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PUBLICATION INFORMATION

TITLE OF PUBLICATION

THE CHEMICAL MISCONCEPTIONS OF PRE-SERVICE SCIENCE TEACHERS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LIMERICK: DO THEY CHANGE?

NAME OF AUTHOR(S)

Muireann Sheehan, P.E.Childs, and S.Hayes

NAME OF PUBLISHER

National Centre for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching and Learning, University of Limerick

Knowing and Communicating Science in the Classroom - Proceedings of the IOSTE Mini-Symposium, Reading 20/21 June 2011

YEAR OF PUBLICATION

2011

LANGUAGE OF PUBLICATION

English

PUBLICATION TYPOLOGY

Conference Article

TARGET GROUP OF PUBLICATION

Researchers, Teachers

SIZE OF THE PUBLICATION

Over 10 pages

DESCRIPTION OF CONTENTS

There are two main routes to becoming a qualified science teacher in Ireland:
A BSc degree (from an approved list maintained by the Teaching Council)followed by a one-year course called the Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE). In the past, this course was called the Higher Diploma in Education. This route is referred to as the consecutive model of teacher training.

The alternative is a BSc(Ed) degree in which stduents study both science and education as part of the degree. This route is often referred to as the concurrent model of teacher training.
The University of Limerick offers a concurrent model of science teacher training. The article states that, as is the case in many institutions, the mode of instruction in place in the University of Limerick is a traditional lecture style which has been found to emphasise lower order cognitive skills such as recall (Zoller 1993). The misconceptions of pre-service science teachers are, therefore, not directly addressed and may therefore persist throughout their four years of concurrent science and teacher education.
This article summarises the findings of research into the chemical misconceptions of undergraduate students aiming to become qualified chemistry/science teachers after their studies at the University.
It has been well-documented and researched that achieving good, chemically accurate understanding of the concepts comprising chemistry presents teachers with a significant challenge. If this is not taken seriously chemistry will remain a mystery for many.
This article by Sheehan et al describes a study that aims to investigate the number and type of chemical misconceptions pre-service science teachers possess and whether these misconceptions are altered as they progress through their degree programme. It describes the methodolgies of an exploratory and a pilot study and includes statistical analysis of the results.
The article concludes that the study of pre-service science teachers chemical misconceptions showed a high level of misconceptions, which did not alter significantly through their four years of training. Gender and the course studied were significant factors in the level of misconceptions displayed. However, the statement 'This suggests that the Irish education system is not dealing with the misconceptions of learners' is a worrying one and perhaps a cue for reflection about the way teachers are trained.

REVIEWER’S COMMENTS ON THE PUBLICATION

This study is a lateral development on the research work by Maria Sheehan that is included in the papers on Student Motivation, http://chemistrynetwork.pixel-online.org/SMO_database_scheda.php?art_id=21&lop=&put=&tar=&q= which looked at topics that school students find difficult and often develop chemical misconceptions in.
The findings in Muireann Sheehan's study are worrying: the subjects of her study are student teachers and some of them carry the misconceptions all the way through their degree and presumably into the classrooms where they perpetuate the problems of chemistry. In chemistry, there are many ideas that are frequently misinterpreted, perhaps because of the abstract nature of the concepts. Since the formation of new concepts relies on the descriptive abilities of the teacher it may be time to review the modes of teacher training to counteract this weakness in the teaching graduates. Of course, more widespread studies across a number of institutions would be necessary before any major changes were made.

WHERE TO FIND IT

http://ioste-nwe.wikispaces.com/file/detail/The+Chemical+Misconceptions+of+Pre-service+Science+Teachers+.docx

PDF OF THE PUBLICATION

14_The Chemical Misconceptions of Pre-service Science Teachers .pdf

NAME OF THE REVIEWING ORGANISATION

Limerick Institute of Technology

Comments about this Publication

Your comments are welcome

Date: 2013.06.21

Posted by Eva Smreková (Slovakia)

Message: It is a very interesting publication for me and I think could be very useful to do something focusing of this research in Slovakia. The misconceptions of science pre-service teachers and the role of teachers’ training during their basic education is the key point for teacher training. This reasearch tries to answer questions such as what sort of misconceptions the pre-service science chemistry teachers hold and measure their correlation with age, gender, and their previous chemistry background. The review of the publication, the results of this study are disturbing, since they show that a non-trivial percentage of Irish pre-service science teachers hold chemical misconceptions- the same in Slovakia. The reasearch could be a motivation tool to educational program designers, in order to consider cognitive gaps during chemistry teachers’ training and incorporate alternative training techniques to programs.

Date: 2013.06.18

Posted by Eva Krchová (Czech Republic)

Message: This article is focused straight on our topic. The misconceptions about chemistry, about the teaching of chemistry are very widespread. The sentence: \"The misconceptions of pre-service science teachers are, therefore, not directly addressed and may therefore persist throughout their four years of concurrent science and teacher education\" capture all these ideas about teachers training. There are still misconceptions which can create some doubts. The doubts create the distaste between students, and it is like circle.

Date: 2013.06.17

Posted by Maria Jesús Garrido (Spain)

Message: An excellent analysis of the situation of science and chemistry in teaching at an early age can be found in the report Enciende (http://www.cosce.org/pdf/Informe_ENCIENDE.pdf). This report is made by the Confederation of Associations of Spain (http://enciende.cosce.org/) and warns of problems in correctly implementing Science and Chemistry within primary education. For me, a big problem is the \"hostility\" to Chemistry from future professionals who will teach it.
There must be a rethinking of the science content to be treated, maybe reducing the number but increasing the depth and relevance. This involves focusing on an essential core of school science, rather than encyclopedic content lists.
Teacher education in our country, although it has been improving in size and professionalism in successive educational reforms, remains poor in scientific content and does not reach the levels of training and expertise required. Nowadays many pre-service teachers are trained in Experimental Science Teaching, but it may me not enough to change the feeling towards the subject.
There’s a lot of work to be done in this direction as it’s likely chemistry teachers in Spain have poor understanding in those basic questions as nature of matter, bonds, conservation of mass, chemical formulae and equations, solutions… related in the study.
And there’s also a real need in improving the basic science education in people and discovering that Chemistry is an experimental, deductive and everyday science. Something has to be done to change the feeling some teachers have as they see Chemistry as merely rote and unrealistic.

Date: 2013.05.31

Posted by Anastasia Mylona (Greece)

Message: The publication deals with the misconceptions of science pre-service teachers and the role of teachers’ training during their basic education in Ireland.
Considering the needs for innovative and effective educational programs, this study tries to answer questions such as what sort of misconceptions the pre-service science chemistry teachers hold and measure their correlation with age, gender, and their previous chemistry background. Conclusively the training provided in the country - the way it is provided does not seem to contribute adequately to elimination of misconceptions in basic chemical concepts.
Interesting topic, discussed nicely, though small sample size is used for study and few parameters have been considered. However it includes an extensive list of literature references on the subject .The study could also function as a motivation tool to educational program designers, in order to consider cognitive gaps during chemistry teachers’ training and incorporate alternative training techniques to programs.

Date: 2013.05.31

Posted by Effimia Ireiotou (Greece)

Message: This is a research paper which aims at exploring an issue of central importance for chemistry teacher training: Chemical misconceptions of pre-service science teachers in Ireland. Studies have shown, and it is also logically inferred, that if a teacher holds misconceptions he/she will also transfer them to the students. As also nicely mentioned in the review of the publication, the results of this study are disturbing, since they show that a non-trivial percentage of Irish pre-service science teachers hold chemical misconceptions (with the area of particulate nature of matter) which also do not seem to change significantly with increasing years of study.
I personally found rather surprising the observed gender difference; male subjects seemed to have fewer misconceptions relative to females. Other factors which were shown to influence misconceptions were age, course of study and background. The authors do make reference to a carefully designed program of study that is possible “to increase pupils cognitive level and reduce the number of chemical misconceptions”.
The study has some limitations which the authors briefly comment on at the end of the paper. It would be interesting to enlarge the geographic coverage of the sample and also explore possible differences between the “concurrent” and “consecutive” model of teacher training. It is obvious that this study is really very useful for the debate carried out in the “Chemistry is All Around Network”.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading this publication and I think it would be interesting and very useful to conduct this type of research also in Greece. The results of this and other similar studies, should be seriously taken into account for the design of more effective chemistry (and science) teacher training programs.

National Reports on successful experiences to promote lifelong learning for chemistry The national reports on chemistry successful experiences to promote lifelong learning for chemistry are now available on the related section of the project portal. The reports presents examples of successful experiences in the partner countries and the results of testing of ICT resources with science teachers.