Improving Science Teaching in Primary Schools: FoCoSTEP, a French Experience of Training Support

Abstract

In both French and Italian primary schools, the teaching of scientific subjects is often overlooked by teachers, often coming from humanistic disciplines, who complain of their inadequate preparation. In this article we present the FoCoSTEP (Formation Collaborative en Sciences et Technologie à l’École Primaire), an innovative training method whose main aim is to improve the teaching of science and technology in primary schools. This method, developed at the École Supérieure du Professorat et de l’Éducation (ESPE - Higher School of Teaching and Education) of the French University of Reunion Island, is based on the collaboration between future teachers, university instructors and ESPE university professors of scientific subjects.
An experiment of using a sort of “contamination” between physics experiments
and narration in primary teaching is also briefly illustrated.