Journal of Science Teacher Education, 15(1): 3962, 2004 39

2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers, Printed in the Netherlands

The Conceptions of In-service and Prospective Primary School

Teachers About the Teaching and Learning of Science

Raphael Porln
Department of Science Education, Universidad de Sevilla, Seville, Spain

Rosa Martn del Pozo

Department of Science Education, Universidad Complutense Madrid, Madrid, Spain

A study was performed to describe and analyze the conceptions about teaching
and learning science held by different samples of teachers in Spain. The responses
of 265 teachers (107 prospective teachers and 158 active teachers) to items from
the Inventory of Scientific and Pedagogical Beliefs (Porln, 1989) were subjected
to multifactorial analysis. The results showed various tendencies in how the
teaching/learning process is viewed, ranging from a predominant view based on
the transmissionreception of knowledge to a minority constructivist view. There
was a greater diversity of viewpoints among the in-service teachers than among
the prospective teachers. In both samples, the most representative tendency was
learning as appropriation of meanings, followed by a technical view of teaching
among the prospective teachers and a more traditional view among the in-
service teachers. Finally, some implications for teacher education are discussed.

Introduction

The study of teachers conceptions has been a priority line of research in

science education since the end of the 1980s. This is reflected in the reviews of
Kennedy (1991), Lederman (1992), Kouladis and Ogborn (1995), and Porln and
Rivero (1998). Although studies on the image of science predominate (Lederman,
1992), one also finds work that explores conceptions of teaching (Gallagher, 1993;
Hewson & Hewson, 1987), learning (Aguirre & Haggerty, 1995; Hollon & Anderson,
1987), and the science curriculum (Cronin-Jones, 1991; Hollon, Roth, & Anderson,
1991; Martn del Pozo, 2001; Martn del Pozo & Porln, 2001; Orlandi, 1991; Snchez
& Valcrcel, 1999). We shall here be interested in those studies that relate different
categories of teachers knowledge (Aguirre, Haggerty, & Linder, 1990; Gustafson &
Rowell, 1995; Hashweh, 1996; Joram & Gabriele, 1998; Kouladis & Ogborn, 1989;
Mellado, 1998; Pomeroy, 1993; Smith & Neale 1991; Southerland & Gess-Newsome,
1999).
In general, the studies show that teachers almost universally have a limited
view of their role as such, believing that learning involves assimilation, and teaching
telling what they know to the students and evaluating the students recall of this
knowledge (Kennedy, 1991, p. 7). Kennedys effective but rather sweeping statement
naturally requires a certain degree of qualification, which we hope may be inferred
40 PORLN & MARTN DEL POZO
from the following survey of some of the most relevant literature.
To avoid possible misunderstandings, let us first define the main terms. A
conception will be used in the sense of a mental representation or view of something,
a concept in the sense of an idea or notion that is expressly agreed on and used in
common by a group of people, and a viewpoint (or point of view) in the sense of a
mental position or attitude from which questions are considered.
A particularly interesting study of teachers conceptions about teaching science
is that of Gallagher (1993). From classroom observations and discussions with the
teachers about science teaching, six types of viewpoints were distinguished:
1. Teaching as the transmission of scientific content. The teachers knowledge
and activity are considered from a simple, conservative viewpoint, whose only
requisite is that the teacher has a command of the content of the discipline.
2. Teaching as the organization of scientific content. The teachers task is to
adapt the content into a form that the pupils can digest.
3. Teaching as a set of manipulative activities. Activities selected by the teacher
so that the pupils can discover the meaning of the scientific concepts.
4. Teaching as a learning cycle. The teacher begins with exploratory
observation, continues with the invention of explanations, and ends by applying
what has been learned to other situations.
5. Teaching as conceptual change. This is also seen as a cycle that begins with
the detection of the pupils ideas, continues with the teachers providing help to the
pupils in understanding scientific ideas (which are different from and better than
their own), and ends by replacing the old with the new.
6. Teaching as a guide through a constructivist process. The teacher uses a
variety of strategies to help the pupils explain their own knowledge, endow the new
ideas with meaning, and establish connections between the two.
Gallagher described the last three viewpoints as constituting different degrees
of the same constructivist-oriented alternative model of science teaching. The
differences lie in how much responsibility is given to the pupils. The sequence of
the six viewpoints is seen as a possible representation of stages in professional
evolution; but it is noted that, for the purposes of ongoing teacher education, such
evolution will be a slow and arduous process of changing the teachers scientific
and educational conceptions. Gallagher interpreted the diversity of viewpoints that
were found as science teaching tendencies of increasing complexity. In contrast to
the mere percentage-wise classification of other more static and purely descriptive
studies, this way of understanding teachers conceptions gives one a practical
model of the possible evolution of professional knowledge that may be used to
orient the design of coherent teacher education proposals. As this is very much a
part of our own research agenda, we have taken the same stance to the interpretation
of our data on teachers conceptions.
Other studies have focused on the learning conceptions of those teachers
who are participating on experimental curriculum projects. Hollon and Anderson
(1987), for example, analyzed the conceptions of 13 science teachers who participated
in trials of the Middle School Science Project, which was based on a constructivist
view of science learning. The data were collected by using qualitative methods
 CONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF SCIENCE 41
based on observations, interviews, content analysis, and so forth. As the trial
progressed, the teachers conceptions were found to evolve along the following
sequence of viewpoints of increasing complexity:
1. Learning by understanding the content. New knowledge is seen as being
assimilated and added to the pupils prior knowledge, mainly on the basis of the
teachers explanations. Emphasis is given to the additive nature of learning and to
the essential value of the scientific content. While the pupils conceptions are
recognized, they are interpreted as a lagoon or blank space needing completion or
correction, rather than as alternative forms of interpreting the world.
2. Learning by factual acquisition. The pupils interests and needs are taken
into consideration, but not their conceptions. This attitude was more present in
teachers who did not have a specific science education. More importance is given to
activities where the pupils interact with curricular materials than to those where they
describe and contrast their ideas. From this point of view, learning takes place when
the pupils are exposed to important information or when they complete given activities.
3. Learning by conceptual development. The pupils ideas on scientific
phenomena are taken into consideration. The teachers task is to orient the pupils
thinking. The predominant classroom activities are those where the pupils interact
and those where they contrast their ideas with the teachers explanations. As was
the case with Gallaghers (1993) study, this organization of conceptions about learning
according to their complexity facilitates the task of designing ongoing teacher
education programs to fit the real stage of development of the target teachers.
Finally, there have been certain integrative studies that analyze conjointly
some of the categories dealt with above. The interesting point in these studies is
that they suggest that the teachers present, albeit only partially, general
epistemological models about knowledge that influence their view of science and
about the teaching-learning of school-level content. A noteworthy example for the
case of active teachers is the study by Smith and Neale (1991) of primary-level
science teachers. It describes four quite different tendencies concerning beliefs
about science and science teaching-learning:
1. A content-dominated tendency. Science is a set of data, concepts, and theories
that teaching must present suitably to the pupils.
2. A process-based tendency. Science develops according to the efficacy of the
scientific method, and one of the tasks of teaching must be to favorably incline the
pupils to learning that method.
3. A discovery-based tendency. Science is understood as a process of inquiry,
and teaching should facilitate discovery by the pupils.
4. A conceptual-change-based tendency. Science is a form of knowledge that
is constructed and evolves within a conceptual ecology, and teaching must facilitate
the evolution of the pupils ideas.
Aguirre et al. (1990) detected five types of conceptions about science in their
analysis of an open-response questionnaire given to 74 prospective science teachers.
An empiricist perspective was the majority view; but the researchers also found
two equally representative but opposing conceptions about teaching and three
conceptions about learning, where one third of the prospective teachers defended
42 PORLN & MARTN DEL POZO
a blank-mind view of the pupil. While these authors do not attempt to systematically
interrelate the conceptions, they do point out that this empiricist perspective of
science may mean a greater predisposition toward strategies of teaching that ignore
the pupils ideas.
These studies described a degree of relationship between the teachers
scientific conceptions and their conceptions of teaching and learning. However,
other authors, such as Prawat (1992), questioned this relationship. They argued
that it was based on too simplistic an analysis and suggested that the conceptions
of science, of learning, and of teaching interact in such a way that it is not possible
to attribute a greater preponderance to any one of them.
In sum, we can say that dominant tendencies exist for each one of the categories
studied, but within a relative diversity of viewpoints. A traditional conception of
science teaching and a theory of learning by appropriation of meanings (blank
mind) predominate. Furthermore, it seems advisable, whenever possible, for
researchers to arrange their results into an evolutive scale, ordering the different
tendencies by increasing complexity. This will allow tentative hypotheses to be set
up concerning the evolution of professional knowledge.

Theoretical Framework

As teachers, we each hold a set of metadiscipline conceptions (Claxton, 1984;

Pope & Gilbert, 1983; Porln, 1993) that constitutes our worldview or personal
epistemology. Our worldview affects much of what we believe professionally and
personally, and this may be the reason behind the apparent contradictions that are
detected in particular areas of a teachers world of meanings. Absolutism, for example,
is not just a conception about science, but a potent implicit theory of knowledge in
general and, thus, epistemologically biases many professional decisions and
opinions.
Another problem is that these worldviews or personal epistemologies are also
obstacles to adopting other ways of seeing and interpreting the world (Bachelard,
1938). The analysis of these conceptions and obstacles is of crucial importance in
formulating a theory of professional knowledge that is not limited to a static
characterization of what is currently predominant but that conceives of professional
knowledge as an evolving system of ideas and, therefore, includes hypotheses on
potential desirable future developments.
We believe that four trends may be hypothesized concerning teachers school-
level epistemology:
1. A conception of school-level knowledge as a formal and finished product.
This reflects a rationalist position in relation to the nature of science, a traditional
teaching model, a conception of learning based on the appropriation of meanings,
and a teaching methodology founded on the transmission of encyclopedic knowledge
by the teacher. Young (1981) designated this a traditional or conservative
epistemology.
2. A conception of school-level knowledge as a finished product that is
generated by a technical process. This appears consistent with an empiricist picture
 CONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF SCIENCE 43
of science, a technical teaching model, a conception of learning by assimilation of
meanings, and a methodology based on activities in which the pupils apply the
steps of the scientific method. The classroom dynamics are based on a closed program
of empirical activities aimed at the assimilation of content adapted from scientists.
While this also reflects a view of school-level knowledge as a finished product, it is
now learned through an effective technical process. Young (1981) designated this a
technicist epistemology.
3. A conception of school-level knowledge as an open product that is generated
by a spontaneous process. This also reflects, although more moderately, a certain
empiricism and a conception of learning by assimilation. But now the methodology
is based on the spontaneous activities on the part of the pupils. The teacher gives
support to the pupils observational and manipulative activities but does not try to
establish any directed interchange. This implies reducing the genesis and
development of school-level knowledge to the pupils interests and spontaneous
observations. Young (1981) designated this an interpretative epistemology.
4. A conception of school-level knowledge as an open product generated by
a complex process. This attempts to overcome the dichotomies of the objective and
the subjective, the rational and the spontaneous, the absolute and the relative.
School-level knowledge is, therefore, the fruit of a process of integration and re-
elaboration of diverse kinds of knowledge (not only scientific) and is constructed
interactively through processes of teacher-oriented school-level investigation.
Figure 1 summarizes these four conceptions in relation to the image of science,
the teaching model, learning theory, and elements of the curriculum (content,
methods, and evaluation). It also shows how each of these categories may evolve
from simpler forms (e.g., a theory of learning by appropriation of meanings without
taking what the subject already knows into consideration) to more complex forms
(e.g., a theory of learning by construction of meanings based on the subjects
preexisting knowledge). In no way does this imply an obligatory itinerary for teacher
education to follow or that the teachers conceptions are seamlessly woven into
one of these four main epistemologies. Rather, it is meant to be an epistemological
organization of use for the teacher educator in his or her teaching and researching
activities. In this sense, these four hypothetical conceptions act as referents in the
general system of categories that the team to which we belong uses in the study of
teachers actual conceptions.
The categories to which we shall be referring in this work are the teaching and
learning of science. Elsewhere our team has dealt with conceptions about science
(Porln & Martn del Pozo, 1996), the science curriculum (Martn del Pozo, 2001;
Martn del Pozo & Porln, 2001), and teachers conceptions of their pupils
conceptions (Porln & Lpez, 1993).

Method

The central problem of the present investigation is to describe and analyze the
conceptions about science teaching and learning of a broad sample of in-service
and prospective teachers using the quantitative methods of multifactorial analysis
 44
PORLN & MARTN DEL POZO

Figure 1. School-level epistemology in relation to the image, teaching, learning, and curriculum (content, method, and evaluation) of science.
 CONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF SCIENCE 45
and, as the instrument, the Inventory of Scientific and Pedagogical Beliefs (ISPB,
Porln, 1989). A further goal is to characterize the differences between the two
groups of teachers.

Sample

The sample consisted of 265 teachers from Andalusia (a region of Spain) and
was composed of two groups, all of whom responded anonymously:
1. One hundred fifty-eight in-service teachers who are working with 11- to 12-
year-old pupils in different state centers of education selected by proportional
stratified sampling following urban/rural and city-center/peripheral-neighborhood
criteria. By teaching experience, 42 teachers had between 1 and 6 years experience,
55 between 7 and 12 years, and 56 between 13 and 35 years experience; and in 5
cases this information was not given.
2. One hundred seven prospective teachers in the second year of their 3-year
science specialization course in the Teacher Education Center of the University of
Sevilla. Their course equips them to teach 6- to 12-year-old children.
The sample of in-service teachers is fairly representative of Andalusias teachers,
of their different years of experience, and especially of the geographical locations
of the centers (due to the proportional stratified sampling). The prospective teacher
sample, however, is unrepresentative, since it was taken from a single city (Sevilla)
and a single year (the second year of their course).

Inventory of Scientific Pedagogical Beliefs (ISPB)

This instrument was elaborated by taking into consideration the most significant
declarations obtained in interviews and the practicum diaries of prospective teachers
analyzed in a previous work (Porln, 1989) and in various questionnaires used in
earlier studies (Billeh & Malik, 1977; Munby, 1983; Strike et al., 1981; Wodlinger,
1985). It is a Likert-type scale questionnaire in which the subjects must indicate
their degree of agreement or disagreement with each statement on a scale of 1 to 5:
1totally disagree, 2disagree, 3unsure, 4agree, and 5totally agree. From the
total of 56 statements on scientific and pedagogical aspects, in this present article
we only deal with those referring to the Personal Teaching Model and the Subjective
Theory of Learning (see Appendix).
The responses were subjected to multifactorial principal component analysis
and considered the factors obtained as probable dimensions of the teachers beliefs.
Principal component analysis is an exploratory technique of value when there are a
large number of variables involved in the study (statements in the questionnaire),
and a great complexity is foreseen in their interrelationships (components or
dimensions of the teachers thinking). This type of analysis, according to Cuadras
(1981), attempts to reveal those relationships (components or factors) that
predominate within that complexity and that can, therefore, be considered
hypothetically as the principal components of the processes that one is investigating
(in this case the teachers conceptions on teaching and learning). In each analysis,
46 PORLN & MARTN DEL POZO
we worked with the first three factors, and in each factor, with the statements that
present a rotated factor loading (correlation coefficient with the factor) of at least
0.5 in absolute value.
As will be seen below, to interpret the resulting factors, we took into account
how close the set of statements constituting a factor comes to the teaching and
learning tendencies that were described in the previous section and summarized in
Figure 1. In turn, the statements, taken one by one, were representative of different
tendencies in both the teaching and the learning models, although, as we just
observed, they have to be considered as a whole in order to infer which is the
dominant tendency in a given factor.
Thus, with respect to the ISPB teaching model (see Appendix), the following
statements may be considered as representative of a traditional tendency in
teaching: (a) Classroom work must be fundamentally organized around the content
of each area (statement 9); (b) A good textbook is an indispensable resource for
science teaching (statement 10); and (c) The pupils must not intervene directly in
the programming and evaluation of their class activity (statement 11).
The following statements are typical of a technical way of understanding
teaching: (a) In programming, teachers must plan in full detail the tasks that they
and the pupils are to carry out in the lesson so as to avoid improvisation (statement
1); (b) The evaluation must be centered on measuring the level reached by the
pupils with respect to the foreseen objectives (statement 7); (c) The objectives,
organized and hierarchized according to their degree of difficulty, must be the
essential instrument which directs educational practice (statement 8); and (d) The
basic aim of Science Education is to define the most suitable techniques for quality
teaching (statement 13).
The remaining statements characterize an alternative view of teaching: (a)
Science education is regarded today as a scientific discipline (statement 2); (b)
Science education develops by way of processes of theoretical and practical
research (statement 3); (c) The teaching-learning processes that take place in
each lesson are complex phenomena involving innumerable factors (statement 4);
(d) School organization must be based on flexible timetables and groupings
(statement 5); (e) Teachers must make teaching tasks compatible with the
investigation of the processes that take place during their lessons (statement 6);
(f) Science education attempts to describe and understand the teaching-learning
processes that take place in the classroom (statement 12); and (g) Science
education must define the norms and principles which guide and orient educational
practice (statement 14).
With respect to the theory of learning, the statements that are closest to the
idea that learning is appropriating the meanings transmitted to the subject are as
follows: (a) To learn a scientific concept, the pupil must make a mental effort to fix
it in her or his memory (statement 1); (b) Children do not have the capacity to
elaborate spontaneously, for themselves, conceptions of the natural and social
world which surrounds them (statement 3); (c) The pupils demonstrate that they
have learned when they are able to correctly answer the questions put to them by
the teacher (statement 10); (d) Conceptual errors must be corrected by explaining
 CONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF SCIENCE 47
their correct interpretation as often as the pupil needs (statement 11); (e) Learning
is the result of the teachers explaining clearly and the pupil paying attention
(statement 12); (f) In general, the pupils are more or less clever according to their
innate capacities (statement 13); and (g) The essential scientific learning that
pupils must achieve in school is that which is related to the understanding of
concepts (statement 14).
The statements that highlight the idea of learning as a meaningful and active
assimilation on the part of the subject are the following: (a) For the pupils to learn
in a meaningful manner, it is important that they feel able to learn by themselves
(statement 5); (b) Childrens scientific learning must not be restricted to data and
concepts, but at the same time also include the characteristic processes of scientific
method (observation, hypotheses, etc.; statement 6); (c) Learning will be
meaningful when the pupil is able to apply it to different situations (statement 7);
and (d) Scientific learning is meaningful when the pupil has a personal interest
related to what she or he is learning (statement 9).
The understanding of learning as the construction of meanings from the
subjects own spontaneous ideas is seen in the remaining statements: (a) The
pupils spontaneous ideas should be the starting point for learning scientific
content (statement 2); (b) Pupils are better prepared to understand content if
they can relate it to knowledge they already possess (statement 4); and (c) The
pupils usually deform, involuntarily, the teachers verbal explanations and the
information they read in their textbooks (statement 8).
It should be noted that the ISPB has been used as a referent in elaborating
more specific questionnaires on pupils ideas and on content, methods, and
evaluation in science teaching in order to study the conceptions of in-service and
prospective secondary education teachers (Martnez et al., 2001, 2002; Sols &
Porln, 2003). It has also been adapted to study the conceptions of teacher educators
(Porln, Martn del Pozo, & Martn Toscano, 2002).

Results

We shall next present the results obtained by applying principal component

analysis to the ISPB responses. Tables 16 give the ISPB statements with a
correlation coefficient greater than 0.5. These make up each factor given by the
multifactorial analysis for the in-service and prospective teachers and for each
category studied.

Personal Teaching Models

The results for the teaching models analysis reflect the presence of three
different perspectives of differing importance for the two groups of teachers.
First, let us consider the statements making up Factor 1 of the sample of in-service
teachers (Table 1). They reveal a goal- and content-centered view of teaching
(statements 8 and 9), with the textbook as an essential resource (statement 10), that
aims to measure the level of knowledge that the pupils attain (statement 7) without
48 PORLN & MARTN DEL POZO
their participation (statement 11). All of this seems to point to a tendency that is
close to a traditional view of teaching, but with some characteristics that are typical
of the technical view. This factor explains the greatest percentage of the variance
(22.5%) for the in-service teacher sample.
Table 1
Factors That Are Representative of a Construction of Meanings View of Teaching
(Subjective Theory of Learning)
Active teachers

Factor 3 (Variance explained: 9.1%)

8. The pupils usually deform, involuntarily, the teachers verbal explanations and the
information they read in their textbooks. (0.815)
2. The pupils spontaneous ideas should be the starting point for learning scientific
content. (0.459)

Table 2
Factors That Are Representative of a Technical View of Teaching (Personal Teaching
Model)

Active teachers Prospective teachers

Factor 3 (Variance explained: 9.8%) Factor 1 (Variance explained: 12.9%)

1. In programming, teachers must plan in 8. The objectives, organized and
full detail the tasks that they and the hierarchized according to their degree of
pupils are to carry out in the lesson so difficulty, must be the essential
as to avoid improvisation. (0.789) instrument which directs educational
2. Science education is regarded today as a practice. (0.697)
scientific discipline. (0.670) 7. The evaluation must be centered on
measuring the level reached by the
pupils with respect to the foreseen
objectives. (0.672)

Factor 2 (Variance explained: 11.1%)

13. The basic aim of science education is to
define the most suitable techniques for
quality teaching. (0.694)
10. A good textbook is an indispensable
resource for science teaching. (0.620)
3. Science education develops by way of
processes of theoretical and practical
research. (0.596)

Second, there are the statements that make up Factors 1 and 2 of the prospective
teacher sample, 24% of the variance explained, and Factor 3 of the in-service teacher
sample, 9.8% of the variance (Table 2). In the case of the prospective teachers,
 CONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF SCIENCE 49
statements that are centered on objectives and their evaluation (statements 7 and 8
in Factor 1) predominate. At the same time, there is agreement that research in
science education provides teaching techniques (statements 3 and 13 in Factor 2).
The statement with greatest weight (statement 1 in Factor 3) in the in-service teacher
sample refers to the need for detailed programming. All these statements can be
classified within a technical conception of teaching.
Last, let us consider the statements of Factors 2 and 3 of the in-service and
prospective teacher samples, 15.6% and 10.6% of the variance explained, respectively
(Table 3). In this case, the following views predominate: (a) a complex vision of the
teaching-learning process (statement 4 in Factor 2); (b) a flexible conception of
academic organization at the primary education level (statement 5 in both factors);
(c) an image of teachers as researchers in their classroom (statement 6 in both
factors); and (d) a conception of Science Education that has a practical orientation
(statement 14 in Factor 3). Taken together, these represent a view of teaching that is
an alternative to the traditional and technical perspectives.

Table 3
Factors That Are Representative of an Alternative View of Teaching (Personal
Teaching Model)
Active teachers Prospective teachers

Factor 3 (Variance explained: 10.6%)

Factor 2 (Variance explained: 15.6%)
6. Teachers must make teaching tasks
4. The teaching/lerning processes that take
compatible with the investigation of the
place in each lesson are complex
processes that take place during their
phenomena involving innumerable
lessons. (0.763)
factors. (0.719)
14. Science education must define the
5. School organization must be based on
norms and principles which guide and
flexible timetables and groupings.
orient educational practice. (0.670)
(0.704)
5. School organization must be based on
6. Teachers must make teaching tasks
flexible timetables and groupings.
compatible with the investigation of the
(0.582)
processes that take place during their
lessons. (0.690)

Subjective Theory of Learning

The results for the learning theories also reflect the existence of three distinct
perspectives with differing importance for the two groups of teachers:
1. The statements of Factor 1 of the in-service teacher sample and of Factors
1 and 3 of the prospective teacher sample reveal a vision of learning that explains
the greatest percentages of the variance20.8% and 23%, respectively (Table 4).
These statements indicate that the erroneous meanings held by the pupils have to
be replaced by the supposedly correct meanings (statement 11 in Factor 1 of the in-
service teacher sample). They also affirm the idea that change in the pupils is provoked
by way of verbal transmission from the teacher (statement 12 in Factor 1 of both
50 PORLN & MARTN DEL POZO
samples), as long as the pupils have the suitable innate abilities (statement 13 in
Factor 1 of both samples) and pay the necessary attention (statement 12 in Factor 1
of both samples). Also appearing in these factors is the claim that learning can be
evaluated from the answers the pupils give the teacher (statement 10 in Factor 1 of
the in-service teacher sample). Finally, it is stated that the pupils must make an effort
to memorize (statement 1 in Factor 1 of both samples) the scientific conceptions
(statement 14 in Factor 3 of the prospective teacher sample). Statements that the
pupils do not elaborate spontaneous conceptions of the world around them and that
such conceptions have no role to play in learning science (statements 3 and 2 in
Factor 3) also appear in the prospective teacher sample. These results seem fairly
consistent with a view in which learning is formally (in the sense of the form, not that
of abstract or formal thought) appropriating the meanings explained by the teacher
and mechanically memorizing them.

Table 4
Factors That Are Representative of an Appropriation of Meanings View of Learning
(Subjective Theory of Learning)

Active teachers Prospective teachers

Factor 1 (Variance explained: 20.8%) Factor 1 (Variance explained: 12.9%)

10. The pupils demonstrate that they have 13. In general, the pupils are more or less
learned when they are able to correctly clever according to their innate
answer the questions put to them by capacities. (0.735)
the teacher. (0.730) 12. Learning is the result of the teachers
11. Conceptual errors must be corrected by explaining clearly and the pupil paying
explaining their correct interpretation attention. (0.580)
as often as the pupil needs. (0.698) 1. To learn a scientific concept, the pupil
12. Learning is the result of the teachers must make a mental effort to fix it in his
explaining clearly and the pupil paying or her memory. (0.579)
attention. (0.690)
13. In general, the pupils are more or less
Factor 3 (Variance explained: 10.5%)
clever according to their innate
capacities. (0.649) 2. The pupils spontaneous ideas should
1. To learn a scientific concept, the pupil be the starting point for learning
must make a mental effort to fix it in scientific content. (-0.691)
his or her memory. (0.584) 3 Children do not have the capacity to
elaborate spontaneously, for
themselves, conceptions of the natural
and social world that surrounds them.
(0.680)
14. The essential scientific learning for
pupils in school is related to
understanding concepts. (0.520)

2. The statements of Factor 2 of both samples (15.4% of the variance explained

in the case of the in-service teachers and 11.4% for the prospective teachers) seem
 CONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF SCIENCE 51
to point to a quite different vision of learning (Table 5). In this case, in order to learn,
there needs to be a more active attitude with interest in the content (statement 9 of
the in-service teacher sample) that the pupil has to feel able to learn (statement 5 of
both samples). Likewise, prior knowledge has to be related to the new information
(statement 4 of the in-service teacher sample), what is learned has to be applied to
other contexts (statement 7 of the in-service teacher sample), and scientific processes
also must be learned (statement 6 of both samples). One sees that these statements
come close to an idea of learning based on a process of assimilation and
comprehension of meanings.

Table 5
Factors That Are Representative of an Assimilation of Meanings View of Learning
(Subjective Theory of Learning)

Active teachers Prospective teachers

Factor 2 (Variance explained: 15.4%) Factor 2 (Variance explained: 11.4%)

9. Scientific learning is meaningful when 5. For the pupils to learn in a meaningful
the pupil has a personal interest related manner, it is important that they feel
to what she or he is learning. (0.685) able to learn by themselves. (0.825)
4. Pupils are better prepared to 6. Childrens scientific learning must not
understand content if they can relate it be restricted to data and concepts, but
to knowledge they already possess. at the same time also include the
(0.656) characteristic processes of scientific
5. For the pupils to learn in a meaningful method (observation, hypotheses, etc.).
manner, it is important that they feel (0.788)
able to learn by themselves. (0.612)
6. Childrens scientific learning must not
be restricted to data and concepts, but
at the same time also include the
characteristic processes of scientific
method (observation, hypotheses, etc.)
(0.610)
7. Learning will be meaningful when the
pupil is able to apply it to different
situations. (0.540)

3. The statements of Factor 3 of the in-service teacher sample, which explains

the smallest percentage of the variance9.1%, approach a view of learning in
which the pupils have spontaneous ideas and transform the information that comes
to them from outside (Table 6). These ideas must, therefore, be taken well into account
in teaching and learning the content of science (statements 8 and 2). These
perspectives are closer to a conception of learning by construction of meanings
than to the other views commented on for the previous factors.
52 PORLN & MARTN DEL POZO
Table 6
Factors That Are Representative of a Construction of Meanings View of Teaching
(Subjective Theory of Learning)
Active teachers

Factor 3 (Variance explained: 9.1%)

8. The pupils usually deform, involuntarily, the teachers verbal explanations and the
information they read in their textbooks. (0.815)
2. The pupils spontaneous ideas should be the starting point for learning scientific
content. (0.459)

Discussion

In consonance with the studies that will be discussed below, we detected a

diversity that permitted us to establish different tendencies in the teachers
conceptions of teaching and learning science (Table 7). The results of the
multifactorial analysis of the ISPB revealed the existence of three tendencies or
personal models of science teaching that are close to those described in the reference
theoretical framework (Figure 1) and to those detected in other studies:
1. Traditional model. This is what Gallagher (1993) designated teaching as
transmission of content (p. 1). It represents an ascientific conception of the teaching-
learning processes whereby it is sufficient that the teacher knows the content and
possesses certain human qualities. A package of finished content is directly
transmitted to the pupils. For Smith and Neale (1991), this constitutes a highly coherent
tendency that they denominated direct transmission of content (p. 235). In a study
of a sample of 100 in-service teachers in Spain, using a 162-item questionnaire about
teaching, Marrero (1993) also detected a predominance of traditional perspectives
on teaching. In our case, this model seemed to be present in the in-service teacher
sample (Factor 1), but was not detected in the prospective teacher sample. We feel,
however, that this does not mean that none of the future teachers shared these
views. Indeed, most of them had been through school with traditional teaching
models, which would influence their conceptions. Other studies, including classics,
such as that of Aguirre et al. (1990), and more recent efforts, such as that of Joram
and Gabriele (1998), detected in prospective teachers a vision of teaching as the
transmission of knowledge (p. 385), a finding in line with this model. Hence, we
think that a tension existed among the prospective teachers arising from their rejection
of the traditional model of teaching (which they, themselves, suffered and endured,
and associated with authoritarianism, rote learning, and examinations) and their lack
of awareness of any genuine alternatives: To them, the traditional model seems to be
the only one that is really feasible. Whether or not the more traditional conceptions
will manifest themselves will depend on how this tension is resolved.
2. Technical model. This is what Gallagher (1993) designated teaching by
organization of content (p. 1). This conceptualizes teaching from a viewpoint of an
instrumental rationality: Rigorous technical norms and procedures can be established
that guarantee effective teaching. If the teachers apply the prescribed techniques in
 CONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF SCIENCE 53
Table 7
Results of the Principal Component Analysis of the Responses of Teachers to Two Categories
of Items From the Inventory of Scientific and Pedagogical Beliefs

Note: Up to the first three factors of each group of teachers were assigned to one of the three
trends (see Figure 1). F is the factor; % is the percentage variance explained; I is the item
number in each category (see the Appendix), with underlining (e.g., 2) indicating that the
loading (correlation with the factor) was negative; and RFL is the rotated factor loading.
54 PORLN & MARTN DEL POZO
their classroom, learning is guaranteed. The objectives and a closed sequence of
activities are programmed in detail to form the framework for the structure of classroom
practice. Evaluation is of the level attained relative to the declared objectives. In the
present study, this model predominates in the sample of prospective teachers (Factors
1 and 2), but it is not very representative of the in-service teacher sample (Factor 3).
In the Spanish context, Prez Gmez and Gimeno (1992) reported a similar finding
with a 617-prospective-teacher sample using a 119-item instrument called the
Pedagogical Opinion Questionnaire. We feel that teaching models based on
teaching efficacy and on the detailed programming of goals seem to be more readily
accepted by our prospective teachers due to their lack of a body of knowledge that
is closer to teaching practice. Active teachers, however, who are closer to the
traditional model, usually reject these perspectives as being artificial and impractical.
They are also usually rejected by those teachers who are more identified with an
alternative viewpoint, since they see teaching as of too great a complexity in practice
to program rigidly beforehand.
3. Alternative model. This tendency reflects the complex character of teaching
and the importance of pupil participation and the teachers role as investigator.
Gallagher (1993) described various aspects of this tendency: learning cycle,
conceptual change, and the orientation of a constructive process. For Smith and
Neale (1991), the idea was to achieve the goal of conceptual change by stimulating
the evolution of the pupils conceptions. Nevertheless, this was a minority tendency
in our samples and did not present the internal cohesion of the previous models
(Active Teachers, Factor 2; Prospective Teachers, Factor 3). The aforementioned
study of Marrero (1993) also detected minority currents of opinion, which the author
called interpretative theory and emancipatory theory, consistent with the alternatives
to the traditional and technical models of teaching. Only 4% of the pretest and 22%
of the posttest prospective teacher sample in the study of Joram and Gabriele (1998)
held the view of teaching as facilitating situations in which pupils can construct
their own knowledge. We feel that these results may be understood in light of the
sparseness of the implementation of models that are real alternatives to the traditional
way of teaching. Furthermore, teacher education usually reproduces the traditional
model of teaching (i.e., even though the message is one defending an alternative
model, it is presented as straightforward verbal transmission).
With respect to learning science, the results of the multifactorial analysis of
the ISPB also revealed three tendencies close to those described in the reference
theoretical framework (Figure 1) and detected in other studies:
1. Learning by appropriation of meanings. The pupils mind is seen as a tabula
rasa that receives information from the teacher and will capture its meaning as long
as the pupil is attentive and suffers from no mental dysfunction. The communication
of content is assumed to be a linear process in which the meanings undergo no
alterations and in which each concept has a single meaning. Hollon and Anderson
(1987) called this an orientation of learning as understanding content in which the
pupils add to their knowledge or correct their mistaken preconceptions on the basis
of the teachers explanations. Aguirre et al. (1990) also found this to be the majority
view of learning in a sample of 74 prospective teachers. Likewise, Joram and Gabriele
 CONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF SCIENCE 55
(1998) found that most of their sample of 53 prospective-teachers with whom they
worked held an idea of learning based on the acquisition of knowledge from an
external source. Flores, Lpez, Gallegos, and Barojas (2000) detected similar tendencies
in their sample of prospective teachers, a viewpoint that they called behaviorism (p.
201). In the present study, this tendency predominated in both samples, although it
seems to have a greater presence in the case of the prospective teachers (Active
Teachers, Factor 1; Prospective Teachers, Factors 1 and 3). Another study carried
out by our research group (Porln & Lpez, 1993) analyzed in depth the evolution of
the conceptions of in-service teachers who participated in a process of constructivist-
oriented curricular experimentation. It was found that they initially thought of the
pupils mind as either a blank page or so full of errors that there is no need to take it
into account in the process of learning. This view of school-level learning is, we feel,
the predominant social stereotype.
2. Learning by assimilation of meanings. In order to learn, one has to be
personally involved in the content of the learning, relate it to what one already
knows, and incorporate it meaningfully into the existing cognitive structure. It differs
from the previous tendency in the greater degree of importance it gives to the need
for the learning to be meaningful to the learner (psychological meaningfulness).
Hollon and Anderson (1987) labeled this an orientation of conceptual development,
whereas, for Flores et al. (2000), it was in a category they called cognitivism (p.
201). Aguirre et al. (1990) also detected a view of learning that is in this line where
learning endows the new information with meaning according to the existing
understanding. In our study, it was present in both samples of teachers (Active
Teachers, Factor 2; Prospective Teachers, Factor 2).
3. Learning by construction of meanings. Finally, we detected a minority view
in which knowledge is not something acquired or assimilated, but constructed. For
Hollon and Anderson (1987), this was an orientation of learning by conceptual
development; for Flores et al. (2000), it was a constructivist (p. 201) viewpoint. We
also detected one set of responses close to this idea (Active Teachers, Factor 3).
The studies of Gustafson and Rowell (1995) and of Joram and Gabriele (1998) also
detected this view as a minority option in both pretest and posttest. However, in a
study of Aguirre and Haggerty (1995) based on interviews with eight prospective
teachers, half of the categories they identified were consistent with this orientation.
In the present study, the in-service teacher sample presented a greater diversity
of tendencies than does the prospective teacher sample in the two categories
analyzed in regard to both teaching and learning. As will be recalled, neither a
traditional view of teaching nor an idea of learning by the construction of meaning
were detected among the prospective teachers. We feel that this may have reflected
the greater diversity of experiences that in-service teachers have had and that
influenced how they understand teaching and learning. As we noted above, the
prospective teachers, with no direct experience as teachers, were more limited in
their perspectives.
As noted by Southerland and Gess-Newsome (1999), there is a need for in-
depth studies with samples of just a few subjects and using a variety of indirect
instruments over a long period of time in order to sound out the real diversity of
56 PORLN & MARTN DEL POZO
teachers conceptions. Nonetheless, in the present study, we worked with large
samples in order to determine how close the teachers came to the tendencies included
in the questionnaire.

Suggestions for Teacher Education

We agree with Bramald, Hardman, and Leat (1995) that there is a broad
consensus among authors that teachers practices are strongly influenced by their
conceptions. We also agree with those authors that, because of teachers enormous
resistance to change and the predominance of the more traditional tendencies,
teacher educators will need to organize educational processes around those
tendencies aiming at their desired evolution.
One of the possibilities that this type of study can offer along these lines is the
organization of the findings into tendencies of increasing complexity so that teacher
educators can analyze the obstacles between these tendencies and design activities
and strategies that help to overcome them. The organization that we propose is (a)
an initial tendency that is usually close to the majority conceptions of teaching
and learning and that adopts a very simplistic perspective on what it means to teach
and to learn; (b) intermediate tendencies that attempt to overcome, in different
ways, the difficulties posed by those majority tendencies; and (c) a reference
tendency aimed at overcoming the difficulties that arise from the partial answers of
the intermediate levels and that approximates an ideal corpus of professional
knowledge.
By way of example, let us see how this organization is put into practice in one
of the initial teacher education lecture courses for the primary level that we are
currently developing. Entitled Pupils Conceptions of the Sciences, the central
idea of the course is that the future teachers should learn to detect, analyze, evaluate,
and use the ideas of primary-level pupils (6- to 12-year-olds) in the teaching-learning
process. The following is a hypothesis of the possible viewpoints, organized from
lesser to greater complexity, that may show up among those attending the course:
1. Initial tendency or basal situation: The pupils ideas are irrelevant for learning
(consistent with a formal and mechanical appropriation of meanings view of learning).
2. Possible intermediate tendencies: (a) The pupils ideas are conceptual
prerequisites to their being able to develop a topic (consistent with an assimilation
of meanings view of learning); (b) The pupils ideas are conceptual errors that will
have to be replaced by the correct concepts (consistent with a substitution of
meanings view of learning); and (c) The pupils ideas are just an expression of their
interests and are only to be used as motivation (consistent with a view of learning by
spontaneous discovery).
3. Reference tendency: The pupils ideas form a body of knowledge that is an
alternative to scholastic knowledge (consistent with a constructivist oriented view
of learning).
Of course, this hypothesis is in no way a predetermined educational itinerary,
nor do the future teachers conceptions have to fit it like a glove. It is, rather, a
reference to aid in situating teachers conceptions with respect to their complexity
 CONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF SCIENCE 57
that will be enriched with practice.
At another level, as Joram and Gabriele (1998) pointed out, the stereotypes of
teaching and learning in ongoing teacher education represent true obstacles to the
teachers conceptual change towards more complex perspectives. These stereotypes
are reinforced by teachers daily experiences, and it is not easy to find a practical
model of teaching-learning with sufficient impact to lead these conceptions to be
questioned and changed. Therefore, it is advisable to keep the obstacles associated
with teachers conceptions in ones sights. In the above example, we find two
fundamental obstacles to evolution: the conceptions that (a) teaching causes
learning and that (b) the pupils mind is a tabula rasa.
We agree with Southerland and Gess-Newsome (1999) that these obstacles
reflect an absolutist vision of knowledge in which true knowledge exists, a
knowledge that is unique and immutable in its basic concepts (knowledge of the
discipline), and that must be learned in school. In other words, the concept of
chemical change is the concept of chemical change: there is no more than one
correct concept, and that is what the pupils will have to learn. We feel that such
epistemological absolutism is the underlying obstacle that leads, on the one hand,
to direct transmission of the correct information being overvalued and, on the other
hand, to the pupils knowledge being undervalued. This absolutist undercurrent is
the most powerful obstacle to the development of a constructivist epistemology,
since it impregnates the rest of the difficulties in professional learning.
These difficulties remain to some degree, even after an educational process
aimed at changing teachers conceptions of science, teaching, and learning is
undergone. This is shown by such studies as those of Gustafson and Rowell (1995)
or Flores et al. (2000). Existing research seems to indicate that it is not enough to
provoke analytical reflection or to develop a constructivist vision of teaching and
learning science. Therefore, we feel that empirical evidence is needed about what
type of activity and what sequences of teacher education will have the greatest
potential for encouraging the evolution of teachers conceptions. The in-depth
description and analysis of these sequences is the goal of the work that we are
currently carrying out.
In summary, the teachers conceptions that we have described are not the
result of conscious decisions. Rather, they are the consequence of a process of
adaptation to the traditional school culture, the job structure of the teaching
profession, the academic discipline (which is the referent of the curriculum), and
models of initial and in-service teacher educationthe social stereotypes of
education and the school. Therefore, these studies should move beyond the
intellectual curiosity of education research into a mutual commitment between
researchers and teachers to the renovation of science teaching and the initial and
in-service education of teachers.

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This manuscript was accepted under the editorship of Craig Berg and Larry Enochs.
 CONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF SCIENCE 61
Appendix: Inventory of Scientific Pedagogical Beliefs (ISPB)
62

Note: In the present article, we addressed only the statements of the inventory that refer to
the Personal Model of Teaching and to the Subjective Theory of Learning.