Expanding Elementary Preservice Teachers’ Becoming Science Teachers through the Eventization of ‘Gaps’ in Photosynthesis Experiments

This study examines the conflicts and transformations experienced by elementary preservice teachers during photosynthesis experiments, framing them as pivotal events in the process of becoming science teachers. These experiences were analyzed through four types of gaps: interpretive, temporal, spatial, and relational. The findings reveal that interpretive gaps occurred most frequently, often stemming from the limitations of strictly following textbooks and teacher guides. By interacting with teacher educators, preservice teachers reinterpreted these gaps, leading to more in-depth experimental inquiries. Temporal gaps emerged in managing nighttime durations for starch detection, spatial gaps in the search for optimal experimental environments, and relational gaps as participants navigated their intermediate positions between students and teachers. The eventization of these gaps illustrates how preservice teachers transcend a learner's perspective to reconstruct experiments from a pedagogical viewpoint, thereby expanding their professional identity and expertise as science teachers.