Examining and Interrogating Preservice Teachers’ Conceptions of Science: An Anchor Activity to Support Preservice Science Teacher Learning

Abstract

Efforts to expand who participates in science, both inside the classroom and beyond it, have been ongoing for many years with mixed results. Students who don’t look, sound, participate, or learn like the traditional vision of the “good science student” are often left feeling like they can’t be successful and/or that they do not belong. As with many science teacher educators, the barriers that prevent K-12 students from fully participating in science are items I seek to address in my work with preservice teachers. In this paper, I share an anchor activity that supports this work by helping middle and high school preservice science teachers first document and then build upon their conceptions of science and science participation over time during a science teaching methods course. The activity and subsequent conversations described in this paper are designed to open up space for preservice teachers to reflect upon different conceptions and experiences of science that their students will bring into their future classroom and how those relate to their own. It also provides opportunities for preservice teachers to interrogate their own conceptions of science in schools and start to build visions of science learning and participating that challenge the reproduction of climates, messages, and barriers that restrict science participation for many science students.