British Primary School Science Teacher Pre-service Training Curriculum Studies

In modern world, the high development of the science and technology challenges the science education of all countries all the time. The progress of primary science education is directly connected to the degree of professionalism of elementary school science teachers. How to improve the professional development of these teachers is becoming an international issue. In England, since the publication of primary science in the national curriculum, the elementary science education has made much progress. Meanwhile, it promotes the professional development of elementary school science teachers in England. In order to ensure the quality of elementary school science teachers, initial teacher training national curriculum for primary science was published in 1998 which serves as a standard for the initial teacher training of elementary school science teachers. The curriculum which is based upon constructivist learning theory and aims to foster those science teachers who know scientific inquiry and have pedagogical content knowledge specifies the essential core of knowledge, understanding and skills which all trainees on primary and KS2/3 courses of ITT must be taught and be able to use in their teaching. It has adapted well to the needs of primary scientific education reform and raised the quality of elementary school science teachers in England. In China, however, our elementary science teacher education is still at a prelimimary stage. With the undergoing of the new round of fundamental education curriculum reform, the problems of constructing elementary school science teachers crop out. It is science teachers with high quality that are needed in elementary schools at the era. So this thesis analyzes the initial teacher training national curriculum in England and the PGCE courses in the education department of Cambridge University. Their experiences can be our reference. As to the aim of elementary school science teachers' cultivation in China, emphasis is to be laid on training of high quality science teachers with specialty. As to curriculum installation, apart from scientific knowledge learning, much attention is to be paid to the nature of science and scientific spirit so as to improve teachers' scientific literacy. As to the forms of evaluation, formative assessment, the purpose of which is to promote students' development, should be the leading method.