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.