Rhetoric and Reality: Science Teacher Educators' Views and Practice Regarding Science Process Skills

Abstract

The importance of teaching science process skills in science education is well documented in the literature. Yet the issue of process skills had also been associated with debates on validity of a process approach to science education. This research was conducted to explore views of science teacher educators in initial teacher education programmes with regard to the importance of science process skills and how their beliefs of teaching influence their teaching of these skills. The study is located within an interpretive paradigm as an in-depth study of the views of six teacher educators was undertaken. Written responses to questions and interviews produced the necessary data. While the findings reveal that teacher educators have differing opinions regarding what constitutes process skills and differ with regard to the importance of such skills, they do identify a number of core skills as being most important, including some generic skills. The findings further show that, while science process skills are regarded as important, lecturers hold pedagogical beliefs that privilege the development of conceptual understanding rather than the acquisition of science process skills within their teaching practice. Their rhetoric regarding the importance of process skills does not therefore always match their self-reported practice, lending support to the continuing debate around science process skills.