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ABSTRACT
Enthusiasm is a quality of efficient teachers, but teacher enthusiasm can be influenced by the way students respond. Teacher enthusiasm might therefore be difficult to maintain in compulsory courses, in which students sometimes have negative dispositions towards the content. This study focused on a science course in an elementary teacher education degree in Australia. Data were collected during and after the course, by open-ended questionnaire (569 responses) and interview (25 students and one teacher). It was concluded that teacher enthusiasm can still be maintained at an effectual level even when students are not necessarily positively predisposed to the subject.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
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Notes on contributors
David Palmer
David Palmer is an associate professor in the School of Education, University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. His research interests include motivation for learning and preservice teacher education. He is particularly interested in how to change students’ negative predispositions towards science.
Jeanette Dixon
Jeanette Dixon is an academic in the School of Education, University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. Her research interests include elementary teacher education in science, the development of self-efficacy among preservice elementary science teachers, and the development of innovative pedagogical techniques for science teaching.
Jennifer Archer
Jennifer Archer is a senior lecturer in the School of Education, University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. Her research interests focus on educational psychology and the application of educational psychology to enhance preservice and inservice teacher education.