Learning how to Make Scientific Concepts Explicit in Teacher Education: A Study of Student Teachers’ Explanations, Their Modifiability and Transference

This study explored student teachers’ explanations of scientific concepts during their last year of preparation in three teacher education programs in Chile. An intervention based on formative peer assessment was conducted to analyze the modifiability of the participants’ explanations, and a follow-up study determined that it was transferred into science classrooms where they were beginner teachers. The results showed that participants’ explanations of scientific concepts improved significantly after the intervention. Moreover, they sustained the improvement into real classroom teaching and demonstrated high performance in explaining scientific concepts to pupils in most of the elements assessed. This study demonstrated that this crucial practice can be learned in teacher education through peer collaboration and that this type of improvement is strong enough to be sustained in the medium term. Implications initial teacher education practice and policy are discussed.