Learning to teach scientific practices: pedagogical decisions and reflections during a course for pre-service science teachers

Deniz Saribas,Gaye Defne Ceyhan

doi:10.1186/s40594-015-0023-y

Abstract

This auto-ethnographic study describes research conducted in a science teacher education program at a state university in Turkey, where I had taught the ‘laboratory applications’ course for the four previous years. While the students learned the basic skills needed to implement a laboratory course, I detected some deficiencies in their understanding of scientific practices. Consequently, I decided to adopt a different approach. In the fall of 2013 to 2014, I participated in a project aimed at improving pre-service science teachers’ understanding of scientific practices (SPs) using a model known as the Benzene Ring Heuristic (Erduran and Dagher 2014). This project helped me to re-design my course, emphasizing the integration of SPs into lesson planning and teaching. As I taught the re-designed course, I gathered data from various sources, including pre- and post-interviews, audiotape recordings of lessons, students’ lesson plans and reflections, and my own and my colleague’s reflections after teaching. The data suggest that my students’ understanding of SPs improved, but I was still not satisfied with their understanding of domain specificity, ethics, and utility in science, or with their beliefs about the roles and responsibilities of students during science lessons. These are issues to be dealt with as I continue to try to improve the course.

Highlights

This auto-ethnographic study describes research conducted in a science teacher education program at a state university in Turkey, where I had taught the ‘laboratory applications’ course for the four previous years
I assumed that my students could identify and explain the process skills they used in their lesson plans (LPs)
I concluded that I should put more emphasis on modeling: We found that the students used and discussed modeling in their second LP

Summary

Introduction

This auto-ethnographic study describes research conducted in a science teacher education program at a state university in Turkey, where I had taught the ‘laboratory applications’ course for the four previous years. While the students learned the basic skills needed to implement a laboratory course, I detected some deficiencies in their understanding of scientific practices. I completed my PhD in the spring of 2008, and since the fall of 2009, I have been working as an instructor at a state university in Turkey, teaching pre-service science teachers the methodology of science teaching. The purpose of my courses has been to further their understanding of science and the scientific method and to enable them to design and implement science lessons. The goal of my ‘laboratory applications’ course is to provide pre-service science teachers with the analytical and communicative skills needed to design and implement laboratory instruction. I inferred that my students were able to design and implement an inquiry-based science lesson, I did not succeed in making them understand the underlying science. The following list summarizes the problems I found in their reasoning about science and the scientific process: They regarded the scientific method as a step-by-step procedure beginning with a question and ending with results, despite my emphasis on the iterative nature of science as opposed to a recipe-like procedure

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion