Abstracts - Earli

outines, schemes, habits have learnt in their school they work. Teachers working with differentage-groups or in several school-types have typical thinking patterns inside their own teachergroup.Their concepts of experts and children are very different. The positive self-concepts ofteachers depend on their success inside their school. The research justified our hypothesis, i.e.there are significant differences in the teachers’ thinking and we received new and surprisingresults as well. The field of pedagogical thinking is the research area where the characteristics ofthe teacher education system can be observed, because the more the teachers are trained to workwith younger students, the more pedagogical and psychological basis they receive, and the higherthe importance of the actual teaching practice. The changes in the education system of teachersmust begin at this stage.Student teachers’ ideas of writing a scientific thesis within teacher education in FinlandGunilla Eklund-Myrskog, Faculty of Education, Åbo Akademi University, FinlandThe teacher education in Finland is university based and leads to a master degree. Science andresearch are important aspects of the education and students write a scientific thesis (33/40 ECTS).The aim of the research-orientation is that students get a preparedness to systematically and in areflective way investigate issues and as a consequence develop their own practice as professionalteachers. The aim of the research-orientation is thus related to the view of a professional andreflective teacher. However, the research-orientation of the teacher education in Finland has beendiscussed and criticized. The student teachers conceive the relation between research and theteacher profession as diffuse and difficult to handle and they have difficulties in relating realpractical problems to theoretical issues in their work of the thesis. The aim of this study is toinvestigate student teachers’ ideas of writing a scientific thesis within teacher education. Data forthe empirical study were collected through essays, including four open questions, with 69 studentsfrom the Department of Teacher Education at Abo Akademi University in Finland. Thephenomenographic approach was taken as the point of departure and data were analysed in aqualitative way. The results of the study show that in an intellectual way, students understand themotive for and meaning of a scientific thesis in a university based teacher education. They havedifferent conceptions of their own learning in relation to the thesis although the relation to theteacher profession is not at all clear for the students. In order to develop the scientific thesis inteacher education the relation between theory, research, and practice has to be emphasized to ahigher extent. A scientific thesis within teacher education should more be treated as a "learningtask" for a professional teacher, and not merely as a "research task".Beginning to argue: argumentation in preservice science teacher educationSibel Erduran, University of Bristol, United KingdomDilek Ardac, Bosphorous University, TurkeyBuket Yakmaci-Guzel, Bosphorous University, TurkeyThe article presents a case for the promotion of argumentation in science in pre-service teachereducation. In recent years, argumentation has emerged as a significant goal for teaching andlearning of science. As an important aspect of scientific inquiry, argumentation plays a role in thegeneration and justification of knowledge claims. The theoretical background on the role ofargumentation is reviewed and an empirical study is reported on the ways in which teachertraining can be supported in the use of argumentation in science classrooms. Case studies of twoteachers are used to illustrate how teachers structure lessons and support argumentation insecondary science classrooms after a series of training sessions. Results indicate that the teachers– 341 –