Session Information
Contribution
During the last years, a new mission for teachers is claimed. It is required a kind of learning that produce pupils who are strong thinkers and problem solvers (Darling-Hammond, 2006). Science education reforms claims for the development of instructional activities based on investigations. Pupils must have opportunities to engage in serious science investigations (SI) as an integral part of their science learning (NRC, 1996; Galvão & al., 2002; Loucks-Horsley & al., 2003). Teachers' role is changing. Teachers are asked to be able to understand, monitor and capitalize on pupils' thinking if they want support the process of knowledge construction (Darling-Hammond, 2006). In this context teachers are recognized as the central determining factor in successful implementation science curriculum (NRC, 1996). However, research says that, despite to be involved in science education programs developed to promote teaching according the curricular guidelines, when teachers' come to their first year in teaching, frequently, don't use innovator curricular materials as they learn to prepare at the university (Loughran, Brown & Doecke, 2001). As key elements in this process are teachers conceptions about teaching and learning (Hewson & Hewson, 1988). These are considered important elements that influence teachers' practices (Levitt, 2001) and teachers learning in science education courses. However the conceptions about teaching and learning are deeply entrenched and difficult to change (Kagan, 1992; Freire; 1999) in order to achieve the recent curriculum guidelines, in part because schools serve as a powerful discourse community promoting a traditional way of thinking (Putman & Borko, 1997).In order to understand the process that occur from pre-service to first year of teaching concerning teachers' conceptions and the relationship between their conceptions and practices and as well the challenges that they faced during this period, the following questions were establishedo How change teachers' conceptions about teaching and learning through SI from pre-service to first year teaching? o What are the main constrains faced by teachers when adopting SI in their science classes during their first year of teaching? o What is the consistency between teachers' conceptions and teachers' practices during their first year in schools? This study followed a qualitative and interpretative methodology and is developed throughout two years. In the first year 9 Physics and Chemistry student teachers were enrolled in a science teacher education program at the university. This program aims to prepare student teachers to learn to teach SI (Vilela & Freire, 2004a; 2004b; 2006) . In the second year these student teachers were followed during their first year in schools. This year no explicit requests were made about the implementation of science investigations in their classes. The data was recorded through individual semi-structured interviews at the end of the teacher education program (first year study) and at the beginning and during the first year in school (second year study). Other data sources were classroom observation, written documents produced by teachers (e.g. curricular materials, reflections in a virtual learning community) during the second year of the study. All the data was analysed according the constant comparative method (Strauss & Corbin, 1998).The findings reveal some changes in teachers' conceptions during the first year teaching. Some move in the direction of the science curriculum ideas and others no. However all teachers value the potentialities of SI to promote science learning and all teachers implemented during this year at least one SI. Sometimes inconsistencies were identified between teachers conceptions and teachers practices. Factors that constrain the adoption of SI are indicated. The main constrains and challenges reported by teachers are centred on teachers role during SI implementation. Some implications for science education courses are made based on these results.Darling-Hammond, L. (2006). Powerful teacher education:Lessons from exemplary programs. San Francisco: John Willey & Sons, Inc. Freire, A. M. (1999). Aprender a ensinar nos estágios pedagógicos: estudo sobre mudanças nas concepções de ensino e na prática institucional de estagiários de Física e Química. Tese de Doutoramento em Educação não publicada. Lisboa: Universidade de Lisboa. Galvão, C. (Coord.), Neves, A., Freire, A. M., Lopes, A. M., Santos, M. C., Vilela, M. C., Oliveira, M. T. e Pereira, M. (2002). Ciências Físicas e Naturais. Orientações curriculares para o 3º ciclo do ensino básico. Lisboa: Ministério da Educação, Departamento da Educação Básica.Hewson, M. A'B., and Hewson, P. (1989). Analysis and use of a task for identifying conceptions of teaching science. Journal of Education for Teaching, 15(3), 191-209. Kagan, D. (1992). Implications of research on teacher beliefs. Educational Psychologist 27(1), 65-90. Levitt, K. (2001). An Analysis of Elementary Teachers' Beliefs Regarding the Teaching and Learning of Science. Science Education. 86, 1-22. 2001. Loucks-Horsley, S., Love, N., Stiles, K. E., Mundry, S., & Hewson, P. (2003). Designing Professional Development for Teachers of Science and Mathematics (2nd ed.). London: Sage Publications. Loughran, J., Brown, J., Doecke, B. (2001). Continuities and discontinuities: the transition from pre-service to first-year teaching. Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice 7(1), 7-23. National Research Council. (1996). National Science Education Standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Putman, R. & Borko H. (1997). Teacher Learning: Implications of New Views of Cognition. In B. Biddle et al. (Eds) International Handbook of Teachers and Teaching. Kluwer Academic Publishers: Netherlands. Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of qualitative research. Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded theory procedures and techniques. London, Sage Publications. Vilela, M. C., & Freire, A. (2004a). Learning to teach in virtual professional learning communities: Reflections about science investigations. In ICICTE (Ed.), International Conference on Information Communication Technologies in Education. Samos Island, Grece: ICICTE. Vilela, M. C., & Freire, A. (2004b). Virtual learning communities (VLC): A vehicle for examining student teachers reflections about the potentialities of science investigations. In D. Remenyi (Ed.), 3 rd European Conference on e-learning (pp. 419-428). Université Paris-Dauphine: Academic conferences. Vilela, C., & Freire, A. (2006). Changing student teachers conceptions about teaching and learning through science investigations. Oral presentation in ECER 2006: Genève
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