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Pre-Service Teachers’ Views of School-Based Approaches to Pre-Service Primary Science Teacher Education

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Abstract

Primary pre-service teachers (PSTs) in Australia often have low confidence and negative experiences in relation to science and teaching science. This paper reports on pre-post survey data produced by four institutions involved in a multi-institutional project exploring the use of university-school partnerships for primary science teacher education. The findings show that the experience of engagement in school-based science teaching contributed to the development PST classroom readiness particularly with respect to statistically significant increases in confidence. We argue that moving tutorials from university into schools supports PSTs’ engagement with the teaching profession and teaching science.

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  1. Generated with Qualtrics, software, version 2013 of the Qualtrics Research Suite

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University, Warrnambool Campus, Locked Bag 2000, Warrnambool, VIC, 3280, Australia

    Sandra Herbert

  2. Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University, Waurn Ponds Campus, Locked Bag 2000, Geelong, VIC, 3220, Australia

    Linda Hobbs

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  1. Sandra Herbert
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Correspondence to Sandra Herbert.

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The study was funded for 2013 and 2014 by the Office for Learning and Teaching as Project ID12–2412, “School-based pedagogies and partnerships in primary science teacher education”, project website http://www.stepsproject.org.au.

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Herbert, S., Hobbs, L. Pre-Service Teachers’ Views of School-Based Approaches to Pre-Service Primary Science Teacher Education. Res Sci Educ 48, 777–809 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-016-9587-x

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