Effects of an Interdisciplinary Course on Pre-Service Primary Teachers’ Content Knowledge and Academic Self-Concepts in Science and Technology–A Quantitative Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Primary school teachers need adequate professional knowledge and motivational orientations to qualify scientifically and technologically literate students. Previous studies have focused on the impact of coursework on (pre-service) primary teachers’ content knowledge, rather than on the development of academic self-concepts. In addition, the influence of the course format and the major field of study has not been investigated much to this date. Thus, this study examines the effects of an interdisciplinary course on pre-service primary teachers’ content knowledge and academic self-concepts in science and technology using a quasi-experimental, quantitative, pre-post-follow-up design (n = 202). Whilst no significant changes in knowledge were revealed for the baseline group not participating in the course, significant short-term and long-term cognitive gains were found for the experimental group. Biology-, chemistry-, physics- and technology-related self-concepts increased significantly when participating in the course. The results also indicate that the course format and major field of study can have an impact on the development of pre-service teachers’ professional knowledge. Regarding the development of academic self-concepts in the experimental group, it can be assumed that both the weekly and block course format are beneficial for heterogeneous learner groups consisting of pre-service teachers with different major fields of study.

The Challenge to Link Biology, Chemistry, and Physics: Results of a Longitudinal Study on Self-Rated Content Knowledge

“…Despite the stability during teacher education, we were able to show (with a small sample), that the srCK of biology can be improved strongly by a biology CK course for pre-service chemistry and physics teachers (Figure 7). Therefore, our results rather indicate a possible change comparable to Beudels et al [33] with their interdisciplinary course affecting academic self-concept in science. Thus, the srCK of biology, of chemistry, and of physics seem to depend on the studied subjects-without great changes over the time of teacher education.…”

“…Further, there are studies looking at academic self-concept on a more general level regarding primary education and the context of participations in interventions/courses. One exemplary study had a pre-post-follow-up design with 202 pre-service primary teachers; among other things, the researchers investigated the influence of an interdisciplinary course (focus on the CK and academic self-concept) on the academic self-concepts in biology, chemistry, and physics on a subject level [33]. They showed a significant increase in all three academic self-concepts [33].…”

“…One exemplary study had a pre-post-follow-up design with 202 pre-service primary teachers; among other things, the researchers investigated the influence of an interdisciplinary course (focus on the CK and academic self-concept) on the academic self-concepts in biology, chemistry, and physics on a subject level [33]. They showed a significant increase in all three academic self-concepts [33]. Another study for primary and lower secondary education focused on pre-service teachers' academic self-concept in physics over the course of two types of methods courses (n = 111 and 56) [34].…”

“…Here, we were interested in the relative (correlation between the time points; [35]) and absolute stability (change in the mean between time points; [35]). There are studies looking at the science CK of secondary education pre-service teachers (e.g., [30,31]) or the general science academic self-concept of primary (or lower secondary) education preservice teachers (e.g., [33,34]). However, the srCK of biology, of chemistry, and of physics on the level of curricular-relevant core ideas seem to be investigated only in cross-sectional designs so far (e.g., [1,4,27]).…”

“…Moreover, we want to learn about the impact of a voluntary SPL course of the certificate program of interdisciplinary science teaching on the time-stability of srCK [13]. In the past, other researchers showed positive effects of CK courses on science academic self-concepts or beliefs of being confident in teaching specific CK regarding primary education [28,33]. We investigated the srCK of biology regarding a biology CK course with chem-istry and physics pre-service teachers.…”