Experimentation anxieties of pre-school and primary school teacher candidates

Abstract

Experimentation is widely accepted as being central to science education. However, anxiety about experimentation often prevents its use. While a considerable number of studies on anxiety related to laboratory experimentation have been conducted, studies on in class experimentation is limited. In the research study reported on here we explored the anxiety about in-class experimentation of teachers as enacted in pre-school and primary school (PP) education. We also searched for possible similarities in the anxiety of the pre-school and primary school teacher candidate (TC) cohorts to explain the persistence of their anxiety. TCs responded to an open-ended question through a qualitative analysis procedure. The levels of anxiety were classified into three categories: low, moderate, and high. The time when the TCs experienced the anxiety was classified into 3 other categories: backstage, stage, and finale, which were coupled with the levels of anxiety. Quantitative analysis showed that there was a high similarity between the two cohorts of TCs’ experimentation anxieties. We conclude that teacher candidates’ future students would encounter a continuous, uninterrupted, unfavourable anxiety-filled environment with regard to experiments throughout their PP.