Our Practice, Their Readiness: Teacher Educators Collaborate to Explore and Improve Preservice Teacher Readiness for Science and Math Instruction

Abstract

Since many preservice teachers (PTs) display anxiety over teaching math and science, four PT educators collaborated to better understand the PTs’ background experiences and attitudes toward those subjects. The research project provided two avenues for professional learning: the data collected from the PTs and the opportunity for collaborative action research. The mixed method study focused on: the relationship between gender and undergraduate major (science versus non-science) with respect to previous and current engagement in science and math, understanding the processes of inquiry, and learning outside the classroom. A field trip to a science center provided the setting for the data collection. From a sample of 132 PTs, a multivariate analysis showed that the science major of PTs explained most of the gender differences with respect to the PTs’ attitudes toward science and mathematics. The process of inquiry is generally poorly interpreted by PTs, and non-science majors prefer a more social approach in their learning to teach science and math. The four educators/collaborators reflect on the impacts of the research on their individual practices, for example, the need to: include place-based learning, attend to the different learning strategies taken by non-science majors, emphasize social and environmental contexts for learning science and math, be more explicit regarding the processes of science inquiry, and provide out-of-classroom experiences for PTs. They conclude that the collaboration, though difficult at times, provided powerful opportunities for examining individual praxis.

Keywords:

• Pre-service teacher science education
• Science and math anxiety
• Collaborative action research

Notes

1 Pseudonyms are used for all authors.

2 Science North/Dynamic Earth in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.

3 The field trip took place on a Saturday in April 2010, toward the end of the school year at the Faculty of Education where we teach. Due to a generous internal university grant for STEM-related projects, the cost to students was minimal and all those who wished to attend were able to do so. Participants and researchers rode together on buses from the campus to the science centers located in a neighboring city. At the science centers, participants and researchers were welcomed by senior staff who spoke with them about the attractions found at the centers, the various programs associated with state mandated science curricula, and about the importance of science education for all students and citizens. Participants and researchers then had the opportunity to take part in guided tours and visit the exhibits on their own or with friends/colleagues.

4 Preservice teachers were coded to having a science major if their major was either biology, physics, mathematics, or the human sciences, since these subject areas were most likely to focus on content knowledge as well as scientific method.