Infusing epistemic perspectives on scientific practices in science teacher education

This study examined the relationships between pre-service science teachers’ teaching self-efficacy, locus of control, attitude towards science teaching and teaching anxiety. A conceptual model of these relationships was examined using data collected from 356 pre-service elementary science teachers. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, zero-order correlations and path analysis. Results showed that attitude towards science teaching was linked positively and teaching anxiety negatively to pre-service science teachers’ science teaching self-efficacy. Additionally, pre-service science teachers’ locus of control was found to be related positively to attitude towards science teaching and related negatively to science teaching anxiety. Finally, pre-service science teachers’ attitude towards science teaching had a negative effect on science teaching anxiety. These results point to the importance of positive role modelling and increased teaching practice in pre-service science teacher education to emphasise the effect of teachers’ attitudes and efforts on student performance.

Despite recent recommendations urging stronger connections between teacher education programs and their communities, few studies have examined the potential of community service learning (CSL) within science teacher education. The paper aims to: understand how CSL is conceptualized in preservice science teacher education contexts; identify the various ways that CSL is integrated within courses; examine stated outcomes for preservice science teachers, and; explore how research on CSL has been carried out in science teacher education. To better inform science teacher education, the authors embarked upon a research synthesis of relevant articles within preservice science teacher education. Six main findings emerged from the synthesis: 1) different science teacher education programs define CSL similarly, 2) preservice science teachers’ engagement with CSL is primarily reported as being beneficial, 3) mixed outcomes are reported in preservice teachers’ self-efficacy, confidence, and attitudes toward teaching science, 4) challenges, if reported, tend to be from the perspective of preservice teachers, 5) several common teaching strategies are employed to support the CSL experience, and 6) case study is the most typical research methodology for studying CSL, where the researchers are the instructors of their own CSL courses. These findings are significant for the ongoing development of science teacher knowledge and programmatic directions for the integration of community in science teacher education.

The study aimed to examine pre-service physical education and science education teachers' health-promoting lifestyle profiles, nutrition habits, knowledge of nutrition levels, and their relationships with some demographic variables (gender, department, smoking, physical activity level). The study is a descriptive study conducted in a government university in Türkiye. The samples consisted of fourth-year pre-service physical teachers (N=37) and pre-service science teachers (N=32). Nutrition Habits Assessment Form, Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile II instrument (HPLP II), and Nutrition Knowledge Level for Adults Scale, which consisted of two parts, "Basic Nutrition Scale" and "Food Preference Scale," were used as data collection tools. Descriptive statistics and parametric tests analyzed data. Considering differences in the physical activity subscale between different departments, a significantly higher score was recorded among pre-service physical education teachers compared to pre-service science teachers. A significantly higher score was observed in the subscales on interpersonal relations and stress management and Basic Nutrition Scale Score among pre-service science teachers compared to pre-service physical education teachers. A significantly higher score was observed in the subscales on physical activity and interpersonal relations among male compared to female students. The HPLP II scores of the pre-service teachers, which exercised three times more than three times a week, were higher than those who egzersize once a week and didn't exercise.

The study aims to examine science teachers' and pre-service science teachers' metaphors about learning, teaching, and teacher concepts and compare their metaphors. The study is designed according to phenomenology research design. The study participants consisted of 62 in-service science teachers working in government schools and 45 pre-service science teachers attending a government university’s science teaching department. The data was collected during the 2017-2018 academic year. The participants were requested to fill in the blanks of three statements: "Learning is like…..; because …….", "Teaching is like…..; because…….", "Teacher is like….; because……". The results displayed that teachers and pre-service teachers generally have different meaning categories. While teachers expressed the concept of “teacher,” they took their own experiences and professional lives into consideration since they are actively working as teachers. On the other hand, pre-service teachers expressed their own teachers and their behaviors while defining the concept of “teacher.” Similarly, when we take a look at the results related to the concept of “student,” while teachers started off with the children they taught, pre-service teachers talked about their own experiences since they are students.

Science teacher education can positively impact society by producing pre-service teachers who have skills and attitudes to influence society to control and prevent communicable diseases like COVID-19. In the context of public health it is important to understand perceptions, beliefs and attitudes, which influence pre-science teachers’ health-related behavioral intentions. This case study sought to understand factors, which influence pre-science teachers’ health-related behavioral intentions. Twelve pre-service science teachers were purposively sampled at a teachers’ college in Zimbabwe. A semi-structure interview guide was used to solicit information on pre-service science teachers’ reflections on COVID-19 control and prevention measures. Findings show that science knowledge need to be considered collectively with science teachers’ awareness of pandemic and risk infection, sustenance issues like food availability, economic status, religious beliefs, and conspiracy theories in order for them to promote disease control and prevention.

This study aimed to examine preservice science teachers’ views on the social responsibility of scientists and engineers. A total of 153 students enrolled in Russian public university formed as the participants. We assessed the social responsibility of pre-service teachers using a scale, “Views of Social Responsibility of Scientists and Engineers” (VSRoSE), developed by previous researchers, and included eight different areas of social responsibility. The results indicated that the preservice biology, chemistry, and science teachers who participated in this study had high awareness of human welfare and safety, a sustainable environment, and consideration for social risks and impacts. However, their awareness related to practice and participation was relatively low. Female students had more scores than male students in all areas. The results also revealed that chemistry students had slightly higher average scores than the other majors in all areas of the scale. The average scores in all age groups showed slight differences. This study provides a starting point for researchers and teachers to comprehend preservice science teachers’ views on the social responsibility of scientists and engineers in resolving humanity’s greatest problems from the perspective of preservice science teachers. With this respect, this study contributes insightful information to the literature and fills a gap in the research. We hope that future researchers will concentrate on enhancing pre-service teachers’ understanding of the social responsibility of scientists and engineers and on educating more socially responsible teachers who recognize the importance of science and engineering research’s impact on society. This study also indicates that PSTS were less concerned with the role of social responsibility in promoting scientific research in science and engineering. This finding suggests the necessity of emphasizing the positive impact of science and engineering research on society and the significance of incorporating social impact into teacher education. This emphasis on the significance of social responsibility will assist in comprehending the effects of science and engineering within a social context on professional responsibility.

Atoms, ions and molecules are considered as abstract concepts that often lead to students’ learning difficulties. Th is study aimed at providing description of pre-service science teachers (PSTs)’ creative thinking skills on atoms, elements and compounds digital media creation. Qualitative descriptive method were employed to acquire data. Instruments used were rubric of PSTs’ digital teaching media, open ended question related to PSTs’ technological knowledge and pre-test about atoms, ions and molecules that were given to eighteen PSTs. The study reveals that PSTs’ creative thinking skills were still low and inadequate to create qualified teaching media of atoms, ions and molecules. PSTs’ content and technological knowledge in regard with atoms, ions and molecules are the most contributing factors. This finding support the necessity of developing pre-service and in-service science teachers’ creative thinking skill in digital media that is embedded to development of technological content knowledge.

There is a current national emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Additionally, many states are transitioning to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), which encourage teachers to incorporate engineering in science classrooms as well as have their students learn science by doing science. Methods courses are also shifting to adequately prepare preservice science teachers in these areas. This study examines preservice science teachers’ pre- and post-ideal inquiry-based lesson plan scenarios before and after intervention in their Secondary Science Methods I and II courses. These preservice science teachers participated in a variety of opportunities to practice authentic science inquiry (ASI) pedagogical techniques as well as integrated STEM topics, with a particular emphasis on computer programming throughout their 80 h of Methods instruction. ASI is a type of inquiry where students learn science by conducting science research in a grade-appropriate manner. Thirty-eight preservice teachers’ scenarios were analyzed using a rubric from Spuck (2014) to determine the degree to which the ten components of ASI were included in scenarios pre- to post-instruction. Trends in ASI component inclusion are discussed. These findings indicate that preservice science teachers are proficient at writing inquiry-based lessons where they planned opportunities for their future students to collaborate, use scientific instrumentation, and collect and analyze data, but need additional support with developing student activities where students create testable questions, revise their question and methods, participate in peer review, and disseminate their results to their peers or the larger scientific community. Overall, the results suggest Methods instruction should reinforce preservice teachers’ focus on planning lessons which include opportunities for all ASI components. Interventions in the aforementioned areas of weak inclusion may be beneficial to preservice teachers.

ABSTRACTCultivating in preservice science teachers (PSTs) the competence required to teach scientific models and modeling is a valued outcome of teacher preparation programs. However, science teacher educators face inherent tensions when designing and implementing teacher preparation experiences to achieve this outcome. In this systematic review, we first propose five sets of design tensions that science teacher educators need to navigate. We identify empirical intervention studies that aimed to develop PSTs' professional competence for teaching scientific models and modeling and analyze how the reviewed interventions addressed the design tensions, and examine their outcomes. Our analysis reveals that the reviewed interventions prioritized the development of PSTs' cognitive aspects of teacher professional competence for teaching scientific models and modeling while giving limited attention to affective–motivational aspects and the need to simultaneously develop aspects of PSTs' competence not specific to scientific models and modeling. The interventions were more successful in enhancing PSTs' declarative knowledge than enacted knowledge and affective–motivational aspects. However, the nature of modeling activities included in the interventions varied widely, posing challenges in identifying critical features that led to the identified positive outcomes. The interventions reported mixed outcomes in developing PSTs' enacted knowledge in teaching contexts, even when incorporating activities for knowledge application and knowledge transfer beyond the intervention context. We discuss the implications of these findings and provide recommendations for better‐preparing PSTs to teach scientific models and modeling. We also discuss the unique affordance of using the design tension framework to analyze the interventions.

The purposes of the study are to investigate pre service science teachers' level of scientific literacy, beliefs about science teaching, and science teaching efficacy belief and how much variance in pre service science teachers' scientific literacy can be explained by beliefs about science teaching, science teaching efficacy belief and grade point average (GPA). The survey design was used in this study and the sample of this study consisted of 172 pre service science teachers enrolled in elementary science education department in the university. Test of basic scientific literacy, science teaching efficacy belief instrument, beliefs about science teaching questionnaire were used as data collection tools of this study. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression analyses were used as data analyses technique. Descriptive analysis results revealed that while preservice science teachers had high levels of scientific literacy and beliefs about science teaching, they had low level of personal science teaching efficacy belief. On the other hand, preservice science teachers' science teaching outcome expectancy and grade point average indicating academic achievement was acceptable level. Multiple regression analyses results revealed that preservice science teachers' academic achievement was the best predictor of the variance in preservice science teachers' scientific literacy. Besides, science content knowledge, personal science teaching efficacy belief, and beliefs about science teaching with respect to assessment made significant contribution to explaining science teachers' scientific literacy. Key Words: Scientific literacy, Science teaching efficacy belief, Beliefs about science teaching, DOI: 10.7176/JSTR/7-05-02

The increasing attention in science education reform documents to language and literacy, coupled with the growing linguistic diversity of United States classrooms, means that science teacher educators and researchers are facing an important task of preparing secondary science preservice teachers (PSTs) to teach a language‐ and literacy‐integrated form of science in linguistically diverse classrooms. Unfortunately, research in this field is in its nascency, and while some studies have addressed PSTs' instructional planning for and implementation of language‐ and literacy‐integrated science instruction, none have considered the unique contextual factors that inform PSTs' uptake of these reform‐oriented instructional practices, despite many studies suggesting student‐teaching contexts are a key factor in PSTs' instructional decisions. The purpose of this multiple case study was to consider the unique contextual factors that supported and constrained three PSTs' uptake of language‐ and literacy‐integrated science practices through a Cultural‐Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) lens. Findings indicated that PSTs' implementation of language‐ and literacy‐integrated science instruction was shaped by interactions among the mediating elements of their student teaching activity systems, including PSTs' division of labor with mentor teachers, the classroom and school norms, PSTs' perceptions of their classroom communities, and PSTs' past life experiences and resources. These findings highlight the roles that different elements of learning‐to‐teach contexts can play in PSTs' enactment of reform‐oriented instruction. Implications for science teacher education, instruction for emergent bilinguals, and research are discussed.

ABSTRACTEducational reform needs to address the role of literacy in science if there is to be any hope of achieving the goal of literacy for all U.S. students. For reading to play a more prominent role in secondary science, teacher education programs need to develop and offer courses that familiarize preservice science teachers with disciplinary literacy. This study examines this question: What tacit reading strategies do preservice science teachers use to understand science texts? This study focuses on structured literacy activities designed to engage preservice secondary science teachers in reading 3 common genres of science texts. Analysis reveals that preservice science teachers use a variety of general comprehension strategies that are consistent with expert reading strategies. Also, preservice science teachers employ reading strategies that attend to genre-specific text features to understand texts. These findings could be used by science teacher educators to inform the design of science methods and disciplinary literacy courses that scaffold the development of pedagogical content knowledge necessary to teach reading as a disciplinary practice.

The purpose of the study was to reveal the relationships among teaching concerns, their sense of efficacy and their preferences of a classroom environment of pre-service science teachers. Data were gathered from 623 pre-service science teachers. Based on the structural equation modelling results, the pre-service science teachers’ sense of self-efficacy was negatively associated with their concerns. In addition, the pre-service science teachers’ sense of efficacy was positively associated with the constructivist learning environment. Moreover, pre-service science teachers’ concerns were positively related to their constructivist learning environment. The findings shed light on pre-service teacher and teacher education experiences and outcomes.

Fen bilgisi öğretmenlerinin farklı türde çok sayıda etmenin yer aldığı öğrenme ortamlarında öğrencilerin fen ile ilişkili düşüncelerine katılmaları, analiz etmeleri ve öğretimlerinin bir sonraki adımını planlamaları gerekmektedir. Fark etme becerisi olarak isimlendirilen bu beceriler yetkin bir öğretmenin etkili bir şekilde yerine getirmesi gereken uygulamalardır. Ancak öğretmen ve öğretmen adaylarının bu becerileri hakkında veri toplamak için araştırmalarda kullanılan video kamera ve video klip gibi araçların yüksek maliyetli ve zaman açısından verimsiz olmaları yapılacak çalışmaları güçleştirmektedir. Bu sebeple bu çalışmanın iki amacı vardır: (1) fen bilgisi öğretmen adaylarının fark etme becerilerini ölçmek için uygulanması kolay, düşük maliyetli ve zengin bir veri sağlayan geçerli ve güvenilir bir ölçme aracı geliştirmek ve (2) fen bilgisi öğretmen adaylarının fark etme becerilerinin seviyesini belirlemektir. Bu doğrultuda araştırma sorgulama bağlamında ve elektrik devreleri içeriğinde öğrenci deney raporları tasarlanarak veri toplama aracı olarak kullanılmıştır. Ölçeğin geçerlik çalışması için uzman görüşü alınmış ve fen bilgisi öğretmen adaylarıyla pilot çalışması yapılmıştır. Kodlama listesi ve rubrikler kullanılarak analizler sırasında kodlayıcılar arası güvenirlik sağlanmıştır. Sonuçlar tasarlanan öğrenci deney raporlarının fen bilgisi öğretmen adaylarının fark etme becerilerini ölçmek için geçerli ve güvenilir olduğunu göstermiştir. Ayrıca, fen bilgisi öğretmen adaylarının fark etme becerilerinin yeterince iyi bir seviyede olmadığı ortaya çıkmıştır. Buna göre fen bilgisi öğretmen adayları çoğunlukla öğrencilerin fen ile ilişkili olan düşünceleri yerine daha genel öğelere katılım göstermiş, öğrencilerin düşünceleri ve becerilerine katılım gösterdiği öğeleri genellikle düşük bir seviyede analiz etmiş ve öğrenmenin bir sonraki adımını planlamada yeterince etkili olamamışlardır. Ulaşılan sonuçlara göre tasarlanan ölçme aracının kullanımı ve fen bilgisi öğretmen adaylarının fark etme becerilerine ilişkin önerilerde bulunulmuştur.

The study explored the changes in pre-service science teachers’ understanding of the nature of science and their opinions about the nature of science, science teaching and argumentation after their participation in explicit nature of science (NOS) and socioscientific argumentation processes. The participants were 56 third-grade pre-service science teachers studying in a state university in Turkey. The treatment group comprised 27 participants, and there were 29 participants in the comparison group. The comparison group participants were involved in a student-centred science-teaching process, and the participants of the treatment group were involved in explicit NOS and socioscientific argumentation processes. In the study, which lasted a total of 11 weeks, a NOS-as-argumentation questionnaire was administered to all the participants to determine their understanding of NOS at the beginning and end of the data collection process, and six random participants of the treatment group participated in semi-structured interview questions in order to further understand their views regarding NOS, science teaching and argumentation. Qualitative and quantitative data analysis revealed that the explicit NOS and socioscientific argumentation processes had a significant effect on pre-service science teachers’ NOS understandings. Furthermore, NOS, argumentation and science teaching views of the participants in the treatment group showed a positive change. The results of this study are discussed in light of the related literature, and suggestions are made within the context of contribution to science-teaching literature, improvement of education quality and education of pre-service teachers.