An analysis of scientific understandings of preservice elementary teacher education students

Abstract

This article reports an investigation of the intuitive scientific ideas and understandings of 321 preservice elementary teacher education students enrolled in the 2nd year of a 3‐year program. The sample completed a physical science concept challenge instrument by responding, in writing, to open‐ended questions about the concepts of floating/sinking, the nature of matter, air pressure and its effects, and the balance beam. Subjects' responses and explanations were analyzed, and response categories established. The results reveal that the majority of subjects, with the exception of a high proportion of those who had a successful senior high school background in physics and chemistry, have misunderstandings in these basic concept areas. It is argued that teachers should have a sound conceptual knowledge base in order to implement effective problem‐solving strategies in the elementary science classroom. The importance of teaching science in elementary schools is widely acknowledged, therefore, teacher educators must identify and implement more effective strategies for science instruction in preservice teacher education courses that will enable all students to construct scientifically accurate concept knowledge.

Relationships between prospective elementary teachers' classroom practice and their conceptions of biology and of teaching science

“…Others have documented problems in elementary teachers' content knowledge (e.g., Ginns & Watters, 1995). The lack of change in the amount of content knowledge contrasts with that reported by Stofflett and Stoddart (1994); this, however, is probably because, in their study, prospective teachers were taught and assessed on a particular content topic, unlike the present study.…”

“…2 It adds to a growing body of research into the practice of prospective elementary teachers with respect to conceptions of science (Appleton, 1995;Atwood & Atwood, 1996;Ginns & Watters, 1995;Hauslein, Good, & Cummins, 1992;McDevitt et al, 1995), conceptions of the nature of science (Abell & Smith, 1994;Pomeroy, 1993;Shapiro, 1996), and conceptions of teaching science (Ebenezer & Hay, 1995;Gustafson & Rowell, 1995;Martens & Crosier, 1994). A notable addition to this literature is Stofflett's work (Stofflett, 1994;Stofflett & Stoddart, 1994) in which she studied the relationship between prospective teachers' conceptions of teaching science and their teaching.…”

Does participating in an undergraduate elementary science methods course make a difference?

“…Crawley and Arditzoglow (1990) recommendedthatcoursesprovidetimeand place forprospective teachers toexplore theirscienceconceptsand related misunderstandings. Ginns and Watters (1995) reinforced the seriousness of the lack of an accurate scienceknowledge base by preservice teachers. The pointmade 2 by these researchers is that one really cannot teach what one does not know.…”

Teacher Candidates’ Efficacy Beliefs in Mathematics: Play-Generated Curriculum Instruction

“…One reason for the change could be that the experiment they received and the activities participated in during the course improved their efficacy beliefs as research has shown that that training in the pre-service period improves and strengthens teachers' self-efficacy beliefs (Ekici, 2008;Palmer, 2006;Woolfolk & Hoy, 1990). This result could be also attributed to students' beliefs and attitudes regarding the teaching of mathematics, which are firmly set prior to entry into teacher education programs as a result of their mathematics-related experiences in primary and high schools (Ginns & Watters, 1995). The foundation of these teacher candidates' beliefs and attitudes regarding the teaching of mathematics may have resided in their experiences prior to entry into their profession, proceeding the semester that they registered for the Play Development in Early Childhood course.…”