Abstract

GARCIA-CARMONA, Antonio  and  ACEVEDO DIAZ, José Antonio. Preservice Elementary Teachers' Conceptions of the Nature of Science: A Diagnostic Evaluation Based on Team Reflections. RMIE [online]. 2016, vol.21, n.69, pp.583-610. ISSN 1405-6666.

This article presents a diagnostic study of preservice elementary teachers' conceptions of key issues in the nature of science. To compile the group's reflections, 67 preservice elementary teachers were asked to work in small teams to answer various open-ended questions related to the topic; their responses were analyzed through an interpretative approach that combined inter- and intra-raters and low-inference descriptors. The results indicate that the participants expressed naïve or inappropriate ideas about the nature of science, although some potential factors point to a degree of novelty with respect to previous studies. The article concludes by making recommendations for training preservice elementary teachers in the nature of science and science teaching.

Keywords : elementary education; preservice teachers; nature of science; science teaching; teacher education; Spain.