Source: European Journal of Teacher Education, Volume 35, Issue 1, 2012. pages 91-109.
The current research reports a replication study in Turkey of an intervention originally carried out with pre-service primary teachers in England.
The cohorts had different characteristics; in particular, their overall ability, their confidence in science and how they had been taught science at school were different.
Despite these differences the explicit teaching of the ‘concepts of evidence’, which is described, proved to be a targeted and efficient intervention in both cohorts.
Following teaching both cohorts had increased their understanding of scientific evidence, and improved their ability to conduct an open-ended investigation.
The participants were also were able to ask questions about the evidence for claims made in a socio-scientific issue.