How Pre-Service Teachers' Understand and Perform Science Process Skills

This study explored pre-service teachers' conceptual understanding and performance on science process skills. A sample comprised 91 elementary pre-service teachers at a university in the Midwest of the USA. Participants were enrolled in two science education courses; introductory science teachi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education Vol. 8; no. 3; pp. 167 - 175
Main Authors Chabalengula, Vivien Mweene, Mumba, Frackson, Mbewe, Simeon
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published East Sussex EURASIA 01.08.2012
Subjects
Data Collection
Data Interpretation
Elementary Education
Introductory Courses
Methods Courses
Preservice Teacher Education
Preservice Teachers
Science Curriculum
Science Education
Science Instruction
Science Process Skills
Teacher Education
Teaching Methods
United States (Midwest)
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Summary:This study explored pre-service teachers' conceptual understanding and performance on science process skills. A sample comprised 91 elementary pre-service teachers at a university in the Midwest of the USA. Participants were enrolled in two science education courses; introductory science teaching methods course and advanced science methods course. Data were collected through a questionnaire. Results showed that pre-service teachers had limited conceptual understanding of science process skills. On the other hand, they had higher performance on the science process skills. Whilst majority of the participants were unable to provide correct definitions of the science process skills, they performed well on the test that involved novel situations of the process skills. The findings have implications for science teaching, learning and teacher education. (Contains 8 tables.)
ISSN:1305-8223
1305-8215
1305-8223
DOI:10.12973/eurasia.2012.832a