A Beginners’ Module of Integrated Natural Science for Secondary Teacher Students: The result of an Educational Reconstruction Process over Three Iterations

Abstract

In Central Switzerland, pre-service teacher education is intended to reflect the integrated concept of science education in school. The project presented in this chapter assists the development of a research-based unit on integrated science for first-year students. The theoretical background underpinning the research process is provided by the model of educational reconstruction adapted to the settings of universities. The result of this process reflects three important aspects of educational reconstruction: content, concepts and methods. On the level of content, it provides ten suitable topics, which successfully integrate human biology and physics. On the level of concept, it reveals a characteristic self-concept of the involved students and also stimulated conceptual change in questions of integrated science education. On the level of methods, the concept of 'Unterrichtsminiaturen' evolves into the new concept of educational miniatures, a method that proves to be especially effective in the pre-service education training of science teachers