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The wow-effect in science teacher education

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Abstract

This article explores the wow-effect as a phenomenon in science teacher education. Through ethnographic fieldwork at a teachers’ college in Denmark, the author encounters a phenomenon enacted in a particular way of teaching that wows the students. The students are in the process of becoming natural science/technology and biology teachers. This article explores and theorizes the wow-effect by examining tension fields within the phenomenon between boredom and engagement, new and old technologies, and being active and sedentary. By situating this phenomenon in a discussion of theory and practice in teacher education, the author discusses how teaching according to the wow-effect is both engaging for the students as well as problematic in relation to learning certain theoretical aspects of natural science/technology and biology.

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Correspondence to Anne Katrine Kamstrupp.

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Lead Editor: C. Quigley

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Kamstrupp, A.K. The wow-effect in science teacher education. Cult Stud of Sci Educ 11, 879–897 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-015-9684-6

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