Impacts d’une formation établissant des liens entre les sciences et la cuisine sur l’enseignement des sciences au primaire
Science education is frequently neglected by elementary school teachers who prioritize French and mathematics (Lenoir, 2000).  These teachers often lack the training and educational tools to link scientific knowledge with everyday life situations. Therefore, the integration of social practices with teaching activities can be considered an innovative teaching method which will enable students and teachers to contextualize many scientific concepts (Martinand, 1986). Capitalizing on the enthusiasm of Quebeckers for cooking, this research investigates the impact of a science-cooking professional development experience on six elementary school teachers. In this descriptive case study, the participants attended two training sessions during which they tried out various science teaching activities. After testing the activities in class, the participants were interviewed to establish the evolution of their knowledge regarding science teaching and to create a list of benefits and obstacles related to the use of cooking activities to teach science. Furthermore, the suggestions given by the subjects to improve the proposed teaching activities show the predominance of organizational and socioemotional concerns when it comes to adapting the instructional materials used in class. The results of this research may be useful for curriculum developers seeking to improve the quality of the educational tools created for the teachers. In addition, this study contributes to the improvement of science education by offering innovative teaching activities to the elementary school community.
Elementary science education Teacher training Teaching practices Social practices Cooking activities