Teaching the topic of the particulate nature of matter in prospective teachers' training courses

This article presents an attempt to improve teaching-learning strategies for science as addressed by prospective teachers in the Department of Primary Education of the University of Athens. The aim of the proposed strategy is twofold: to promote the constructivist aspect in science teaching-learning and to improve prospective teachers' knowledge in the particulate nature of matter. Prospective teachers were confronted with pupils' ideas about matter and its transformations as they are described and explained by the molecular theory of matter. They were asked to evaluate pupils' explanations about the states of matter and changes of state as if they were the pupils' actual teachers. Moreover, they were asked to discuss the origins of pupils' conceptions and to propose appropriate interventions for classroom activities. The results show that prospective teachers share a number of misconceptions with pupils' and that when they 'act as real teachers' they willingly revise their relevant ideas and accept a more constructivist approach to science teaching.