It describes the (sometimes changing) conceptions which these eight students held about how they would recognise a “good” teacher of science and the people and experiences they believed influenced the formation of these views. The differential impact of past and present teachers and the teacher education program revealed possible implications for practica and science curriculum units in particular, if teacher education is going to have an influence on preservice teachers' conceptions about teaching and learning.
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Skamp, K. Student teachers' conceptions of how to recognise a “Good” primary science teacher: Does two years in a teacher education program make a difference?. Research in Science Education 25, 395–429 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02357385
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02357385