Primary pre-service teachers' conceptions and models about tuberculosis

This study explores the ideas and models of a group of pre-service teachers (N = 124) about an infectious disease with a high incidence in our context, sometimes present among students, tuberculosis. The research objectives are: 1) to investigate the conceptions about tuberculosis by two groups of primary pre-service teachers, one affected and the other one not affected by the disease; 2) to examine how pre-service teachers explain and construct the model of infection about tuberculosis. The methodology is qualitative and the focus of the analysis is on two tasks of the sequence; one is an explorative test and the other is a modelling-based activity about TB. The analysis of the first objective shows substantial differences among the groups affected and not affected by tuberculosis. The analysis of the second objective indicates that two out of 16 models are included in the highest progression level of modelling. Most of the participants have difficulties in key ideas such as the identification of the mode of transmission, the location of the infection and in the establishment of adequate connections among the elements involved in the immune response.