Evaluating roadmaps to portray and develop chemistry teachers’ PCK about curricular structures concerning sub-microscopic models
Abstract
This paper describes a study on research-oriented chemistry teacher education, in which fifty-six advanced, secondary school chemistry student teachers working in teams of two interviewed twenty-eight experienced chemistry teachers. The interviews focussed on teachers’ personal viewpoints of how to best teach the different levels of sub-microscopic models in lower secondary chemistry classes. Over two thirds of the teachers said that they intend to structure their curriculum around a series of different models paralleling the history of science. However, subsequent analysis showed that this teaching procedure seemed to be inconsistent and insufficiently reflected upon by the teachers in many cases. Because the majority of teachers in these interviews admitted to personal understandings of scientific models which were neither well-considered nor comparative, it would seem that an actual implementation of their intended curricula lacks sufficient justification and structure in several cases. One tool for teacher education was developed from the analysis of the collected data, namely: roadmaps. Roadmaps are believed to offer us an empirically-based tool with which to display the experience-based views of teachers for use in teacher education. The idea is to create a picture showing specific aspects of chemistry teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge in order to stimulate reflection and discussion.
- This article is part of the themed collection: Chemistry Teacher Education – Recent Developments