PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

In primary science (Sachunterricht), engagement in science practices is a central aspect of professionalization for preservice teachers. Meaningful engagement in science practices from this perspective includes epistemic and social-interactive aspects and addresses discipline-specific as well as personal goals. The challenge for preservice teachers is to integrate both aspects into their teaching practices as an important part of their professionalization. To promote this, pedagogies were designed to help students learn the teaching practices of planning, enacting and reflecting on a model-based investigation (MBI) and integrating both aspects of meaningful engagement. This study explores how preservice teachers reflect on their own enactment of an MBI to find out how they address this challenge. The analysis involved inductive coding of 95 reflective essays followed by establishing theory-led higher-level categories, focusing on aspects of meaningful engagement and its relevance to professionalization from a sociocultural perspective. The results show three distinct types of participation in preservice teachers’ reflections. Preservice teachers emphasize engagement as discourses and actions in the practices of an MBI, thus highlighting epistemic parts of participation, but distinguish between the participating actors and their responsibilities during the MBI.