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How Will We Understand What We Teach? - Primary Student Teachers’ Perceptions of their Development of Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Physics

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Abstract

The research outlined in this paper investigated how student teachers perceived the development of their knowledge and attitudes towards physics through video recorded practical workshops based on experiments and subsequent group discussions. During an 8-week physics course, 40 primary science student teachers worked in groups of 13–14 on practical experiments and problem-solving skills in physics. The student teachers were video recorded in order to follow their activities and discussions during the experiments. In connection with every workshop, the student teachers participated in a seminar conducted by their physics teachers and a primary science teacher; they watched the video recording in order to reflect on their activities and how they communicated their conceptions in their group. After the 8 weeks of coursework a questionnaire including a storyline was used to elicit the student teachers’ perceptions of their development of subject matter knowledge from the beginning to the end of the course. Finally, five participants were interviewed after the course. The results provided insight into how aspects such as self-confidence and the meaningfulness of knowledge for primary teaching were perceived as important factors for the primary science student teachers’ development of subject matter knowledge as well as a positive attitude towards physics.

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Correspondence to Pernilla Nilsson.

Appendices

Appendix 1

Table 1 Course design

Appendix 2. Questions posed in the questionnaire

  1. 1.

    Put into words your knowledge development represented in the storyline. Do you have any peaks or valleys, and why? How do you consider your knowledge development at the end of the course compared to when it started? What was easy and what was difficult, and why?

  2. 2.

    How did you perceive the design and the methods of the course?

  3. 3.

    How did you view the four workshops (good, bad, easy, difficult)?

  4. 4.

    What was your attitude to physics before the course, and did this attitude change during the course?

  5. 5.

    What factors during the 8 weeks were most important for your development of subject matter knowledge in physics?

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Nilsson, P., van Driel, J. How Will We Understand What We Teach? - Primary Student Teachers’ Perceptions of their Development of Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Physics. Res Sci Educ 41, 541–560 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-010-9179-0

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