Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Beliefs about Nature of Science and Constructivist Teaching in the Content-specific Context

Yoon, Hye-Gyoung; Kim, Byoung Sug

doi:10.12973/eurasia.2016.1210a

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…The 2 / 12 disciplinary core ideas include physical science, life science, earth and space science, and engineering, which are used to construct explanations and as a form of evidence to support arguments (National Research Council, 2012). Such reforms place high demands on elementary teachers because they play a critical role in early science learning and establishing a scientific foundation for students that can enable or constrain them from continuing their learning experience and achieving the goals of science education reform (Schwarz, 2009;Yoon & Kim, 2016). However, a common challenge for preservice elementary teachers in their future career is their responsibility for teaching the majority of subjects in elementary education.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Subject-Specific Self-Efficacy in Teaching Science

Sultan

2020

EURASIA J MATH SCI T

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Self-efficacy plays a key role in determining teaching practices. Still, concerns regarding the low science self-efficacy beliefs held by elementary teachers have raised questions about the effectiveness of teacher preparation programs. Previous research has been restricted to labeling preservice elementary teachers as having high, medium, or low science teaching self-efficacy. Few extended efforts have been made to clearly distinguish preservice elementary teachers' subjectspecific lack of confidence in teaching science. The present study aimed to investigate preservice elementary teachers' subject-specific self-efficacy in teaching science using a mixed-method research design. The participants included 55 preservice elementary teachers at a university in the United States. Quantitative data were collected using the Beliefs About Teaching instrument, and interviews were used to collect qualitative data. The results showed that the participants had the highest self-efficacy level in biology, followed by earth science, chemistry, and physics. Four themes emerged from the participants' reasons for feeling more confident in teaching biology concepts than physics: education experience, teacher experience, subject comprehension, and subject relevance. This study highlights the essential role played by teacher preparation programs in providing ample opportunities for preservice elementary teachers to develop a strong understanding of the content and teaching methods of all science subjects.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Subject-Specific Self-Efficacy in Teaching Science

Sultan

2020

EURASIA J MATH SCI T

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“…More specifically, the findings allow prospective teachers a way of shaping their science identity through early inquiry based science practicum teaching to diverse student groups. This finding is in line with previous studies that demonstrated the positive effect of practical experience in classrooms on the views, attitudes, and pedagogical practices of student teachers (Crawford, 2007;Windschitl, 2003;Yoon & Kim, 2016).…”

Section: Collaborative Teaching and Learning Created A Border-crossin...supporting

confidence: 93%

Exploring the Development of BIPOC Preservice Teacher’s Pedagogical Practices and Identity During a Linguistic and Equity Focused Science Teaching Practicum Course

Chan¹

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Growing a diverse STEM workforce requires that we train and recruit teachers of color into the STEM teaching field as role models and agents of change for our increasingly diverse student population in the United States. Using the overlapping frameworks of racial and science teacher identity development, I studied participant experiences and beliefs in a 15-week, science teaching practicum course for future science educators. Specifically, I examined shifts in identity in 20 prospective K-12 teachers with a focus on seven students who identified as Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC). The purpose of this study was to create an ethnographic account of how concepts of identity, biases, and linguistic diversity in science can be understood and addressed by undergraduate instructors in this context. Data was collected via in-depth interviews, reflections, lesson plans, and lesson observations and analyzed using a qualitative content analysis method.Findings indicated BIPOC students' identities as science teachers changed throughout the practicum course, from a sense of exclusion and difficulty, to a sense of success and belonging in teaching. Additionally, it was found that these future K-12 teachers developed more positive attitudes and explicit strategies toward the implementation of equity focused, linguistically diverse, inquiry-based science teaching, as a result of the course. Because science identity development is influential to learning and teaching, the results have significant implications for the design of teacher education programs and support of K-12 teachers in teaching science. Results indicated including early preparation in science teaching through the form of practicum-based learning can be beneficial in BIPOC science teacher preparation and identity development. v Acknowledgements I wish to thank my committee members Dr. Stephanie Sisk-Hilton, Dr. Lawrence Horvath and Dr. Maricel G. Santos for their guidance and support. They have been allies, mentors and critical colleagues as I navigated this academic journey. I continue my scholarship to honor the legacy of these amazing teacher educators. They bring joy and passion to the work they do every day and I aspire to do the same. I also want thank my best friend and husband Blas Craig Herrera, who is a fellow science educator. I do this work for him and our BIPOC colleagues. Transformative education happens when our fellow people of color are at the head of these classrooms, changing science and identity for our future generations. I wish to acknowledge my parents Peter and Anna Chan, and my daughters Kira and Cassidy Herrera for all their love and understanding. I work to honor their legacy, past and future. The collective love and support of these people and the greater community at SFSU made this possible. Lastly, I thank the thousands of past students who give me strength to fight for justice and equity in our classrooms and the motivation to continue to share our stories with the world. viTable of Contents Certification of Approval .

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“…Past studies have suggested that teachers’ epistemological beliefs about science play an important role in their teaching practices in the classroom (Hewson and Hewson, 1987; Lederman et al, 2002; Tsai, 2002; Kang and Wallace, 2005), but in our study teachers held similar views on the nature of science, allowing us to consider them equivalent in epistemological beliefs on science, and focus our analysis on the teaching approach only. Teachers might hold sophisticated beliefs about the nature of science, but these do not automatically transfer to their practices (Yoon and Kim, 2016). Moreover, teachers reported similar teaching practices, which are generally associated to general principles of constructivism (use of laboratory, importance of discussion, assigning an active role to students, and the like).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Influence of Teaching Approach on Students’ Conceptual Learning in Physics

Bigozzi

Tarchi

Fiorentini³

et al. 2018

Front. Psychol.

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Physics is fundamental to secure future needs for scientific and technological competence (Angell et al., 2004), but many countries experience a drop in students’ performances in international assessments (Organisation for Economic Co-operation Development [OECD], 2018), as well as in rates of enrolment in undergraduate programs in scientific disciplines (STEM). Socio-constructivist theories have produced a reforming movement in several educational systems, in particular in the area of sciences, but teacher often consider them an idealistic view of education and do not consider themselves metacognitively competent enough to foster thinking in the classroom. In this study, we investigated the efficacy of different teaching methods on high-school students’ conceptual knowledge of physics, after the effect of science-related beliefs and critical thinking skills was controlled. We adopted a mixed-method with sequential design, in which quantitative and qualitative data flow are inter-mixed. In specific, we interviewed four high school physics teachers to identify teaching approaches (qualitative approach) and compared them in terms of efficacy on students’ performances (quantitative approach). Four teachers and 77 10th grade students participated. Teachers were interviewed during the school years and asked questions about their teaching experience, their teaching approach (Kang and Wallace, 2005) and their epistemic beliefs (Tsai, 2002). Students performances in Science-related beliefs (Conley et al., 2004), critical thinking (Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level X, Millman et al., 2005), and conceptual knowledge in physics (The Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation, Ramlo, 2002) were evaluated twice, at the beginning and at the end of the school year. The independent-sample t-tests on pre-test variables did not reveal any statistically significant difference between groups. Results from the complex samples GLM revealed statistically significant differences on post-test scores in conceptual knowledge in physics, after the effect of covariates was controlled. Overall, the study contributes to our understanding on current teaching practices in school, and their effect on students’ conceptual understanding of physics concepts.

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Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Beliefs about Nature of Science and Constructivist Teaching in the Content-specific Context

Cited by 7 publications

References 33 publications

Investigating Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Subject-Specific Self-Efficacy in Teaching Science

Investigating Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Subject-Specific Self-Efficacy in Teaching Science

Exploring the Development of BIPOC Preservice Teacher’s Pedagogical Practices and Identity During a Linguistic and Equity Focused Science Teaching Practicum Course

The Influence of Teaching Approach on Students’ Conceptual Learning in Physics

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