Pre-Service Teachers' Reflections When Drama Was Integrated in a Science Teacher Education Program

In earlier studies, it has been argued that drama has the potential to stimulate learning in science. However, it is not widely used, one reason being that science teachers are not familiar with this instructional strategy. In this study, it was investigated how pre-service teachers in science developed dramas related to content in a biology course. The research question included how the pre-service teachers reflected on drama as an instructional strategy to stimulate conceptual understanding about cells and cell processes, both for themselves and for their future students. Ten pre-service teachers participated, all in their first year of studies to become teachers at secondary school. Data were collected in the form of student reports and video-recordings, showing the dramas they had created served as complements confirming the reports. The reports were analysed based on the tool Content Representations. The results showed that despite the fact that the pre-service teachers previously had never experienced drama in their science education, and that they identified critical aspects of using drama in science, they were positive about using drama in science education. Some of the pre-service teachers also argued that the use of drama helped them in their own understanding of cell processes.