2. Purpose
The authors consider it necessary to study the affective and emotional factors in how future primary teachers teach and learn science, since their beliefs and emotions can greatly affect their pupils’ achievement, beliefs and attitudes towards learning science.
The aim of the study is to identify the emotions aroused by learning and teaching the subjects of
physics/chemistry and nature sciences in a sample of pre-service primary teachers during their period as secondary school pupils and when doing their undergraduate teaching practice.
3. Methods and samples
The subjects participating in the study were 63 students of primary education at the Faculty of Education, University of Extremadura—29 in the second year and 34 in the third year. They were selected by a non-probabilistic sampling procedure of convenience, based on the availability of time and of cases. There were
49 women and 14 men. Data were collected during the 2007-2008 academic year, after their periods of teaching
practice. Obviously, the second and third year prospective teachers were different since they were from two distinct courses.
The instrument used was a questionnaire, in which the subjects noted from among the positive and negative emotions offered, which were those that they experienced when learning the different subjects of science as secondary school pupils, and when teaching them in their teaching practice (Blanco, et al., 2008). The questionnaire items were organized in terms of tables of emotions (Brígido, et al., 2009). The resulting data were subjected to the necessary processes of checking, coding and digital storage in order to proceed with thei r descriptive analysis using SPSS (Statistical Product and Service Solutions) 13.0.
4. Results
4.1 Physics and chemistry
Their recall of the subjects of physics and chemistry at secondary school (see Table 1) suggested fundamentally negative emotions: nervousness, anxiety, tension, worry or despair, and only rarely positive emotions, such as confidence or enthusiasm. During their practice teaching also, they recalled more negative than positive emotions when teaching topics related to physics or chemistry. In each case, the percentages are relative to the sample that answered these questions as pupils or as teachers. The sample as teachers is smaller than that as pupils since many participants did not teach these subjects during their teaching practice, and therefore, did not answer.
Figure 1 compares the emotions as pupils when they were learning physics and chemistry in the secondary education with those experienced as teachers when teaching this content during their practice. One observes that the two are fairly strongly correlated, and, except for nervousness, the negative emotions have decreased more notably when they were teaching these subjects than when they were learning them in secondary school. While this decrease in negative emotions is encouraging, the low percentage of positive emotions is still a cause for concern both for how it will affect the students’ learning how to teach these subjects, and for the reflection it makes of the negligible impact that their initial teacher education has had on their positive emotions as teachers.