The Monets,Van Goghs,and Renoirs of Science Education: Writing Impressionist Tales as a Strategy for Facilitating Prospective Teachers’ Reflections on Science Experiences

A particularly useful pedagogical strategy for beginning a dialogue with prospective teachers about the ways in which their experiences and beliefs shape their development of professional knowledge is writing impressionist tales. Impressionist tales are a form of autobiography that portrays one highly personal perspective on a significant moment in time. In this pedagogical practice article, we describe our use of impressionist tales, summarize the assumptions underpinning our use of impressionist tales in science methods courses, provide several examples of our students’ tales, and discuss the pedagogical advantages and the teacher educator’s role in using impressionist tales to promote reflective thinking among prospective elementary science teachers.