State of research on science and technology teacher education
État des recherches sur la formation des enseignants de sciences et de technologies
Abstract
No one disputes the need today for lifelong learning to cope with the quick changes in our societies and their ever-increasing complexity. Science and technology teachers are no exception to this, and their training partly conditions the integration of their pupils into the society in which they will live. In this context, the contributions of research, particularly in education, can be decisive, whether they feed directly into training activities (when they concern the teaching and learning of scientific or technological concepts and methods, or the nature of science or technology) or whether they analyse the training activities of teachers in the field and their effects on practices. This issue is devoted to this second aspect: what can we learn from research in science and technology education about teacher training in these fields? Beyond the specification of current training issues and some general benchmarks from research, it describes, characterizes or analyses the effects of initial or continuing training in programming and investigation in elementary school or in autonomy and the teaching of life sciences in secondary school.
No one disputes the need today for lifelong learning to cope with the quick changes in our societies and their ever-increasing complexity. Science and technology teachers are no exception to this, and their training partly conditions the integration of their pupils into the society in which they will live. In this context, the contributions of research, particularly in education, can be decisive, whether they feed directly into training activities (when they concern the teaching and learning of scientific or technological concepts and methods, or the nature of science or technology) or whether they analyse the training activities of teachers in the field and their effects on practices. This issue is devoted to this second aspect: what can we learn from research in science and technology education about teacher training in these fields? Beyond the specification of current training issues and some general benchmarks from research, it describes, characterizes or analyses the effects of initial or continuing training in programming and investigation in elementary school or in autonomy and the teaching of life sciences in secondary school.