Teachers Researching Their Practices: Potentialities for Facilitating Conception Changes

• In Event: Sustained Teacher Professional Development

Abstract

Teachers’ conceptions affect how they interpret innovations, making them resistant to it. Researching their practices is an important means to evaluate new practices and so it might be important for assisting conceptions’ change. We will present a training model based on teachers’ researching their practices and we will illuminate the interplay between practices, evaluation of its impact and the development of new conceptions. Six science teachers were involved in a qualitative study. The results show that conceptions regarding pupils’ autonomy initially worked as an argument for not implementing innovative activities. Furthermore, throughout the training teachers changed some of their conceptions. Designing and implementing activities, collecting and interpreting data, as well as reflecting on it were important steps that facilitated change.

Authors

• Monica Baptista, Institute of Education of Lisbon University

• Sofia Freire, Institute of Education of Lisbon University

• Ana Freire, Institute of Education of Lisbon University