Views of a group of pre-service science teachers on the use of experimental activities in science teaching

Abstract

Teachers often consider experimental activities to be fundamental to the teaching of scientific concepts. However, there are different views about their purpose in science classes; these views are linked to teachers' different understandings of the construction of scientific knowledge. It was analyzed the views of 19 pre-service science teachers (PST) on the use of experimental activities in science classes. These PSTs were enrolled in the subject of science teacher training course of a Brazilian federal university. In their course work, the PSTS were organized into groups and they participated in a pedagogical activity during which they reported their views on two experimental scripts. They answered questions about how they would use these experiments in the future. The activity occurred in two stages: the first was before studying texts on the nature of science with an emphasis on the role of experimentation in the foundation of hypotheses; the second stage was after this. The data analysis was performed using the content analysis technique. The results suggest the importance of debates and deep themes in training courses for science teachers, so that experimental activities are not seen reductively and only as ways to motivate classes or to complement theory, but rather as potential aids in the construction of scientific meaning.