Developing perceptions about science in preservice early childhood educators

Abstract

AbstractScience teachers play a vital role in the education of students and their learning outcomes. Beyond academic performance and content knowledge, how one feels about science can influence how they teach and how students learn. It is important for educators, and teacher educators to reflect on their past experiences and decipher what experiences influence their overall perceptions about science. Mixed methods were used to analyze narrative papers from pre‐service teachers which focused on their science education experiences. Papers from one hundred undergraduate early‐childhood pre‐service educators were used to determine factors that influence pre‐service teachers’ overall perceptions about science. Results indicated that negative experiences at all stages of students’ k‐12 education diminished positive perceptions of science; meanwhile, corresponding effects related to positive experience were sourced only from high school. Similarly, negative teacher experiences resulted in diminished positive perceptions of science without corresponding effects of positive teacher experiences. Learning approach and informal learning experiences did not predict positive perceptions of science, but were relevant within the qualitative analysis. Implications are discussed for pre‐service teacher training programs.