Using a Constructivist Approach to Enhance Conceptual Understanding of Science: the pre-service training of Fiji primary school teachers1

Science teaching in Fiji is often very formalistic and didactic. This is in part due to an extremely competitive examination system, but work by Muralidhar (1989) has also indicated that at the primary and lower secondary level, teachers ’ content knowledge of physical science is often lacking. This in turn impacts on the teachers ’ confidence, and often results in a teacher-centred approach in which there is little deviation from the set text. This paper outlines an innovative science programme which was developed and trialled with Fiji pre-service primary teachers in an attempt to improve their content knowledge of physical science. It also reports some of the student teachers ’ views on the various teaching strategies employed during the programme