Strategies to teach chemistry in university lecturers’ initial training

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a piece of research regarding the use of strategies to teach chemistry on the part of the lecturers in charge of the teacher training degree in Argentina, since the graduates will teach in secondary schools where how to teach and foster students’ interest in chemistry reveal themselves as crucial aspects. To this end, we analyzed the study plan in chemistry teacher training at the National University of Santiago del Estero, university hierarchies, title, and training of the teachers. We interviewed in depth 18 chemistry lecturers and analyzed both the conception of learning strategies and how they were used: type, frequency, relationship to quality education, and the relationships between students and strategies and use of strategies and resources.

The results show the lack of teachers’ skills regarding the education process and, therefore, regarding the conceptualization of strategies—although they recognize they use them. The master class and its different variants is the most widely chosen strategy and, consequently, the blackboard is the most used resource. This shows the persistence of traditional teaching models.

The predisposition of teachers to incorporate strategies to ensure quality education is remarkable, especially considering the responsibility they have towards the students they are training. The lecturers justify their deficient use of certain strategies by referring to reasons such as the demanding nature of training programs, their lack of skills, institutional practices, refusal to innovation, system exigency related to research, graduate studies, etc.