Fostering online social construction of science knowledge with primary pre-service teachers working in virtual teams

Abstract

As many primary pre-service teachers enter teacher education courses with little science background, it is essential in teacher education courses to provide opportunities for them to learn more science independently. The purpose of this study is to investigate an online pedagogical activity that fosters the social construction of science knowledge by primary pre-service teachers working in small virtual teams. The study investigated how the pre-service teachers collaborated online in virtual teams to complete set tasks, their attitudes toward and beliefs about the effectiveness of the online learning experience, and the types and quality of the resources developed. The findings indicated that the virtual team-produced science resource materials were generally of high quality, with nearly half the number of teams engaging with Web 2.0 technologies (e.g. wikis and blogs) to construct their product. The findings indicated positive attitudes toward the collaborative learning even though beliefs about online learning were mixed.

Keywords:

• attitudes and beliefs
• collaborative online learning
• perceptions of effectiveness
• primary pre-service teacher education
• science education
• virtual teams

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a La Trobe University Faculty of Education grant.