Using a Non-Mandatory Book Club to Develop Pre-Service Science Teachers’ Didactic Competence

Science teacher education must prepare pre-service teachers for a broad variety of teaching approaches to make science more relevant to students. Previous research has suggested fiction as one approach to a broader school science. This article describes and evaluates the experiences from a developm...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lotta Leden, Helena Andersson
Format: Article
Language:Danish
Published: University of Oslo 2025-04-01
Series:Nordina: Nordic Studies in Science Education
Online Access:https://journals.uio.no/nordina/article/view/10210
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Summary:Science teacher education must prepare pre-service teachers for a broad variety of teaching approaches to make science more relevant to students. Previous research has suggested fiction as one approach to a broader school science. This article describes and evaluates the experiences from a development project where a non-mandatory book-club project was implemented in science teacher education. Five upper secondary pre-service science teachers took part in the book club (1 year, 4 meetings). They read three books on various science topics and discussed how the books could be used in science teaching. They shared their experiences in a focus-group interview at the end of the book club project. The result from the interview is discussed from a didactic competence perspective. In conclusion, we argue that an incorporation of fiction in science teacher education must be accompanied by pre-service teachers’ didactic analysis of different choices for teaching, and the consequences of such choices for students’ learning and participation. 
ISSN:1504-4556
1894-1257