Pre-service Biology Teachers Research Articles

An Empirical Investigation of Environmental Knowledge and Attitudes as the Correlates of Environmental Identity among Pre-Service Biology Teachers in Tanzania

Despite the extant literature that discusses the potentiality of environmental identity in shaping people’s engagement with nature, there is little evidence of which specific domains of environmental attitudes and knowledge are connected with environmental identity. The present article reports on the results from two studies that were conducted within the framework of the Solomon four-group design, in four randomly selected teacher colleges (TCs) in Tanzania. Specifically, study one was an intervention with pre- and post-measurements that involved indoor and outdoor environmental programs among pre-service biology teachers in two TCs. Moreover, study two was conducted in two other selected TCs, with a post-test only. The two-Major Environmental Values (2-MEV) and a Competence Model for Environmental Education were used for measuring environmental attitudes and knowledge, respectively. Finally, environmental identity was measured using the environmental identity (EID) scale. The results revealed that preservation was positively correlated with domains of identity, while other variables demonstrated overlapping relationships in different measurement points. Moreover, notable correlations between social desirability responding with some domains of attitudes and identity were evident, whereas the age of respondents had limited associations with other variables. The article concludes by proposing the need to promote environmental attitudes (EA) and knowledge as important strategies in fostering environmental stewardship.

Evaluation of Metacognitive Skill Level Among Pre-service Biology Teacher on Microbiology Learning

The 21st century skills that must be possessed by pre-service biology teachers is metacognitive skills. Metacognition refers to a person's abilities about his cognition and everything related. This descriptive study aims to describe the level of metacognitive skills of pre-service biology teachers. The data collection procedure was carried out by a metacognitive skill rubric that integrated with essay test. The subjects of this study were 70 of pre-service biology teacher at Universitas Islam Negeri Mataram in the 2021/2022 academic year. The research data were analyzed descriptively by determining the percentage of metacognitive skill levels. The results showed that the mean level of pre-service biology teachers’ metacognitive skills was “starting to develop” (44.35). The pre-service teachers with “have so developed category” occupies the highest percentage (41%), while the lowest percentage is occupied by the category of “still very risky” and “very well developed” with a percentage 6% of each

Correlation of creative thinking skill with STEAM readiness of biology pre-service teacher

Creative thinking skills are one of the 21st century skills that must be possessed by biology pre-service teachers. Someone with good creative thinking skills can more easily convey ideas, solve problems, and always think differently than usual. The aim of this study is to know how the relationship between creative thinking skills to STEAM rediness. This research is correlational quantitative research. The sampling technique used in this research is the quota sampling technique. The number of students used as a sample is 90 people with each batch consist of 30 samples. The instrument used in this study is a questionnaire, both to measure creative thinking skills and STEAM readiness. Data analysis techniques using Spearman rank correlation. The data shows the strong correlation between creative thinking skill and STEAM readiness with correlation coefficient value 0,622. The aspects of creative thinking skill are potential to make pre-service teacher more prepared to STEAM implementation at school. The better the creative thinking skills of biology pre-service teacher, the more prepared they will be in implementing STEAM later.

Analyzing pre-service biology teachers’ intention to teach evolution using the theory of planned behavior

BackgroundEven though evolution is the overarching principle that connects all areas of biology, a significant proportion of pre-service teachers do not intend to teach evolution, minimize the teaching of evolution, or teach alternative ideas in biology classes. To prevent adverse teaching practices and promote effective pre-service teacher education, we aimed to identify and analyze variables that foster or hinder their behavioral intentions to teach evolution.MethodWe adopted a behavioral psychology research perspective and developed a research model based on the theory of planned behavior to examine behavioral intentions for teaching evolution in biology classrooms. We extended the model with additional variables that have been delineated by teacher education research as essential determinants for the behavioral intention to teach evolution. We proposed several hypotheses suggesting that the attitude toward teaching evolution, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, personal religious faith, perceived usefulness, and knowledge about evolution determine a person’s behavioral intention. We conducted a quantitative cross-sectional study in teacher education to test the hypotheses and surveyed N = 339 pre-service biology teachers using an online questionnaire. We analyzed the data using a two-stage structural equation model.ResultsWe were able to confirm all proposed hypotheses. The most important results revealed that pre-service teachers’ knowledge about and perceived usefulness of evolution are only moderately pronounced. Moreover, the subjective norm is a predictor not only of behavioral intention but also of the attitude toward teaching evolution. The variable of perceived behavior control partly moderates the relationship between knowledge about evolution and behavioral intention. Additionally, perceived usefulness is an important and marginally stronger predictor of a person’s attitude than personal religious faith.ConclusionThe extended model of the theory of planned behavior has highlighted the need for educational programs to increase knowledge about and the perceived usefulness of evolution even stronger. The findings delineated the effects of essential determinants on behavioral intentions and provided information about the necessary levers of teacher education.

Validity aspects in measuring evolution acceptance: Evidence from surveys of preservice biology teachers and creationists

AbstractOver the past decades, a large body of research has examined students' magnitudes of evolution acceptance and related measurement issues resulting in questions concerning instruments' validity and operationalization. Until now, several studies investigated validity aspects of often‐used evolution acceptance instruments and came to diverging conclusions about instruments' scores comparability. Within the last years, religious identity was identified as a significant predictor for magnitudes of evolution acceptance. However, religious identity can also point to validity issues if aspects of the content under investigation are interpreted differently based on specific religious identity. Additionally, self‐identified creationists could serve as a source of validity evidence due to the assumption that creationists should score lower on an evolution acceptance instrument than groups with more scientifically adequate views. Thus, we aim to provide additional validity evidence for often‐used evolution acceptance instruments within a European context (i.e., Germany) by comparing two groups of particular interest for research in science education: preservice biology teachers and self‐identified creationists. Exploring evidence based on (1) internal structure, (2) relationships with other variables, and (3) test content provides arguments for test interpretations' validity. A total of 286 persons (206 preservice biology teachers and 81 self‐identified creationists) participated in a survey comprised of six often‐used evolution acceptance measures (i.e., MATE, GAENE, I‐SEA, ATEVO, Gallup question, and 100 point questions). Overall, our findings indicate that the six applied instruments demonstrate differences concerning their evidence for sound interpretation. In particular, the DIF and dimensionality analyses lead to the assumption that the GAENE may be multidimensional other than theoretically expected. In general, the multi‐item measures were stronger related to each other than to the general public polls. Using an instrument that differentiates between microevolution and macroevolution is advisable for creationist samples or samples with a remarkable share of creationists' views.

Communication Skills Profile of Pre-Service Biology Teachers

The focus of learning design and learning innovations for the twenty-first century is preparing students with communication skills. Students must have communication skills to effectively transfer scientific knowledge, processes, knowledge, insights, and other important data. This study aimed to determine the profile of communication skills possessed by pre-service biology teachers at IAIN Ternate. This is a quantitative descriptive study involving 65 students from the Tadris Biology Department at IAIN Ternate. The research was conducted during the even semester of the 2021/2022 academic year. Observation sheets of verbal and nonverbal communication were used to collect data. The technique for collecting data is direct observation (experience) of the learning process and interactive class discussion in the target classroom. The results indicated that pre-service biology teachers' verbal and nonverbal communication abilities were extremely deficient. These findings provide educators with an overview of effective learning approaches for training students to be independent and proficient in 21st-century skills

Digital Literacy Level Analysis of Pre-service Biology Teacher Integrated Islamic Values

The study aims to describe the digital literacy level of pre-service biology teachers based application android that can be adopted into biology study and integrated islamic values. Researchers use a quantitative descriptive method with research samples of as many as 60 pre-service biology teachers selected by purposive sampling. The instrument used to encompass data as an online questionnaire contains 25 questions concerning islamic values and 60 questions to determine digital media literacy levels by pointing to indicators developed by the European commission directorate general information society and media; Media integration unit, divided into three categories: (1) use skills (2) critical understanding and (3) communicative abilities. The result shows that the digital literacy levels of pre-service biology teachers in other sacred areas are at a medium level with a percentage of 77.76% for use skills category, 75.71% for critical understanding and 75% for communicative abilities. The integration of islamic values in digital reinforcement is associated with technological progress primarily in admiring the omnipotent divinity of Allah SWT (85.7%) and also increasing faith and gratitude (87%) toward the advancement of digital technology that can be used in biology study

Using the Plan–Teach–Reflect Cycle of the Refined Consensus Model of PCK to Improve Pre-Service Biology Teachers’ Personal PCK as Well as Their Motivational Orientations

In this article, we analyse how to improve pre-service biology teachers’ pPCK (personal Pedagogical Content Knowledge), professional values and motivational orientations in the field of academic and scientific language. On the basis of the theory of the Refined Consensus Model of PCK (RCM), we made a two-month quasi-experimental intervention study with 32 pre-service biology teachers. As a treatment, we trained the participants in the Plan–Teach–Reflect Cycle of enacted PCK in a school class, in the framework of a seminar. In the control group, the teaching of the cycle was replaced by presentations of their lesson plans. As dependent variables, we analysed participants’ pPCK, professional values and motivational orientations. Our results showed an increase in pre-service biology teachers’ pPCK (F(1,28) = 3.51, p = 0.04, part. η2 = 0.11, d = 0.70) and motivational orientations (F(1,23) = 29.68, p < 0.01, part. η2 = 0.56, d = 2.26) in both groups, but no effects on participants’ professional values. The teaching experience in a school class strengthened the effects both in participants’ pPCK (F(1,28) = 2.92, p = 0.04, part. η2 = 0.10, d = 0.67) and motivational orientations (F(1,23) = 7.64, p < 0.01, part. η2 = 0.25, d = 1.15). We recommend integrating the use of the Plan–Teach–Reflect Cycle of ePCK into science teacher education programmes.

HOTS-Link Mobile Learning Application: Enabling Biology Pre-service Teachers to Devise HOTS-Based Lesson Plans

HOTS-Link Mobile Learning Application: Enabling Biology Pre-service Teachers to Devise HOTS-Based Lesson Plans

The Refined Consensus Model of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK): Detecting Filters between the Realms of PCK

In this article, we analyse potential filters that moderate the transformation process between the realms of PCK defined in the refined consensus model of pedagogical content knowledge. We tested 58 preservice biology teachers in a 15-week one-group pretest/post-test design. To identify filters between collective PCK (cPCK) and personal PCK (pPCK), we set up moderation models with pretest pPCK as an independent variable, post-test pPCK as a dependent variable, and motivational orientations or professional values as moderator variables. To identify filters between pPCK and enacted PCK (ePCK), we set up moderation models with post-test pPCK as an independent variable, ePCK as a dependent variable, and noticing or knowledge-based reasoning as moderator variables. We did this specifically with a focus on language in biology education. We found that only the variable knowledge-based reasoning had a role as a filter. It moderates the transformation process between pPCK and ePCK (moderation analysis: F(3,19) = 10.40, p < 0.001, predicting 25.72% of the variance). In future studies, other filters should be identified.

Effects of Guided Inquiry-Based Model on Pre-Service Biology Teachers Attitude Towards Invertebrate Zoology Learning

Although attitude is a key to achieve competency of contemporary science education overlooked in many Ethiopian schools and institutions. The purpose of current study was to investigate the effects of guided inquiry based instructional model on pre-service biology teachers’ attitude towards invertebrate zoology learning. The research used quantitative research method and non-equivalent quasi-experimental pretest-treatment-posttest design. 128 pre-service biology teachers registered on invertebrate zoology course was selected using convenient sampling method. Three intact groups were assigned into two treatment groups (TG1&TG2) and a comparison group (CG). The treatment and comparison groups were instructed for eight consecutive weeks with guided inquiry based instructional model and conventional method of teaching respectively. Likert scale questionnaire was administered to collect pretest and posttest data from participants. The data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and factorial ANOVA. The results of the study revealed that there were significant differences between groups in overall, dimension-1 and dimension-2 of attitude. In relation to gender guided inquiry based instructional model had no significant effect on attitude of pre-service biology teachers in invertebrate zoology learning. In conclusion guided inquiry based instructional model on pre-service biology teacher’s overall attitude have sound effects towards invertebrate zoology learning.

Higher-Order Thinking Skills and Scientific Attitudes Components as Predictors of Scientific Creativity Among Preservice Biology Teachers

The study assessed preservice biology teachers' higher-order thinking skills (HOTS), scientific attitudes, and creativity in the study area. The study also evaluated how the components of HOTS and scientific attitudes predict scientific creativity to determine which elements were strong predictors of scientific creativity. The study adopted a correlational survey research design. The population consists of all preservice Biology teachers in Southwestern Colleges of education, from which five hundred were randomly selected from five colleges of education. Three instruments, including Higher Order Thinking skills Test, Scientific Attitude questionnaire, and Scientific Creativity Test, were used to collect data for the study. The result showed that the HOTS scores of the respondents were low, with low mean scores of 2.54, 1.22, and 1.88 from a total maximum possible score of 9, 5, and 6, respectively, the cognitive (=20.00), emotional (=19.05), attitudinal components (=26.67). The mean score for fluency, flexibility, and originality were 14.00, 12.00, and 13.00. It was also seen that a correlation exists between sex and HOTS. The study finally showed that the Analysis (t=2.597, p<0.05) and evaluation (t= 2.115, p<0.05) components of HOTS predict scientific Creativity while cognitive component teachers (t=2.373, p<0.05) of Scientific attitude predicts Scientific Creativity.

Computer Animation Learning Approach and its Effects on Retention and Interest of Pre-service Biology Teachers in Cell Division among Kwara State Colleges of Education, Nigeria

Computer Animation Learning Approach and its Effects on Retention and Interest of Pre-service Biology Teachers in Cell Division among Kwara State Colleges of Education, Nigeria

Difficulties Analysis of Pre-Service Biology Teacher in Developing Students’ Worksheet to Support Biology Online Learning in XI Class of Senior High School

&lt;p&gt;This study aims to analyze the difficulties of Pre-Service Biology Teachers in developing student worksheets that can support online learning in Biology subjects in Class XI High School. The subjects in this study were 70 Pre-Service Biology Teachers in the fourth semester of the Biology Education Study Program, The teacher training and eduation faculty of Sriwijaya University. The sampling technique is a saturated sampling technique. The type of research used is descriptive qualitative with data collection carried out using a questionnaire to analyze the difficulties of Pre-Service Biology Teachers in developing students’ worksheet and followed by interviews. Based on the results obtained, it is known that there are fourteen Biology materials for XI class of senior high school which were developed by Pre-Service Biology Teachers to become students’ worksheet. Difficulties encountered by Pre-Service Biology Teachers in developing students’ worksheet include determining supporting information (62.3%) in the high category, compiling discussion questions (58.8%) in the high category, and determining work steps (41.1%) in the high category. This could be an evaluation in the learning process so that in the end Pre-Service Biology Teachers can solve problems related to the difficulties encountered in developing Biology Materials students’ worksheet&lt;/p&gt;

Development of A Floating Market-Based BioPhy Magazine to Train the Religious Characters of Pre-Service Science Teachers

This study aimed to describe the validity of the integration of religious values in BioPhy magazine and the religious character of pre-service science teachers when using the Floating Market-based BioPhy magazine. These religious values are related to the concept of fluidity, biodiversity, ecosystem, and the local character of South Kalimantan society, namely kayuh baimbai. This research was development research with Tessmer formative evaluation model. The test subjects to determine the religious character of students were 10 students from the Chemistry Education Department in the small group trial and 43 students from Biology Education Department in the field test. Both subjects were currently attending Fluid lectures in the 2021/2022 academic year in the Basic Physics course. Data were obtained through validation sheets, a self-evaluation inventory of religious characters, and observation sheets. Data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The results showed that integrating religious values in magazines was valid, with the Aiken validity coefficient ranging from 0.92 to 1.00. In addition, pre-service chemistry teachers have a religious character with an average score of 4.71, and pre-service biology teachers have a religious character with an average score of 4.77 in the affective domains A1 to A5 based on Bloom's taxonomy. The religious character of the two test subjects was categorized as very good. Thus, the Floating Market-based BioPhy magazine can be used to train the religious character of Pre-Service Science teachers. The developed magazine can be used in the Basic Physics course. Future research could be piloted for a larger sample as this research was limited to a not-so-large sample, and the magazine was developed only on fluid topics in the Basic Physics course.

What Do the Relationships between Pre-Service Biology Teachers’ Personality and Professional Knowledge Reveal about Their Innovativeness?—An Exploratory Study Using Canonical Correlation Analysis

Already in 2016, the German educational policy adopted the Education in the Digital World strategy, recommending that all teachers should become experts in using media. However, despite this initiative regarding the promotion of innovative forms of teaching using digital media, most teachers did not feel optimally prepared to successfully cope with the demands of implementing e-learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most empirical studies on potential barriers to innovation pertain to comparatively easy, changeable environmental factors, whereas only a few studies have focused on teachers as an individual factor so far. Since several organizational psychological studies on the relationships between innovativeness and personality traits in professional contexts identified the personality trait of openness to experience to be particularly influential on the innovative behaviors of employees’, our study aimed to explore whether comparable results can also be found in the educational context. Therefore, we conducted a cross-sectional survey (n = 201) to analyze to what extent the Big Five personality traits are related to pre-service teachers’ self-concept of professional knowledge and, in particular, its digitalization-related domains. The results of our canonical correlation analysis show that the two personality traits of openness to experience and conscientiousness appear to be significantly related to the overall professional knowledge of our sample. Furthermore, a dominant affinity for technology seems to be associable with the risk of lower values on personality traits that are regarded to be pedagogically relevant. However, we found that our canonical model could also get along with fewer variables since the actual digitalization-related teaching skills were not sufficiently reflected by the canonical solution but were rather caught up in the domain of pedagogical content knowledge. Interpretations of these findings as well as practical implications are discussed.

Scaffolding pre-service biology teachers’ diagnostic competences in a video-based Learning environment: measuring the effect of different types of scaffolds

ABSTRACT Diagnosing is an important aspect of teachers’ professional competence. To successfully diagnose classroom situations, one has to apply pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in diagnostic activities (DA). Simulated classroom situations with embedded scaffolding can be an effective way of practising skills needed to foster diagnostic competences. In an intervention study with pre-post-test design using the video-based learning environment DiKoBi, we investigated the effects of scaffolds on the diagnostic competences of 57 pre-service biology-teachers in an early stage of university education. For the intervention, we developed two types of scaffolds: one providing additional PCK (PCK-scaffold) and one focusing on the diagnostic activities (DA-scaffold). Pre-service teachers were divided into four groups depending on the type of scaffold they received during the intervention (PCK-, PCK + DA-, DA- and control group). Pre-service teachers receiving PCK-scaffolds showed statistically significantly higher diagnostic competences in the post-test than in the pre-test. This includes the PCK- as well as the PCK + DA-group. For the other two groups, no significant improvement can be reported. Thus, we assume that the diagnostic competences of pre-service biology teachers can effectively be fostered by including PCK-scaffolds in DiKoBi and hence a minimum of PCK is necessary for successfully diagnosing in simulated classroom situations.

Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Teaching ESD: A Theory-Driven Instrument and the Effectiveness of ESD in German Teacher Education

Self-efficacy beliefs are important for teachers to conduct Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Self-efficacy instruments for teaching ESD mainly focus on primary education, and theory-driven instruments are lacking. Thus, we developed an instrument for secondary education reflecting eight subcategories of a science teaching pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) model, transferred to teaching ESD. We conducted an exploratory factor analysis (n1 = 162) and a confirmatory factor analysis (n2 = 236) with mainly pre-service biology, politics, and geography teachers for secondary education. We identified seven self-efficacy beliefs of teaching ESD factors. Six of these factors showed an expected low or middle correlation with self-rated content knowledge of SD-relevant issues (divergent validity). Pre-service teachers’ ESD teaching self-efficacy beliefs were rather positive, missing clear differences due to studying biology, politics, and geography. Bachelor students had higher self-efficacy beliefs than Master of Education students regarding four factors. Only 32 of 113 Bachelor students completed any ESD course at that time. They could have overestimated their own skills or underestimated teaching ESD. Current participation in at least one ESD course positively influenced three self-efficacy factors. Since barely any pre-service teacher currently participated in or completed more than three ESD courses at the time of the study, there is room for a stronger focus on ESD in German teacher education.

Focused self-explanation prompts and segmenting foster pre-service teachers’ professional vision - but only during training!

When analyzing classroom video, pre-service teachers can improve their professional vision, that is, their ability to notice important events in a classroom and to interpret them based on theoretical knowledge. However, learning with video is especially challenging for novice learners. Thus, video needs to be embedded into an instructional context to be effective. In an experimental study with 89 pre-service biology teachers, we investigated the effect of a short professional vision training and whether two design principles from multimedia learning research—namely segmenting and self-explanation prompts—could additionally increase training effects. In a one-hour training session on small-group tutoring strategies, participants watched practice video examples either as a whole or segmented. After each video or video segment, respectively, they received either open or focused self-explanation prompts to analyze the scene. We assessed participants’ professional vision skills before and after training. Overall, participants’ performance substantially increased from pretest to posttest. Moreover, during training, both segmented video examples and focused self-explanation prompts led to increased noticing of relevant strategies. This advantage during training, however, did not result in higher professional vision improvement in posttest scores compared to participants who worked in the less supported training phase conditions. We discuss possible explanations why additional support increased training performance but not learning gains and suggest an additional fading phase as a means to achieve persistent effects.

Pedagogical content knowledge in material-based lesson planning of preservice biology teachers

Given the great relevance of lesson planning in teacher education, this study examined the potential of material-based planning by qualitatively analyzing 19 think-aloud protocols for planning processes regarding the use of pedagogical content knowledge. Material-based planning considers important aspects that are not covered by other approaches, such as analysis of material potential. We found that knowledge resources associated with student thinking occur frequently in lesson planning, which contrasts with previous findings. In addition, knowledge about students’ understanding is highly integrated with student activities. These findings demonstrate the multifaceted potential of materials-based planning in teacher education.