CHEMISTRY EDUCATION: RESEARCH AND PRACTICE IN EUROPE 2001, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 265-283	RESEARCH REPORT Concept teaching and learning

Rosa MARTIN DEL POZO and Rafael PORLAN
Universidad Complutense de Madrid y Universidad de Sevilla,
Departamento de Didactica de las Ciencias

SPANISH PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS' INITIAL IDEAS ABOUT TEACHING CHEMICAL CHANGE

ABSTRACT: We describe and analyse the initial ideas of a sample of 24 Spanish prospective teachers about teaching the concept of chemical change to 13-14 year old pupils. The participants, working in groups, elaborated proposals to teach this concept. A content analysis of these proposals showed that: a)a great part of the content was organized in a linear sequence; b)within a diversity of methods there predominated closed sequences of laboratory observation activities aimed at allowing the pupils to infer the concepts for themselves, but without taking their pre-existing conceptions on chemical change into account; and c)evaluation was seen as a check that the pupils had acquired the knowledge that the teacher had established beforehand. Finally, we discuss some of the implications of the conceptions detected for initial teacher education. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract. Eur.: 2001, 2, 265-283]

KEY WORDS: initial teacher education; teachers' conceptions; teaching chemical change

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