Student Teachers’ Images of Science Instruction in Informal Settings: A Focus on Field Trip Pedagogy

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to explore student teachers’ images of science instruction in informal settings and how these images explicate their field trip pedagogy. Field trips refers to planned, structured, and adaptable ways of learning science outside the science classroom that are connected to the school science curriculum. Field trip pedagogy collectively refers to pre–, during–, and post–field trip pedagogies and teachers’ decision-based actions central to making connections between in-school science and out-of-school science. An analysis of drawing and narrative data indicated that (a) field trips were predominantly situated within the schoolyard and (b) science instruction during field trips as social constellations of students and the teacher learning science content that was disconnected from school science. Implications include the need for teacher educators (a) to use a framework to examine their student teachers’ prior knowledge of field trip pedagogies; (b) to help their student teachers reflect more carefully on the pedagogy within informal settings, regardless of the location of the lesson; and (c) to help their student teachers construct the knowledge that science instruction within informal settings is connected to in-school science.