Aim: To practise scientific methods. Result: Personal development

Field work in a teacher training program was focussed on the collection and presentation of data showing changes in the environment depending on variable factors. The observations should be possible to use as models for studies performed by children at school. The instructions were sparse and many of the observations from the first visit to the sites were impossible to repeat. The first four observations were made during autumn every month while the last was made in late spring sixteen months later. After this the students wrote short reflections on their impressions and experiences during the last visit compared to the earlier ones. These were analysed in order to reveal the impact on the students. Most of the students were very uncertain about what to do the first time. Almost none of them complained about this afterwards. Many were astonished over their own incapability of understanding or declared their lack of understanding general ideas. Many students wrote about strong emotions when returning to a familiar site that appeared to have changed and described how this created a strong attachment to the site. What was more surprising was that some students experienced their own development, in some cases towards becoming a teacher but also on a more private or personal level. They not only recognized themselves as the inexperienced student from the first visit and what was achieved later. They also realized how the relation between themselves and the site had a chronological development in accordance with their own development. The simple activity of field observations in combination with personal reflection created complicated processes beneficial for the student. Thus, we achieved and observed unexpected results together with what was expected.Strand 13: Pre-service science teacher education