A Study on the Improvement of Teaching Competence of Pre-service Science Teachers based on the Teaching Evaluation and Reflective Journal Writings on Science Class

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze changes of competency observed in teaching of pre-service science teachers through the teaching evaluation and reflective journal writings on science class during the period of student-teaching at high school. To do this, we videotaped all the science classes of six pre-service teachers participating in this study, evaluated their class teachings, and collected moving video clips recorded in their classes, reflective journals, interviews, instructional materials, and teaching evaluation they have provided. From the Standards for teaching evaluation of science instruction developed by Korea Education Curriculum and Assessment, sixteen evaluation elements were selected and used for the analysis. According to our results, all preservice teachers show improvement of teaching performance in most of the class evaluation elements as the number of science classes increases. They presented the lowest improvement in the 'to design meaningful learning program,' which was one of the sixteen elements. However, there are substantial individual differences in the pre-service teachers' teaching competence on each evaluation element. Although they thought that 'understanding of scientific concepts' is the most important part of a science class in the beginning of student-teaching training, they showed changes in recognition that 'interaction and respect' and 'managing student behaviors' are also important in the end. They have recognized that writing a reflective journal, based on the video clips recorded in class and teaching evaluation, helps improve their teaching competency. In addition, improvement in teaching competency has influence upon career-orientation towards the school teacher in the future.