Primary Teacher Education Students Research Articles

Discipline knowledge and confidence to teach science: self-perceptions of primary teacher education students

There has been renewed debate in recent years about the relatively poor science discipline background knowledge of primary and preschool teachers, and their lack of confidence to teach science stemming from this. A reaction from teacher educators, such as recommended by theDiscipline Review of Teacher Education in Mathematics and Science Report, has been to provide more explicit science discipline units in pre-service teacher education courses. However, a few studies have cast some doubt on the notion that more science discipline studies (Skamp, 1989; Stepans & McCormack, 1985). This paper reports on pre-service students' perceptions of their cofidence to teach science before and after a science education unit adapted from the PECSTEP work (Kirkwood, Bearlin & Hardy, 1989), which included only a small amount of physical science, and took an explicit gender approach emphasising the students as learners.

A Study of Basic Numeracy Skills: Primary Education Student Teachers at the Institute of Education (Singapore)

ABSTRACT This study concerns the basic mathematical skills and attitudes of prospective primary school teachers at the Institute of Education, Singapore. The study was prompted by a concern for basic standards in mathematics education. As these trainees are admitted to the Institute of Education on the basis of their overall Cambridge A-Level Examination results, it is conceivable that not all of them possess a strong mathematical background. At the Institute, they take a compulsory methodology course — Teaching Mathematics in the Primary School, preparing them to teach Mathematics in the Primary school. Despite the varying mathematical background, there is no optional or compulsory mathematics content course available in the curriculum to equip the needy and neither are they required to pass any mathematics test before graduating from their teacher training programme. A test comprising 40 testing skills items adapted from the Primary Teacher Education program of the St George Institute of Education (SGIE) in Sydney was administered to 173 (15 male and 158 female) 2nd year Certificate-in-Education students at the Institute of Education in February 1990. At the SGIE, all students of the Primary Teacher Education Program are required to pass a basic skills test in mathematics at the 75% mastery level. At the Institute of Education, 18.5% (or 32) of the students failed to obtain a pass at the 75% mastery level although the mean score for the sample was 33.68. The study also shed light on the trainee teachers' perceptions of mathematics as a subject, and personal confidence in doing and teaching mathematics.

Environmental Attitudes, Religious Belief and Denominational Affiliation in a Group of Primary Teacher Education Students

Environmental Attitudes, Religious Belief and Denominational Affiliation in a Group of Primary Teacher Education Students

Level of Intellectual Development of Teacher Education Students

This report describes a study of level of intellectual development displayed by a population of primary teacher education students at the time of entry to college. The results presented are in broad agreement with United States studies which indicate that a significant proportion of the high school and college population is not at the level of formal operations. Moreover, the results suggest that, for the population studied at least, there was no relationship between level of intellectual development and performance on the New South Wales Higher School Certificate. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for secondary and tertiary education.