Pre-service Teachers’ False Beliefs in Superstitions and Pseudosciences in Relation to Science and Technology

In order to increase scientific competence within the general population, it is important that teachers and educators have a realistic image of science and scientists, leaving aside superstitions and pseudoscientific claims that could be transmitted to their students. A starting point in this strategy is to make a good diagnosis of the future teachers’ perceptions of science and technology. To this end, in this paper, we present a survey conducted with 383 Spanish university students, training to become schoolteachers. We focused on their interest in science and technology and their degree of trust in false beliefs and pseudoscience. The results are analysed and compared with those of a group of similar age and educational background that have answered a general population survey. It was found that, although the interest in science and technology and the trust in scientists is higher in pre-service teachers than in the general population, their level of belief in pseudoscientific issues is comparable, or even higher in some cases to those of the general population. The results show that these false beliefs are independent of the interest that future teachers show in science and technology. The presence of such beliefs among pre-service teachers should be a source of reflection, since these may be part of the hidden curriculum that they will transmit to their students.