Pre-service Science Teachers as Curriculum Designers: Learning Opportunities Afforded in Task Selection

ABSTRACT

Instructional reforms in science education require changes in the type of intellectual work students are engaging in. This study explored the cognitive demand of tasks pre-service teachers selected during their full time teaching semester. Using the Task Analysis Guide in Science, we analyzed 177 tasks from the lesson plans that seven pre-service science teachers submitted as part of their student teaching requirement. Analysis indicated many of these tasks afforded limited opportunities for high-level thinking. The study provides implications for preparing teachers to design cognitively demanding learning experiences in science classrooms.

KEYWORDS:

• Cognitive demand
• pre-service science teachers
• science tasks
• lesson design

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Zahid Kisa and Ms. Katherine Jeannsome for their contributions to the data analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Designation for high needs schools and non-high needs were taken from the U.S Department of Education’s Low-Income Directory, which indicates schools that qualify for the teacher loan forgiveness program. Schools included on this yearly list have over 30% of their population that qualify as poverty based on section 1113(a)(f) in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.

² One of the study participants submitted 10 lesson plans per week (instead of five) because she taught two different courses during her internship.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.