Challenges on science teacher education for the new century : na approach based...

• Author(s): Paixão, Fátima ; Cachapuz, António
• Date: 1999
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.11/1428
• Origin: Repositório Científico do Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco
• Subject(s): Philosophy of science; History of chemistry; Chemistry matching; Teacher training
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

The guided decisions to an understanding of the nature of the science demand a real understanding of the History and Philosophy of Science. Starting with the analysis of the basic proposals of the recent Portuguese curricular reform, which is in a phase of declining enthusiasm due to the ineffectiveness of the changes in teaching classrooms, the study has been put into the framework of the New Philosophy of Science. The main hypothesis of the study was that, to carry out Teacher Education, exploring action-research perspectives, guiding teachers towards a critical and epistemologically based perspective, particularly starting with the analysis of their usual teaching and leading them to an epistemological reflection on the subjects ( to use a concrete theme and to discuss with them their epistemology), results in a substantial improvement of their teaching practices and, in particular, in their professional fulfillment. We present and discuss some aspects of the teacher education program and the analysis made by participants during and after the participation in the designed program and the implications we point out for a new model of science teacher education using the curricular themes in an action-research perspective.