A cohort of novice Danish science teachers: Background in science and argumentation about science teaching

Abstract

A survey on science background and argumentation about science teaching was conducted on a local cohort of newly qualified Danish science teachers. The survey was administered before the novice teachers began their first jobs in primary and lower secondary schools and focused on their reflections on specific scenarios of science teaching and themselves as teachers in various science fields. Three areas of concern were identified: There was evidence of reflection upon and argumentation for the practice of science teaching being stundent centred, but many respondents showed a tendency to focus on students’ activities as a goal in themselves, few considered what the students learned through the activities. Results furthermore suggest that the teachers’ own assessment of their subject matter knowledge in the physics field may, for a large subgroup in the cohort, affect their approach to teaching science.