Abstract:

In the framework of a Fondecyt project (11130150) we deal with the thinking and knowledge of Chilean secondary school science pre-service teachers. The thinking is essential for the acquisition of knowledge, and therefore for the development of skills. In this regard, Tardif (2004) points out that teachers and future teachers possess specific knowledge that they mobilize, use and produce in their field of daily tasks.

This necessarily implies taking into account thinking, knowledge and skills, therefore, recognizing -in this case- pre-service teachers as subjects of knowledge that possess beliefs, they have knowledge and they project their future practice through the formative trajectory, aspects on which they develop their competences. In this sense, there are diverse and innovative proposals, which have focused on promoting the development and evolution of both thinking and professional knowledge of teaching (Ezquerra et al., 2013; 2015; Contreras, 2016).

We collected information of a quantitative nature, using as a tool a questionnaire organized in blocks to explore the thinking and knowledge of the future teachers: a) identification data; b) 27 items to explore curricular beliefs; c) 24 items to explore curricular acting beliefs and; d) 24 multiple-choice items to explore knowledge according to performance levels. We apply the instrument since 2014; here we present the results of a sample of 520 future teachers in mathematics (49.8%), biology (21.3%), physics (12.9%), natural sciences (10, 8%) and chemistry (5.2%).

The main results indicated that in relation to pedagogical thinking: differences are observed in the methodology and content variables. In the evaluation variable, there are no differences between the groups.

Regarding the analysis by career (specialty), it is possible to conclude that there are only differences between the careers of pedagogy in mathematics with respect to the group of pedagogy in chemistry in the content variable, being the pre-service mathematics teachers who are shown with a pedagogical thought of the more constructivist content than the group of professors in formation of pedagogy in chemistry.

In relation to pedagogical knowledge: comparisons were made by group according to specialty (mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics and natural sciences), in addition to other variables, although pre-service teachers have equivalent levels of knowledge pedagogical in all the variables evaluated.

We consider that these results have implications for teacher training (initial and continuous), because the need to link research with the training practice of science teachers, especially in relation to the development of pedagogical competences for teaching science.

Keywords:

Beliefs, pedagogical knowledge, pre-service teachers, science.