Download 2.3b 'Evaporation and boiling' Materials 1: Classification Evaporation and boiling- graduate trainee science teachers’

This study aims to explore the understandings of a cohort of 52 trainee science teachers who were undertaking a one-year Post-graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) course at a British University. A number of practical situations involving liquids and their transition to the vapour state were presented on video. Understandings were probed, using a written questionnaire. Findings indicate some interesting parallels between the conceptions of this sample of graduate science trainee teachers and those of pupils learning science in secondary schools. In some cases highly sophisticated scientific understandings of the phenomena were demonstrated but there were also many instances where ideas expressed deviated from the accepted ‘answer’. These ‘alternative conceptions ’ were sometimes expressed using highly developed scientific vocabulary. In view of the current very high profile that the issue of teachers ’ knowledge has, that science graduates have some very basic science to learn is significant. Implications include the subject knowledge requirements for initial teacher training and the need for a more critical and more humane perspective on the understandings that both teachers and students think they have. One novel dimension to the study is a significant change in the scientific understanding of the researcher in regard to the perception of fizzing drinks and boiling solutions. This continues to be controversial with both science teachers and with scientists, but it does raise interesting issues about ‘right ’ answers