Preservice Elementary Science Teachers Research Articles

Impact of Instruction Based on a Validated Learning Progression on the Argumentation Competence of Preservice Elementary Science Teachers

AbstractCreating a culture of argumentation in the science classroom requires adequate argumentation competence among future teachers. This study analyzes the impact of instruction based on a validated learning progression on the argumentation competence of preservice elementary science teachers. The focus for the instructional module was the socioscientific issue of breastfeeding. Participants were 106 students from year 3 of a 4-year Bachelor’s in Elementary Education offered by The University of Malaga, who for the purposes of the study were divided into two groups: experimental (those who received the instructional module) and control. The impact of instruction on students’ argumentation competence was examined using a pre-test/post-test assessment tool comprising two tasks: one related to the topic of breastfeeding and which required scientific knowledge to construct or critique arguments, and another, focused on a school lunch program that did not necessitate domain-specific knowledge. Students’ responses were analyzed using rubrics that linked the assessment questions to different learning progression levels, with various performance levels being established for each question. At pretest, students in both groups achieved only intermediate or low performance levels on all the learning progression levels, with the exception of constructing a claim. Following instruction, students in the experimental group showed a significant improvement in performance in relation to all the learning progression levels analyzed, with the exception of providing a counter-critique. We believe that the instructional module and assessment tool described here could usefully be applied to other contexts of argumentation.

Developing Pre-service Elementary Science Teachers’ Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs through Microteaching by Promoting Efficacy Sources

Science teaching efficacy belief (STEB) is of paramount importance as it motivates teachers to teach science or hinders them from teaching science. Pre-service teachers' efficacy beliefs may change during their method courses. Knowing how pre-service teachers' beliefs change over time can significantly contribute to teacher educators to improve teacher efficacy. This study examined the effect of microteaching on pre-service elementary science teachers' STEB. Pretest-posttest control group design was utilized. Data was collected using the Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Instrument (STEBI-B) developed by Enochs and Riggs (1990) both at the beginning and end of the study. The treatment group planned and taught mini-lessons. The lessons were videotaped and evaluated in detail by watching the videotapes. The microteachers replanned and retaught the mini-lessons based on the feedback. The microteaching practices were conducted to support efficacy sources. The control group only planned and taught mini-lessons and received brief and undetailed feedback. Results showed significant differences in participants' personal science teaching efficacy beliefs and student outcome expectancy beliefs in terms of the treatment group. The STEB scores of the control group also decreased at the end of the study. It is suggested that pre-service teachers should have the opportunity to reflect on their performances, artifacts, or lesson plans and to design them several times.

Preservice Science and Mathematics Teachers’ Mathematics Anxiety and Beliefs about the Nature of Mathematics:

This study aims to examine preservice science and mathematics teachers’ mathematics anxiety and beliefs about the nature of mathematics, as well as to reveal whether they differ according to the department. Moreover, this study investigates whether there is a relationship between beliefs about the nature of mathematics and mathematics anxiety. The participants of the study were 213 junior and senior preservice elementary science and mathematics teachers. Data collection tools were Philosophical Thoughts about the Nature of Mathematics Scale (PTNM) and Mathematics Anxiety Scale (MAS). Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze mathematics anxiety and beliefs scores of preservice elementary teachers. The study revealed that most of the preservice teachers’ scores on beliefs about the nature of mathematics high and their mathematics anxiety scores were low. The results indicated that there were significant differences in both belief scores and mathematics anxiety scores in favor of preservice mathematics teachers. In addition, there was a high negative correlation between pre-service teachers’ PTNM and MAS scores.

Preservice Science Teachers’ TPACK Development in a Technology-Enhanced Science Teaching Method Course

This study investigated preservice elementary science teachers’ TPACK development throughout a science teaching method course. The pretest-posttest control group was used in the study. At the end of the study, a self-reported TPACK measure was administered to the experimental (n=26) and control (n=23) groups. The experimental group learned about instructional technologies that can be used in science teaching; prepared technology-based science activities, shared these activities with their peers; planned and taught a mini technology-based lesson, evaluated the lesson, and replanned and retaught the lessons. The results showed that the experimental group had positive gains about how to integrate technologies into science teaching. Participants in the experimental group comprehended that teaching science with technology requires more than technical knowledge and skills and that it is essential to realize the interactions between science, technology, and pedagogy. Besides, the experimental group’s TPACK significantly differed from the control group. The implications and suggestions were given based on the results.

Facilitating Preservice Elementary Science Teachers’ Shift from Learner to Teacher of Engineering Design-Based Science Teaching

Facilitating Preservice Elementary Science Teachers’ Shift from Learner to Teacher of Engineering Design-Based Science Teaching

Investigating Preservice Elementary Science Teachers’ Understanding of Climate Change from a Computational Thinking Systems Perspective

There is a need to approach environmental education (EE) topics, such as climate change, with a framework that productively reflects its inherent complexity. This study investigates how computational thinking (CT), specifically systems thinking (ST), may prepare educators to teach climate change. As scientists increasingly rely on computational techniques in their studies of complex EE topics, it is incumbent on science education to provide learners with computational thinking opportunities. We investigated how elementary preservice teachers (PSTs) in a science methods course (N=35) adapted a curricular resource on the climate change topic of sea level rise to integrate the CT practice of ST. Changes in their thinking were analyzed. Findings suggest that PSTs prior to instruction held a limited understanding of climate systems, often conflating weather and climate. Post instruction, their thinking expanded to consider the relationships between carbon dioxide, global warming, ice melt, and sea level rise. Further, many were able to describe these systems in a future EE teaching activity for young learners. A major implication was the need to develop a continuum of CT practices for elementary educators, with an emphasis on ST, for complex environmental education topics, that could frame their pedagogical thinking for climate change education.

Identification of false news about science and technology by pre-service elementary science teachers

La creciente aparicion de noticias falsas en internet es una de las preocupaciones internacionales, pues el sensacionalismo, la tergiversacion, la falta de pruebas, la veracidad o desinformacion de muchas noticias, requiere de una formacion especial en la identificacion de tales falacias. La formacion inicial de docentes es una de las estrategias para prevenir y preparar a la ciudadania hacia un mayor compromiso y pensamiento critico. En este trabajo se presenta una actividad de identificacion de noticias falsas por estudiantes del grado de Primaria (de ahora en adelante EGP), donde se analiza ademas las creencias epistemologicas que tienen sobre la ciencia y la tecnologia, y como estas pueden ayudar o no al desempeno de las actividades formativas. Con una muestra de 38 EGP se observa que los estudiantes con un pensamiento evaluador pudieron identificar por igual las diferentes tipologias de noticias falsas, mientras que los que tenian un pensamiento absolutista o multiplicista tuvieron mas dificultades para identificar las noticias tergiversadas y/o con falta de pruebas. Igualmente se presenta una metodologia con la herramienta hypothes.is que permite de forma online la citacion y creacion de anotaciones en paginas web sobre publicaciones falsas.

THE ROLE OF SCAFFOLDING IN IMPROVING PRESERVICE ELEMENTARY SCIENCE TEACHERS’ SKILLS ON IMPLEMENTING INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING

Inquiry-based learning is considered as an effective learning pathway for teaching science, but unfortunately, elementary preservice science teachers still have an inadequate understanding of inquiry-based learning. This study investigated the role of scaffolding as a supporting method for improving preservice elementary science teachers’ understanding of inquiry-based learning and their skills in implementing inquiry-based learning through peer teaching. Results suggested that scaffolding improves preservice elementary science teachers’ understanding of and skills in implementing inquiry-based learning because features in scaffolding facilitate understanding and teaching skills improvement.

Preservice elementary science teachers’ argumentation competence: impact of a training programme

The recent literature has shown the importance of preservice elementary science teachers (PESTs) having a deep understanding of argumentation, as this factor may affect the nature of the class activities that are taught and what students learn. A lack of understanding of this factor may represent an obstacle in the development of science education programmes in line with the development of scientific competences. This paper presents the results of the design and implementation of a training programme of 6 sessions (12 h of class participation plus 8 h of personal homework) on argumentation. The programme was carried out by 57 Spanish PESTs from Malaga, Spain. The training programme incorporates the innovative use of certain strategies to improve competence in argumentation, such as teaching PESTs to identify the elements of arguments in order to design assessment rubrics or by including peer assessment during evaluation with and without rubrics. The results obtained on implementing the training programme were evaluated based on the development of PESTs’ argumentation competence using Toulmin’s argumentative model. Data collection methods involved two tasks carried out at the beginning and the end of the programme, i.e., pre- and post-test, respectively. The conclusion of the study is that students made significant progress in their argumentation competence on completing the course. In addition, PESTs who followed the training programme achieved statistically better results at the end than those in the control group (n = 41), who followed a traditional teaching programme. A 6-month transfer task showed a slight improvement for the PESTs of the experimental group in relation to the control group in their ability to transfer argumentation to practice.

Exploring Pre-Service Elementary Science Teachers’ Conceptual Understanding of Particulate Nature of Matter through Three-Tier Diagnostic Test

The purpose of this study was to explore Pre-service Elementary Science Teachers‟ (PSTs) conceptual understanding of Particulate Nature of Matter (PNM) through a three-tier diagnostic test. Participants were 215 PSTs from Turkey. Data consisted of participants‟ responses to the Particulate Nature of Matter Test (PNMT). The PNMT consists of three-tier items. Students were asked to choose the correct choice in the first tier, and then to justify their choice of the answer provided in the second tier. Finally, they were asked to indicate the confidence level of their responses in the third tier. Results showed that the PSTs were not competent in their understanding of the PNM concepts. Moreover, some had strongly held misconceptions. Finally, the PSTs struggled to provide coherent answers to the items on the PNMT across three tiers.

Exploring Pre-Service Elementary Science Teachers’ Conceptual Understanding of Particulate Nature of Matter through Three-Tier Diagnostic Test

Exploring Pre-Service Elementary Science Teachers’ Conceptual Understanding of Particulate Nature of Matter through Three-Tier Diagnostic Test

Examining the Effectiveness of an Academic Language Planning Organizer as a Tool for Planning Science Academic Language Instruction and Supports

To engage in the practices of science, students must have a strong command of science academic language. However, content area teachers often make academic language an incidental part of their lesson planning, which leads to missed opportunities to enhance students’ language development. To support pre-service elementary science teachers (PSTs) in making language planning an explicit part of their science lessons, we created the Academic Language Planning Organizer (ALPO). The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the ALPO on two levels: first, by examining participants’ interactions with the ALPO as they identified academic language features, objectives and supports; and second, by exploring the ways that participants translated identified language supports to planned science activities. Findings indicated that, when using the ALPO, PSTs identified clear language functions and relevant vocabulary terms, and also frequently developed clear, observable and measurable language objectives. When lesson planning, PSTs were largely successful in translating previously identified language supports to their lesson plans, and often planned additional language supports beyond what was required. We also found, however, that the ALPO did not meet its intended use in supporting PSTs in identifying discourse and syntax demands associated with specific academic language functions, suggesting that revisions to the ALPO could better support PSTs in identifying these academic language demands. Implications for supporting PSTs’ planning for and scaffolding of science academic language use are presented.

Preservice Science Teachers’ Epistemological Beliefs and Informal Reasoning Regarding Socioscientific Issues

This study investigated preservice elementary science teachers’ (PSTs) informal reasoning regarding socioscientific issues (SSI), their epistemological beliefs, and the relationship between informal reasoning and epistemological beliefs. From several SSIs, nuclear power usage was selected for this study. A total of 647 Turkish PSTs enrolled in three large universities in Turkey completed the open-ended questionnaire, which assessed the participants’ informal reasoning about the target SSI, and Schommer’s (1990) Epistemological Questionnaire. The participants’ epistemological beliefs were assessed quantitatively and their informal reasoning was assessed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The findings revealed that PSTs preferred to generate evidence-based arguments rather than intuitive-based arguments; however, they failed to generate quality evidence and present different types of evidence to support their claims. Furthermore, among the reasoning quality indicators, PSTs mostly generated supportive argument construction. Regarding the use of reasoning modes, types of risk arguments and political-oriented arguments emerged as the new reasoning modes. The study demonstrated that the PSTs had different epistemological beliefs in terms of innate ability, omniscient authority, certain knowledge, and quick learning. Correlational analyses revealed that there was a strong negative correlation between the PSTs’ certain knowledge and counterargument construction, and there were negative correlations between the PSTs’ innate ability, certain knowledge, and quick learning dimensions of epistemological beliefs and their total argument construction. This study has implications for both science teacher education and the practice of science education. For example, PST teacher education programs should give sufficient importance to training teachers that are skillful and knowledgeable regarding SSIs. To achieve this, specific SSI-related courses should form part of science teacher education programs.

A Comparison of Experienced and Preservice Elementary School Teachers’ Content Knowledge and Pedagogical Content Knowledge about Electric Circuits

Background:This study investigated the differences between Taiwanese experienced and preservice elementary school science teachers’ content knowledge (CK) about electric circuits and their ability to predict students’ preconceptions about electric circuits as an indicator of their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK).Material and methods:An innovative web-based recruitment and data collection technique were involved to purposeful collect samples totalling of 76 experienced teachers, 85 preservice teachers, and 438 students. Confidence assessment was used to assist in identifying alternative conceptions.Results:Results indicated the experienced teachers possessed more acceptable CK with higher confidence than the preservice teachers. However, both groups’ predictions of students’ conceptions about electric circuits were not significantly different in two-thirds of the test items, and their learning experiences were the main source used to predict students’ preconceptions.Conclusions:This study suggests establishing science teacher qualification to enhance preservice teachers’ CK, and helping both preservice and inservice teachers become aware of their students’ preconceptions were needed.

Inferring Pre-service Science Teachers’ Understanding of Science by Using Socially Embedded Pseudoscientific Context

The purposes of the present study are to elicit pre-service elementary science teachers’ scientific and pseudoscientific beliefs about earthquake and to make inferences about their understandings of science. Although the subject of earthquake is not a pseudoscientific area, some pseudoscientific beliefs related to earthquake were used in this study. Forty-one pre-service elementary science teachers participated in the study voluntarily. The open-ended questionnaire involving eight items related to earthquake were administered to pre-service science teachers. The qualitative data were analyzed by applying interpretative analysis. The results of the analysis revealed that some of the pre-service science teachers had pseudoscientific beliefs about earthquake contexts, although they had science education background. Additionally, rest of the pre-service science teachers could not present any scientific evidences about why they are in favor of scientific explanation or why they do not believe pseudoscience. The pre-service science teachers were not able to articulate their knowledge learned in NOS (Nature of Science) course when they reason about pseudoscientific beliefs about earthquake. Therefore, it would be recommended that understanding of NOS and conceptualizing demarcation criteria between science and pseudoscience should be intended to be developed within the subject matter of science and it should be integrated into other courses by explicitly emphasizing in real science contexts.

Pre-service science teachers’ self-efficacy: The role of attitude, anxiety and locus of control

This study examined the relationships between pre-service science teachers’ teaching self-efficacy, locus of control, attitude towards science teaching and teaching anxiety. A conceptual model of these relationships was examined using data collected from 356 pre-service elementary science teachers. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, zero-order correlations and path analysis. Results showed that attitude towards science teaching was linked positively and teaching anxiety negatively to pre-service science teachers’ science teaching self-efficacy. Additionally, pre-service science teachers’ locus of control was found to be related positively to attitude towards science teaching and related negatively to science teaching anxiety. Finally, pre-service science teachers’ attitude towards science teaching had a negative effect on science teaching anxiety. These results point to the importance of positive role modelling and increased teaching practice in pre-service science teacher education to emphasise the effect of teachers’ attitudes and efforts on student performance.

Pre-service Elementary Teachers’ Preferences and Competencies in Relation to Inquiry-based Instruction and High Quality Questions

This study investigates pre-service elementary teachers’ preferences and competencies related to the design of inquiry-based instruction and the posing of questions in science lessons. The three Lesson Plans (LPs) that pre-service teachers created were analyzed for their preferences in terms of the types of instruction and questions. The pre-service teachers completed two forms inquiring about their preferences. Volunteer participants in focus groups were then interviewed about their general preferences. The results of this study reveal that preservice elementary science teachers’ general preferences were for active direct instruction, didactic direct instruction, and guided inquiry. In most of their lessons plans they employed didactic direct and active direct instruction. The results indicate that pre-service teachers’ beliefs influenced their choice of instructional design. Even as they write better questions, they seem to have difficulty asking high-level questions in microteaching activities, limited, no doubt, by unfamiliarity with questioning techniques and lack of teaching experience.

UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ CONCEPTIONS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS AND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS LEARNING

The present study identified university students’ conceptions of mathematics and physics as well as students’ conceptions of mathematics and physics learning. Furthermore, the study elicited university students’ conceptions of the relationship between mathematics and physics and the relationship between mathematics and physics learning. As a final, the study compared university students’ conceptions of mathematics and physics as well as students’ conceptions of mathematics and physics learning. A purposeful sample of university students (pre-service elementary science and mathematics teachers) who had taken required mathematics and physics courses participated in the study. Open-ended questionnaires and interviews were used to collect data. The analysis found that most students believed that mathematics was closely related to physics and that it was difficult to succeed in physics without understanding mathematics. In addition, more students exhibited coherent conceptions of physics and higher-level conceptions of physics learning compared to the number of the students with coherent conceptions of mathematics and higher-level conceptions of mathematics learning. How the nature of the disciplines of mathematics and physics affects the development of student conceptions is discussed. Key words: conceptions, conceptions of learning, mathematics, physics, qualitative study.

Akkuyu Nükleer Santrali Konusunda Üretilen Yazılı Argümanların İncelenmesi

The purpose of the study was to investigate and describe pre-service elementary science teachers’ written arguments related to Mersin-Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant in terms of reasoning mode, Toulming argumentation model and argumentation levels. A single group pre/post-test design was administered to investigate participants written arguments about Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant. The result of the study was that when the preservice science teachers’ knowledge about the socio-scientific issues increased, their multiple reasoning modes increased too. Furthermore, it was found that the most generated argument was ecologic oriented while the least was social oriented. The result of the study also showed that when the argumentation level increased, the reasoning mode tended to increase as well.

Facilitating elementary science teachers’ implementation of inquiry-based science teaching

Preservice science teachers generally feel that the implementation of inquiry-based science teaching is very difficult to manage. This research project aimed at facilitating the implementation of inquiry-based science teaching through the use of several classroom strategies. The evaluation of 15 classroom strategies from 80 preservice elementary science teachers was reported. Results indicated that those classroom strategies were useful for promoting preservice science teachers’ understanding and reinforcing their skills for teaching science through inquiry. In addition, findings indicated that preservice science teachers gained more sophisticated understanding of the role of these classroom strategies and their potential implications for facilitating inquiry science teaching and learning. The study provided several suggestions to facilitate the implementation of inquiry science teaching in school science classrooms.