What are the attitudes and beliefs about Science of the Physics teachers and future Physics teachers in Uruguay?

TL;DR

This study assesses and compares the attitudes and beliefs about science among Uruguayan Physics teachers and future teachers using the CLASS survey, highlighting areas for educational improvement and alignment with expert views.

Contribution

It applies the CLASS test to Uruguayan teachers and students, providing a comparative analysis of their epistemological conceptions and identifying training needs.

Findings

Identifies significant similarities and differences in attitudes between teachers and students.

Highlights areas where training is effective or needs improvement.

Compares results with existing literature to contextualize findings.

Abstract

We investigated the epistemological conceptions of the uruguayan Physics teachers and future Physics teachers through the application of the CLASS test (Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey), one of the most accepted instruments in the research community in Physics education. The results obtained allow us to compare the attitudes and beliefs about science of both groups and quantitatively evaluate the agreement or not with the conceptions of experts in the field. First, we present a general screenshot of the responses and then we identify categories in which there are significant similarities or differences between the two groups studied and in turn with the reference of the experts. The categories that show significant positive or negative variations between the opinions of future teachers and teachers indicate the areas where training is favorable or unfavorable. On the other hand, the areas where the differences with the opinions of the experts are globally notorious suggest that they should be strengthened. To get a more global perspective, we also compare our results with those published in the literature. Finally, we raise several questions that we think may favor further inquiries.