Abstract
Physics training for kindergarten and primary-school teachers should consider the trainee teachers’ attitudes, perceived capability and preconceptions with regard to physics because it is known that the latter can influence their future teaching behaviour. Therefore, in this study, the status quo of beginners in teacher training for the kindergarten and primary-school level was investigated, analysed and evaluated. A survey was conducted with 269 trainee teachers to detect characteristics regarding different content areas of natural and social sciences. The results demonstrated that social-ethical, geographical, historical and biological topics are more popular than physical-technical topics. At the same time, self-efficacy beliefs concerning physics education topics are low. In addition, male subjects had slightly more affinity for and confidence in teaching physics than female subjects. Content analysis of questions with an open answer format showed that several trainee teachers had difficulty giving a complete and systematic response when asked to name suitable physics topics for kindergarten and primary-school students. The high number of correctly named topics correlated significantly with high scores on characteristics of affection, experience and perceived capability with regard to physics.