Abstract:

There is a growing development of innovative teaching experiences for the consolidation of the guidelines established under the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The development and implementation of most innovative projects is based on improving the quality of education and its impact on the learning outcomes of students at different educational levels, from primary to university education. Specifically, in the Department of Didactics of Experimental Sciences we are in charge of the scientific training of future primary school teachers. Previous studies of our research group have revealed negative emotions in our students towards science subjects, and a deficient scientific knowledge in preservice teachers. This is due to the fact that most of our students do not pursue science subjects from the age of 14 on. In this situation, the future of the teaching of scientific knowledge at early ages is going to be very limited if we do not improve the scientific training of future teachers. To improve the issues raised, a teaching innovation project developed in the framework of a call to consolidate the EHEA at the University of Extremadura is presented.

The experience was carried out during the 2013-2014 academic year with 600 students from the Degree in Primary Education. The overall objective of this study was to improve the scientific literacy for the teaching and learning of experimental science subjects in teachers in training. Specifically, we have focused on active learning by students, from a Problem Based Learning (PBL) perspective, developing different teaching strategies based on the contents of the subjects "Didactics of Matter and Energy" and "Knowledge of the Natural Environment in Primary Education".

Although the inclusion in the classrooms of PBL methodologies are innovative actions that have been taking place for some years, we believe that they remain an innovative and always effective course of action, as long as they are raised in order to develop scientific and emotional competence jointly.

The design and implementation of this project has enabled our students, future teachers of primary education, to acquire skills and abilities in programming and developing science workshops. These seminars were useful from an educational point of view, not only to improve their own scientific literacy, but also enabling them to design science activities for young ages, in both formal and non-formal contexts. Thus, our students have lost the initial fear they felt to teach Sciences. More specifically, the teaching methodology carried out has stimulated the increase of positive emotions in our students, and the participation and involvement of the students was strengthened as well. From the results obtained in the different evaluation instruments used, we have to conclude that these types of activities and educational interventions have reinforced the scientific knowledge of the students. We believe therefore that the implementation of innovative teaching actions in order to enthuse teachers with science education is necessary, because in most cases they feel negative emotions when learning how to teach these contents. In conclusion, we want to stress the importance of the need of our students to get involved, investigate and seek new experiences. They must prove the effectiveness of these experiences when applied in the classroom, checking how students learn and how the knowledge acquired persists over time.

Keywords:

PBL, Innovation, Teaching, Scientific Literacy, Emotions.