Preservice teachers learning about teaching for conceptual change through slowmation

In their review of learning to teach science, Russell and Martin (2007) noted that while, “[t]eaching for conceptual change has been a dominant theme in the science education literature for several decades … only a small fraction of that research considers how individuals learn to teach science in preservice programs” (p. 1152). Russell and Martin’s concerns become all the more important when considering understandings of, and pedagogical responses to, conceptual change in preservice science teacher education. Complicating this challenge is the fact that teachers tend to teach the way they were taught (i.e., are shaped by what Lortie (1975) described as an Apprenticeship of Observation), and that student teachers often enter preservice education with an expectation that learning to teach is relatively straight forward. These factors combine to create a learning about teaching expectation whereby gathering a ‘bag of teaching tricks’ can become a student teacher’s learning about teaching goal to the detriment of developing deeper understandings of the complexity of teaching (Loughran, 2006).

As the above suggests and the literature continually demonstrates, teacher change is a major issue in education. Teacher change therefore attracts the attention of professional developers, science teacher educators and policy makers, because, despite knowledge of new and different teaching procedures and approaches, teachers do not necessarily embrace such changes in their own practice. There are countless examples of programs of professional learning designed to encourage teachers to implement new practices and teacher education programs are no different. In fact, science teacher educators in particular have long drawn attention to the need to promote student teachers’ understanding of conceptual change as a special area for attention. However, doing so is not as simple as it may appear. For example, Duit and Treagust (2003, p. 687) cautioned that, “…What research on conceptual change has to offer classroom practice cannot be set into normal practice to a substantial extent. Of course, teacher development programs are essential in order to change teachers’ views of teaching and learning and their practice. However, it appears to be also necessary to make these theories more simple and describe conceptual change strategies in such a way that they may become part of teachers’ normal routines”. Clearly then, science teacher education stands out as an important starting point for confronting this issue and beginning to address the oft bemoaned nature of traditional school science teaching.

One response to this situation is for university science education courses to initiate new ways of engaging preservice teachers in learning about teaching science in ways that might engender confidence, and better prepare them for challenging stereotypical approaches to school science teaching and learning. However, despite extensive research into a range of issues confronting science teaching and learning, it is clear that changes in practice are slow in coming; not only in schools but also in science teacher education programs. There is a need for teacher education programs to teach in ways that are consistent with the approaches that teacher educators are advocating for science learning in schools and in ways that are manageable for neophytes to the profession. Yet despite a plethora of studies illustrating the range of conceptions that students bring with them to their science classes (Tanner & Allen, 2005), ways of addressing these alternative conceptions have not generally been developed or documented in ways that speak to science teachers.

Hammer (2000, p. S52) in particular noted that, “misconceptions and difficulties are limited ... they provide no account of productive resources students have for advancing their understanding ...” Moreso, if such resources are available, they tend to expect more from teachers than may be possible in light of the demands of the ‘busyness’ of teaching (Loughran & Northfield, 1996) i.e., they are overly complicated with multiple steps to be followed in distinct order (e.g., Olenick, 2008) or based on approaches that are not effective (Wenning, 2008).

This paper focuses on responding to this challenge (as briefly outlined above) through a focus on Slowmation. Based on the theoretical underpinnings of Slowmation (described later in this paper), it could well be argued that Slowmation offers real opportunities for student teachers to become much more sensitive to their students’ science conceptions and engage and challenge their learning. As a consequence, Slowmation can make a difference to the way science is understood and taught in teacher education programs and in school science classrooms. The following sections of the paper consider important aspects of conceptual change and Slowmation in respect to the research purpose of this study.