Advancing Preservice Physics Teachers’ Critical Thinking through Active and Passive Microteaching Lesson Study

Abstract

A pretest-posttest comparison-group quasi-experimental study was endeavoured to unravel the effects of the two forms of Microteaching Lesson Study (MLS), the Active MLS and the Passive MLS, on the critical thinking of aspiring physics teachers. Eighteen Bachelor of Secondary Education specializing in Physical Science students participated in the six-week study. Data were gathered using the Critical Thinking Inventory in Physics and were analysed utilizing the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test, Mann-Whitney U Test, and descriptive statistics. Results revealed that both the Active and Passive MLS have positive effects on the overall critical thinking and on all of the critical thinking sub-skills of the preservice teachers. Results further showed that the Active MLS is significantly more effective than the Passive MLS in developing overall critical thinking and its sub-skills, specifically, inference and interpretation. The implementation of lessons by the Active MLS group in microteaching sessions indicated positive affordances on the development of critical thinking. Further studies involving a greater number of preservice teachers specializing in different fields of science are recommended. The integration of the MLS, especially the Active MLS, in the preservice teaching curricula is deemed a worthwhile engagement.