Migliorare l’insegnamento delle scienze nelle scuole primarie: FoCoSTEP, un’esperienza francese di accompagnamento formativo

In both French and Italian primary schools, the teaching of scientific subjects is of- ten overlooked by teachers, often coming from humanistic disciplines, who com- plain of their inadequate preparation. In this article we present the FoCoSTEP (For- mation Collaborative en Sciences et Technologie à l’École Primaire), an innovative training method whose main aim is to improve the teaching of science and tech- nology in primary schools. This method, developed at the École Supérieure du Pro- fessorat 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.