Pre-service Science Teachers Research Articles

Evaluation of pre-service teachers' views on STEM education

This study aimed to evaluate pre-service science teachers' views on STEM education. Data were collected at the end of each activity and the end of the training with evaluation sheets. The collected data were analyzed with the content analysis method and interpreted with percentage and frequency values. The research method is a case study. Participants received four weeks of practical training, including STEM activities. Based on the data collected, it was determined that teacher candidates did not have a negative perception of STEM activities, that they had difficulty in activities that required handcraft, and that it contributed positively to their interdisciplinary perspectives. They also stated that the training was enjoyable and creative; developed imagination and handicraft skills; increased productivity, self-confidence, design skills, problem-solving skills, and group work; provided practical thinking; ensured permanent learning and field cooperation; and contributed to analytical thinking. Most of the participants stated that they did not find STEM education at their universities sufficient, would apply STEM activities to their students when they became teachers, and wanted to improve themselves in STEM education. Participants stated that they most needed development in the subject of academic knowledge, utilization of technology, handcraft and creativity. In addition, it was determined that positive perceptions and opinions about STEM education were observed.

Present and Future of Project Studies: Evaluation of Pre-service Science Teachers' View on Project Studies with SWOT Analysis

Present and Future of Project Studies: Evaluation of Pre-service Science Teachers' View on Project Studies with SWOT Analysis

Exploring the nature of scientific explanations: An interactive predict-observe-explain model-based intervention for pre-service science teachers

Exploring the nature of scientific explanations: An interactive predict-observe-explain model-based intervention for pre-service science teachers

The Design and Implementation of a Bayesian Data Analysis Lesson for Pre-Service Mathematics and Science Teachers

With the rise of the popularity of Bayesian methods and accessible computer software, teaching and learning about Bayesian methods are expanding. However, most educational opportunities are geared toward statistics and data science students and are less available in the broader STEM fields. In addition, there are fewer opportunities at the K-12 level. With the indirect aim of introducing Bayesian methods at the K-12 level, we have developed a Bayesian data analysis activity and implemented it with 35 mathematics and science pre-service teachers. In this article, we describe the activity, the web app supporting the activity, and pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the activity. Lastly, we discuss future directions for preparing K-12 teachers in teaching and learning about Bayesian methods.

Computational Thinking Integration into Pre-Service Science Teacher Education: A Systematic Review

ABSTRACT Computational Thinking (CT) has emerged as a fundamental aspect of modern science education, especially within pre-service teacher education. This study examines the current landscape of CT integration in pre-service science teacher education, drawing insights from an analysis of 18 empirical studies conducted since the implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards in 2013. The findings reveal the predominantly exploratory nature of research in this area and underscore the prevalence of positive outcomes associated with CT integration. Moreover, the study identifies prominent pedagogical strategies such as problem-based learning and the engineering design process, highlighting their integral roles in CT integration. Additionally, the findings uncover the interconnectedness of modeling and simulation, computational problem-solving, and systems thinking practices within CT-integrated science interventions. This suggests the necessity for a more holistic approach, including the integration of unplugged activities, the generalization component of CT, and diverse science disciplines, encompassing life science and Earth/space science. Ultimately, these findings emphasize the imperative for further investigation to comprehensively explore CT integration within pre-service science teacher education, aligning closely with contemporary educational standards and practices.

Where’s the Peanut Butter? Journaling about Science Practices in Everyday Life

ABSTRACT Teacher candidates kept journals for one semester, documenting the science content and practices they encountered in their daily lives, while their professor provided detailed written feedback. The objective of this study was to determine gaps in everyday science practices, and to eventually design interventions which might help teacher candidates relate all the NGSS science practices to their students’ lives. The most common NGSS science practices documented were asking questions and obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information. The least documented practices were analyzing and interpreting data and using mathematics and computational thinking. This assignment helped teacher candidates develop their identity as scientists, notice more science in their daily lives, and helped them bridge the gap from everyday applications of science to their classroom lessons. They found the exercise to be empowering, challenging, interesting, and enjoyable. Professor feedback on the journal entries was the most motivating aspect of the assignment. This study revealed gaps in the science and engineering practices that preservice science teachers experience in their lives.

Spiritual Impact of Theocentric Outdoor Environmental Education on Affective Disposition among Malaysian Pre-service Science Teachers

Spiritual Impact of Theocentric Outdoor Environmental Education on Affective Disposition among Malaysian Pre-service Science Teachers

An analysis of the characteristics of Indonesian pre-service science teachers’ compassion skills and gender roles

This research aims to analyze pre-service science teachers’ generosity, friendliness, wisdom, sensitivity, and tolerance as indicators of compassion skills, and explore gender roles on the characteristics of these skills. As 21st-century skills, compassion skills need to be conveyed through teachers’ attention, affection, kindness, and gentleness toward their students. These skills are fundamental for pre-service science teachers’ personality competence in supporting their role as future professional teachers. These skills also play an important role when there is interaction between teachers and students or among students during the learning process which affects learning outcomes. However, references concerning the characteristics of pre-service teachers’ compassion skills and the role of gender in these skills are underexplored. To address this gap, this research employed an exploratory method involving 107 pre-service science teachers at several state universities in Indonesia. Data was collected using a questionnaire that met validity and reliability criteria. The research results show that the teachers generally demonstrate a high/very high extent of compassion skills. The results also point to the fact that gender differences pose no significant influence on compassion skills. The implication highlights the necessity to focus on training pre-service science teachers’ compassion skills, while undermining any anxiety due to gender differences.

Exploring the relationship between self-efficacy beliefs when teaching science and engineering

The belief that pre-service science teachers can effectively instruct science has been the subject of substantial research. However, a lack of research exists to examine the relationship between pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and their capacity to teach science and engineering. To fill this void in the literature, it is necessary to investigate the relationship between self-efficacy beliefs in engineering and science education. To address this knowledge deficit, this research investigated the relationship between pre-service science teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs in science instruction and their engineering teaching self-efficacy beliefs. The data were obtained from 224 pre-service science teachers using a quantitative approach. The study results indicated that pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs in science teaching were higher than in engineering teaching. The correlation analysis revealed a strong and significant correlation between self-efficacy beliefs in science and engineering teaching. The regression analysis also showed a significant relationship between self-efficacy beliefs in science and engineering. In addition, the results also revealed that science-teaching self-efficacy beliefs explained 52% of the variation in participants’ engineering-teaching self-efficacy beliefs. Future research recommendations are derived from the results.

Explaining astronomy teaching self-efficacy among pre-service teachers

ABSTRACT Earth and Space is one of the thematic strands/domains of the Philippine basic education science curriculum, yet little is known about its different teaching and learning aspects, including those associated with preservice teachers' readiness and preparedness to teach astronomy. This exploratory study examined the interaction of views on the nature of science, perceived relevance of education, technology acceptance and use, and astronomy teaching self-efficacy among 203 pre-service high school science teachers in one of the centers of excellence for teacher education in one of the state universities in the Philippines. Using an adapted survey instrument, collected data underwent partial least squares-structural equation modeling using SmartPLS 4. Results confirmed the direct effect of perceived relevance of education and technology acceptance and use on astronomy teaching self-efficacy, the direct effect of views on the nature of science on perceived relevance of education and technology acceptance and use, and the mediating effect of perceived relevance of education and technology acceptance and use between views on the nature of science and astronomy teaching self-efficacy. A reflection elucidating the role of views on the nature of science, perceived relevance of education, and technology acceptance and use on preservice teachers' astronomy teaching self-efficacy is provided.

STEM based Project Learning: How It Affects Preservice Science Teacher’s Creativity Before, During, and After Pandemic Covid-19?

Creativity Are the important skills to face the globalization in this era. Students, especially preservice teacher should have these useful skills for make next generation are more creative, struggling with the competition between human and computers, struggling with the world condition during and after pandemic strikes, and well prepared for their work field. Some of the learning approaches have been applied in the courses to construct their creativity, one of them, are STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) by the project. This research’s aim is to investigate how is preservice science teacher’s creativity by the STEM based project learning before, during, and after pandemic covid-19. The method that is used is qualitative research by using class observation and quantitively count by creativity rubrics that includes creative thinking, behaviour, and products. This research is conducted in SETS learning (2nd semester in every year) by using STEM based project from the students of science preservice teacher year 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022. STEM based project learning could improve preservice science teacher’s creativity but it has differences for each class. Class 2019 has outperformed for creativity among others. While, class 2022 has less performed for creativity among others. Based on the observation, the covid-19 outbreak has high influence to this result because of the way of their learning in their high school before. Full online learning makes the biggest impact to science preservice teacher’s creativity during covid-19 outbreak.

Understanding how pre-service science teachers design inquiry-based activities in a knowledge integration (KI) based collaborative learning environment: a network analytic approach

Understanding how pre-service science teachers design inquiry-based activities in a knowledge integration (KI) based collaborative learning environment: a network analytic approach

Activities and Opinions of Science Teacher Candidates on Ecological Citizenship

Teachers undertake important tasks regarding awareness of the environment and raising ecological citizens. In particular, science courses include ecological issues, and science teachers are more responsible for being practitioners of these courses. The purpose of this study is to determine pre-service science teachers' views on ecological citizenship, rights of nature, ecological constitution, participation, responsibility, sustainability, rights and justice, which are the features of ecological citizenship. In line with this purpose, the study uses phenomenological design, which is a qualitative research method. The study group of the research is composed of 21 science teacher candidates, except for senior year students, attending the education faculty of a state university in a large city in the Black Sea region in 2020-2021 academic year. Descriptive analysis method was used in the analysis of the interviews. According to the findings of the study, science teacher candidates thought individuals must first be aware of nature rights and their responsibilities to nature in order to qualify as ecological citizens. It was found that teachers thought all the creatures living in nature, just like humans, have the right to live. They also thought that the protection of nature should be secured by certain laws and rules. In this respect, environmental education programs applied from pre-school to university are recommended to be reexamined in terms of ecological citizenship.

Design and validation of the scales of a Spanish-adapted questionnaire to measure pre-service teachers’ perceptions about inquiry-based science education

ABSTRACT This research focused on the pre-service science teachers’ perceptions of Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE) in Spanish-speaking contexts. Drawing on the PRIMAS questionnaire and extensive adaptations, the PTIP questionnaire, a 25-item instrument was developed to gauge pre-service teachers’ perspectives on IBSE. The questionnaire effectively measures four dimensions through rigorous statistical validation: IBSE teaching practice, IBSE students’ applicability, and internal and external difficulties associated with the inquiry approach. Employing K-means cluster analysis, three distinct profiles emerged, elucidating pre-service teachers’ varying perceptions and readiness to embrace IBSE. Profile A embodies fervent advocates of IBSE, while profile B and C showcases strong support with moderate reservations about its challenges and a more ambivalent stance, respectively. This research contributes a valuable tool for understanding and enhancing pre-service teacher education, fostering the adoption of IBSE.

The Impact of a Mobile Phone and Mobile Application-Supported Science Laboratory on the Digital Literacy of Preservice Teachers and Their Disposition Toward Using Technology in Class

Science education at different levels can be supported by various mobile applications that can be downloaded for free onto mobile phones, tablets, and other devices. Such applications can also be used in laboratory work, but it must be said that their use in science laboratories is a relatively new approach. This study is aimed at determining the impact of mobile phone and mobile application-supported laboratory work on the digital literacy of preservice science teachers and on their disposition toward using technology in class. The study was carried out with 17 participants at the second-year level of a Science Teacher Education Program in Turkey. It was a single-group pretest-posttest study, representing a type of weak experimental research design. Data for the study were collected with the Digital Literacy Scale developed by Hamutoğlu et al. (Ege Journal of Education 18(1):408–429, 2017) and the Disposition toward Using Technology in the Classroom Scale developed by Gunuc and Kuzu (Journal of Theory and Practice in Education 10(4):863–884, 2014). The data collection tools were implemented prior to and following a 6-week teaching period, and the quantitative data compiled from the participants were analyzed with the SPSS 21.0 program. The parametric t-test of related samples was used in the pretest/posttest comparison of the data sets. The results of the study demonstrated that science laboratory activities supported by mobile phones and mobile applications provided preservice teachers with increased digital literacy and enhanced their disposition toward using technology in the classroom. It is recommended that preservice teachers make extensive use of experiments supported by the mobile applications in this study.

“I Thought That They Were Very Cut and Dry”: Preservice Elementary Science Teachers Learning About and Learning with Models and Modeling

ABSTRACT While recent research has examined students’ and teachers’ understanding of models and modeling, few studies have focused on how teacher educators can support preservice elementary science teachers in envisioning enriched learning processes and outcomes for their students while engaging in modeling practices. Informed by reflective practices through a case-based pedagogy, this qualitative case study investigated how preservice teachers take up learning about and learning with models and modeling practices as a multimodal knowledge-building process and reflect on their understanding of models and modeling in science education. This study is not just about teachers’ understanding of models and modeling; it is about cultivating a broader perspective, acknowledging the multiplicities of modalities that modelers bring to the table in their engagement with modeling practices. Conducted in a science methods course at a southeastern U.S. research university, this study used various qualitative data sources, including teachers’ written reflective responses to a case and commentary about a modeling-based lesson, modeling artifacts, and the video and audio recordings of the modeling-based lesson that was part of their methods course. Discussion of the findings highlights how reflective practices through a case-based pedagogy can expose preservice teachers to a better understanding of what meaningful and equitable modeling practices might look like in classroom settings by showing them what models are for, how they function, who gets to develop models, and whose knowledge contributes to modeling practices while building knowledge in science classrooms.

Coaching During Student Teaching: Using Self-Regulated Learning to Improve Questioning Skills for Preservice Science Teachers

ABSTRACT Although student teaching plays a crucial role in teacher preparation programs, limited research has examined the specific features of this experience that positively impact preservice science teachers’ (PSTs) questioning competency. This multi-case study contributes to the existing body of research by presenting findings from an initiative in a teacher preparation program that integrates self-regulated learning (SRL) into professional learning (PL) and coaching to improve PSTs’ questioning skills. Despite variability in their initial SRL skills, all participating PSTs experiened shared learning opportunities related to asking higher-level cognitive questions. The PL and coaching during student teaching appeared to contribute to PSTs’ improvement in different aspects of asking questions. Coaching, in particular, enhanced PSTs’ application of strategies learned in the PL and facilitated learning from the act of teaching. The findings suggest that to help PSTs develop to ask higher-level cognitive questions, teacher preparation programs need to provide detailed, memorable, and theory-grounded descriptions of questioning techniques. In addition, integrating SRL processes into coursework and coaching can significantly enhance PSTs’ learning from teaching experience.

Towards an Integrated Model for Orienting Preservice Science Teachers for 21st-Century Teaching

This conceptual paper builds the case for orienting preservice science teachers for 21<sup>st</sup>-century teaching on a footing of Miller et al. (2013) framework for science teacher preparation called the Model of Research-Based Education for Teachers (MORE for Teachers). MORE for Teachers frames science teacher preparation as anchored on four pillars: in-depth subject matter, research-based science teaching methods, guided practicum, and a shared vision of the pedagogy of science learning. Based on the limitations of Miller et al.'s linear model yet still maintaining the value of its central tenets the paper proposes a model that is interactive and framing standards in science teaching, curriculum development, rigorous content, research-based science methods course, and quality field experiences as the essential aspects for producing teacher candidates with the right skills for science teaching. The paper argues that pre-service science teachers (PSTs) development in teacher education colleges and universities requires a framework for harmonization that ensures consideration of all the necessary ingredients for science teacher preparation. Drawing on a diversity of literature sources on science teacher education the paper discusses the application of the proposed model in Zimbabwe, illustrating the importance of detailed methods courses, rigorous science content, expert mentoring, personal teaching philosophy, and a consideration of international trends in science teaching.  In conclusion, the paper recommends other contexts in which the integrated model for science teacher preparation can be used and some steps for its practical implementation.

Exploring Nature of Science Understanding, Science Self-efficacy and Their Relationships Among Secondary School Pre-service Science Teachers in Ethiopia

Exploring Nature of Science Understanding, Science Self-efficacy and Their Relationships Among Secondary School Pre-service Science Teachers in Ethiopia

Examining disciplinary specificity of preservice mathematics and science teachers’ professional identities

Examining disciplinary specificity of preservice mathematics and science teachers’ professional identities