Learning to teach and teaching to learn: primary student teachers' complex journey from learners to teachers

This thesis concerns the process of student teachers´ learning to teach primary scienceand is based on four studies involving primary science student teachers during theirteacher education program. The overall question that the thesis intends to investigate isin which ways student teachers‟ learning about teaching can be illustrated andunderstood in terms of the critical aspects that are experienced within their teachingand learning practices. The four papers in the thesis purposefully explore studentteachers‟ complex journey from learners to teachers and illustrate the processes oflearning to teach by highlighting important aspects within that process. Further to this,the thesis brings into focus the importance of teacher educators‟ professionalknowledge and how that knowledge must impact teacher education practice. The firstpaper explores four student teachers´ learning to teach in a primary school context. Inconnection to their teaching they were interviewed as they reflected on the video inorder to portray their knowledge needs and how they impacted their abilities to handleclassroom situations. The second paper investigates a group of primary science studentteachers‟ experiences from planning, teaching and reflecting on a science lesson withpupils aged between six and eleven in a science learning centre at the university. Thesestudent teachers identified critical incidents within their teaching which led them tofurther portray their own concerns for teaching and their teaching needs. The thirdpaper investigates the joint learning between two primary science student teachers andtheir mentors during a four week school based practice. Finally the fourth paperinvestigates primary science student teachers‟ development of subject matter of, and apositive attitude towards, physics in a specific physics course at the university, andfurther discusses the importance of subject matter knowledge and self-confidence inteaching primary science. In making explicit student teachers‟ experiences andconcerns for teaching and learning science, the practices and processes highlighted inthis thesis help to inform how to involve student teachers in developing a knowledgebase for primary science teaching. Syftet med denna avhandling är att bidra till förståelsen av hur lärarstudenter utvecklar ämnesdidaktisk kunskap (PCK) för att undervisa yngre elever i naturvetenskap. Avhandlingen belyser och diskuterar lärarutbildningens komplexitet samt olika aspekter av den resa lärars