Are Pre-Service Teachers Able to Answer Children’s Questions About The Natural Sciences? The Characterization of Questions by Children and Students of the Early Childhood Education Degree

Abstract

One of the main objectives of science education is to produce students and, in general, a society that is scientifically literate. To achieve this objective, teachers across the different educational stages must work on science at school, so it is essential that students in education degrees reach scientific competence, but for this, it would be necessary to know the questions raised by schoolchildren about natural sciences, to be able to work from their interests and confront the pre-service teachers with these questions, as well as to know the interests of the university students themselves. In this research, a case study has compiled spontaneous questions about natural sciences that pre-school students ask their parents, and they have been compared with those made by pre-service teachers. The results show that the questions are similar in terms of subject matter and complexity and that only some are investigable questions. In addition, university students are not able to answer children's questions with their own knowledge, which implies the need to work more on science in the study plans of Education degrees and help them devise strategies to work them. It is also necessary to stress that it is important not only to know the answer, but also to have the capacity to organise activities that encourage students to search for answers on their own.