The emotions in teaching and learning nature sciences and physics/chemistry in pre-service primary teachers*
María Brígido1, M. Luisa Bermejo2, M. Carmen Conde1, Vicente Mellado1
(1. Department of Science and Mathematics Education, Faculty of Education, University of Extremadura, Badajoz 06071, Spain;
2. Department of Psychology and Anthropology, Faculty of Education, University of Extremadura, Badajoz 06071, Spain)
Abstract: A study was made of different emotions that prospective primary school teachers report wit h respect to science subjects, when they were pupils, and during their practice teaching, taking into account the variables gender and the speciality they studied in the secondary education. The study consisted of a questionnaire completed by 63 primary education students at the University of Extremadura, Spain. The results show a great difference between the emotions related to the subjects of physics/chemistry and the nature sciences (biology/geology). The scientific subject influences the emotions of pre-service primary teachers, both in learning and teaching. In physics and chemistry, the emotions are mostly negative. While in nature sciences they are very positive. In nature sciences, there is a correlation between the emotions felt as secondary school pupils learning science and those they feel as teachers. In physics and chemistry, there is a correlation in the women between the emotions felt as secondary school pupils learning science and those they feel as teachers, but not in the men. The memory of their emotions in learning science at school is more negative than in teaching science during their teaching practice, except in nervousness in physics/chemistry. By gender, men declared a greater predilection for science content than women, with more of them describing such feelings as sympathy or confidence. The results highlight the influential role that emotions play throughout the professional growth of future primary teachers.
Key words: teaching and learning science; emotions; initial teacher education; primary teachers
1. Introduction
The processes of learning and teaching science are not merely cognitive, but are highly charged with feelings. Nevertheless, in schools and universities, science is for the most part portrayed as a rational, analytical and non-emotive area of the curriculum.
Recent results have questioned the independence of the rational and the emotional, since, according to the
theory of affective cognitive moulds of Hernandez (2002), the cognitive configures the affective and vice versa.
* An earlier version of this article was presented as a paper at ESERA Conference 2009, Istanbul, Turkey, August 31st-September 4th. This work was financed by Research Project EDU2009-12864 of the Ministry of Education and Science (Spain) and European
Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
María Brígido, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Science and Mathematics Education, Faculty of Education, University of
Extremadura; research fields: the emotions in teacher education, psychology of education.
M. Luisa Bermejo, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Psychology and Anthropology, Faculty of Education, University of
Extremadura; research fields: the emotions in teacher education, psychology of education.
M. Carmen Conde, Ph.D., Department of Science and Mathematics Education, Faculty of Education, University of Extremadura;
research field: science teacher education.
Vicente Mellado, Ph.D., professor, Department of Science and Mathematics Education, Faculty of Education, University of
Extremadura; research field: science teacher education.
Research in science education also recognizes the importance of emotions in teaching and learning, and advocates the need to consider the cognitive and affective dimensions (Koballa & Glynn, 2007; Otero, 2006).
Numerous studies have noted that, primary school pupils usually show interest, excitement and generall y
positive attitudes towards science, but that these decrease with age, especially during secondary education (Beauchamp & Parkinson, 2008; Murphy & Beggs, 2003; Osborne, et al., 2003; Ramsden, 1998; Simpson & Oliver, 1990; Vázquez & Manassero, 2008).
Zembylas (2001; 2002; 2004) reviewed the relationship between science teaching and emotion, and argued
that emotions, both positive and negative, play an important role in teachers’ construction of pedagogical content knowledge, curriculum planning and relationships with children and colleagues. He suggested that, emotions in science teaching are constructed at a deep level, and may be seen as constitutive of the activity of science teaching. The affective domain is of increasing importance as a regulatory system of learning. Teachers have an “emotional ecology” that exists on 3 levels: individual, relational and socio-political, that are different aspects of their pedagogical content knowledge (Zembylas, 2005). They construct and use emotional knowledge to establish or strengthen their connections with pupils and content, or to perform teaching actions.
Although teachers’ conceptions, attitudes, emotions, values and classroom practice are related, depending on the teacher and the context, these aspects are often out of phase with each other, and even plainly in contradiction, and changes in one are not necessarily accompanied by a change in the rest (Mellado, et al., 2006). There is growing evidence that change is more likely to be consolidated if all its aspects are integrated and related (Sanmartí, 2001). As noted by Day (1999), teachers’ change is not just a matter of the head, but also of the heart. It will be difficult to put changes into effect unless they are compensated affectively, and contribute to greater personal job satisfaction.
Affective aspects are important during initial teacher education. Prospective teachers have themselves been pupils for many years, and as a result, have beliefs, attitudes, feelings, values, goals and teaching styles which are strongly internalized and difficult to change. Their own experiences at school lead many teachers to take as referents for their science teaching, whether positive or negative, the teachers themselves had when they were pupils, and to use teaching methods that are very close to what they preferred in their teachers when they were at school (Mellado, et al., 1998). Their teaching routines and strategies become most firmly set during their first teaching experiences in their teaching practice, and will subsequently be difficult to modify. Also, during their teaching practice, they are subjected to many dilemmas and stresses that naturally cause them anxiety and insecurity. These negative emotions can cause them to adopt defensive teaching strategies that are centred on the teachers and the contents rather than on the pupils and learning. While this allows them an apparently greater control of the class, and hence, makes them feel safer, it limits their teaching effectiveness. The anxiety that teaching science provokes in prospective primary teachers also has a repercussion on their self-efficacy in science teaching (Czerniak & Scriver, 1994).
For Hugo and Sanmartí (2003), traditional teaching models may be overcome by applying meta-cognitive and meta-affective strategies to control and regulate the emotions that arise when the model is changed. As Efkelides (2009, p. 139) observes, “Metacognitive regulation should be expanded to include not only cognitive but emotional regulation as well”. In initial teacher education, Oosterheert and Vermunt (2001) included emotion regulation as a functional component of learning to teach. This dynamic component is generated and evolves from the teachers’ own knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and emotions. It requires active personal involvement, reflection on the teaching process and practice in teaching the specific material in particular school contexts. This component is a form of
knowledge in action, and hence, is related to the teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (Garritz, et al., 2008).