Effects of two contrasting teachings trategies in an investigative earth science course for elementary-education majors

Abstract

A recent study by the National Science Foundation has revealed that pre-college science education has changed little over the past twenty years in spite of many, and often expensive, efforts to provide new teaching materials and curricula. To a great extent, this lack of change is attributed to teachers' attitudes towards science. Particularly in the elementary school, many teachers doubt their ability to teach science adequately, and further doubt that it is important to teach science in light of the current emphasis on basic skills in reading and computation. We believe that these attitudes stem from the teachers' previous experiences in science courses, specifically from the manner in which those courses were conducted. Earlier work has shown that children react favorably to science courses in which they are encouraged to design and evaluate their own activities. As a result of these findings, similar college-level science courses have been prepared for pre-service teachers. This study looks at one suc...