Conceptual and exploratory labs for secondary teacher education in two different countries. the case of dc circuits

We analyse the effectiveness of our Formative Intervention Module (FIM), where our was to support a groups of 46 pre-service technology secondary teachers at the University in Udine and a group of 32 pre-service technology teachers at the University of the Basque Country. The topic of the formative intervention was DC circuits because it is a topic that is mentioned in the technology curriculum of any country. The research problem considers how we succeeded in promoting formative modules by promoting new learning materials and by organizing pre-service training. In particular we evaluate the pre-service teachers achievement both in understanding the concepts and in the acquisition of pedagogical content knowledge. A qualitative pre/post-test was designed to get data and analyse the impact of the formative intervention module. We find a generalized improvement in the macro-physical description of a simple DC (Direct Current) circuits. In addition, around two third of future teachers recognized learning difficulties for understanding concepts and the alternative conceptions of students.