Teacher training on STS themes: a model to improve in-service teachers’ conceptions

• Autor(a) principal: Vázquez-Alonso, Ángel
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Outros Autores: Manassero-Mas, Antonia
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: spa
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.34624/id.v8i1.3106

STS issues are considered part of scientific literacy for all and therefore the need to train science teachers on these issues arises. The effectiveness of the implementation of a training model, for secondary teachers undergoing initial training, which follows the conceptual change guidelines suggested by research (explicit and reflexive training), is studied here. Teachers perform explicit and reflective learning activities on a specific STS topic (scientific research), based on pedagogical content knowledge, and develop self-assessment reflections. The effectiveness of training is evaluated through a quasi-experimental longitudinal methodology, including pre and post-test application of a standardized assessment tool, containing ten multiple choice questions on different scenarios, as well as the teachers’ qualitative reflections (these results are not presented here). The pre and post-test results of the evaluation, with the teachers’ responses on the ten scenarios, allow the profiling of individual STS preconceptions, together with the profiling of teachers’ conceptual changes. Comparisons between teachers and between questions help identifying the specific areas where teachers change their previous conceptions, besides evaluating the direction and intensity of these changes. Findings reveal the complexity and the difficulties conceptual changes cause in teachers’ while studying STS issues. Finally, feasibility, generalization and improvements proposed to the initial training model of science teachers are discussed.