Analysis of the curricular emphasis preferences of preservice science teachers in Chile and Spain.

Abstract

In context-based science education, the concept of curricular emphasis exhibits a particular interest to teachers, as it helps to identify what they consider science education to be. Therefore, in this work, we present a quantitative study on the curricular emphasis preferences from two educational context, Chile and Spain. Using a Likert-type questionnaire as a research instrument, we comparatively analyze the choices of 40 pre-service science teachers from Physics and Chemistry, identifying similarities and differences between both countries. The results show a clear preference for the emphasis on Science, Technology and Society, even though the contrasts of the two educational systems and the profile of the pre-service teachers.