Understanding the process and conditions that improve preservice teachers’ conceptions of nature of science in real contexts

• Autor(a) principal: Valente, Bianor
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Outros Autores: Maurício, Paulo, Faria, Cláudia
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.21/11942
• topic: Nature of science; Preserviceelementary teacher training; Science apprenticeship; Scientific literacy

The present study conceptualized, implemented, and evaluated aspecific program, the Live Science program. This program integrated2 distinct but complementary approaches: participants’immersion inreal science contexts and the participation of future teachers inseminars intended to share the immersion experience and to reflecton nature of science (NOS). Four future teachers participated in theLive Science program in 2 real research contexts. Through an analysisof the experiences and lessons learned from this program, this studytried to understand to what extent participation in real-contextscientific activities, focused on an explicit and reflective approach toNOS, can contribute to the professional development of preserviceelementary teachers. Interviews, questionnaires, observations, diaries,and videotaped seminars were used for data collection. Ourfindingssuggest that the adoption of an explicit approach through illustrationand reflection on particular aspects of NOS within the context ofscientific research is a promising approach considering that it poten-tially allows for the development of a more informed understandingof science. The results also suggest that along with personality-related factors, the inherent characteristics of real science contextsplay an important role in the development of that understanding.Tightly organized research teams capable of giving ample support topreservice teachers and working in researchfields in which partici-pants’conceptions can be confronted should be selected in order toimprove the impact of this type of program