The Role of Intellectual Virtues in the Development of the Science Teacher: An Initial Provocation

Abstract

Initial, informal observations of work with pre-service chemistry and other science teachers suggest that a number of intellectual virtues are required, alongside a shift in identity, in order to help secondary school science students negotiate the pathway from ‘science learner’ to ‘scientist’. This article explores these virtues, the ontological shift that accompanies them and pedagogical suggestions for how these attributes might be promoted in a programme of pre-service training, along with suggestions for further empirical research which might form the basis of further investigation into these initial observations.