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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 13, Issue 2, Article 14 (Dec., 2012) |
A survey questionnaire adapted from the instrument of Hudson & Ginns (2007), which measured preservice elementary teachers’ perceptions of their development towards becoming elementary science teachers, was used. The questionnaire was administered at the beginning and at the end of the science methods course. The data were collected from a class of senior students (Year 4) who enrolled in a mid-west state university for an elementary education licensure Bachelor of Science degree program. The class was taught intensively 160 minutes per week for 14 weeks. It was an independent course not related to a practicum or field experiences. A total of 30 preservice elementary teachers were in the class. However, the analysis of the data was based on 26 questionnaires completed separately at the beginning and at the end of the semester. Four preservice elementary teachers did not complete one of the two questionnaires, hence the other questionnaires that they had completed were considered to be invalid. The demographic distribution was three males and twenty-three females, with half of the preservice teachers below the age of 22 and half of them within the ages of 22-25. All of them had experiences in elementary teaching, but only two had experience in teaching science. All participants remained anonymous. The maiden names of the preservice teachers’ mothers were used to match the pre- and posttest questionnaires for paired samples t-test and all of the questionnaires were destroyed after the data analysis.
