The goals of science education include providing students with real-world learning experiences that connect directly to learning objectives and deepen student interest in science. Learning experiences that occur outside of the science classroom can help science educators respond to these goals. To encourage the use of learning environments beyond…

There has been a growing need as preservice teachers develop competencies regarding convergence. Focused on a discussion of blended learning before the COVID-19 pandemic versus online learning in the epidemic, we aimed to explore whether preservice teachers' attitudes toward convergence can be influenced by the learning environment. Participants…

The Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) underscore the importance of including engineering design process (EDP) within the science curriculum. The Framework and the NGSS raised engineering design to the level of scientific inquiry in an attempt to prepare a STEM-literate workforce for the 21st…

The challenge of research methods teaching is gaining attention among policy-makers keen to build social science research capacity and, critically, among educationalists keen to enhance the pedagogy. This paper addresses pedagogy, presenting a new conceptual-empirical typology of pedagogy for social science research methods teaching. Taking a…

Switching from face-to-face learning to mandatory online education during the coronavirus pandemic brought much uncertainty and new experiences for undergraduate students who were unfamiliar with that type of learning. This research aimed to identify perceptions and experiences of preservice [PST] teachers about taking science courses online in…

Data science is inherently collaborative as individuals across fields and sectors use quantitative data to answer relevant questions. As a result, there is a growing body of research regarding how to teach interdisciplinary collaboration skills. However, much of the work evaluating methods of teaching statistics and data science collaboration…

Background: As prospective teachers traverse the early stages of their careers, their first experiences of teaching (both in-course and in-classroom), and the transitions between them, need to support the growth of their professional learning. In the context of STEM education, more needs to be understood about pre-service teachers' lived…

This study investigated preservice elementary science teachers' TPACK development throughout a science teaching method course. The pretest-posttest control group was used in the study. At the end of the study, a self-reported TPACK measure was administered to the experimental (n=26) and control (n=23) groups. The experimental group learned about…

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the Framework for K-12 Science Education (NRC, 2012) on which they are based, describe a new vision for science education that includes having students learn science in a way that more closely aligns to how scientists and engineers work and think. Accomplishing this goal will require teacher…

Engineering education is receiving increased attention, although teacher preparation for engineering in the elementary grades is not well understood. This study investigated the influences of an elementary science teaching methods course, focused specifically on elementary engineering, on teacher candidates' self-efficacy for teaching engineering…

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) and Computer Science (CS) are the driving forces of the United States prosperity. While there is a high demand to close the gap in STEM+CS jobs, there is little research in K-12, especially in K-5 level. Elementary teachers lack of self-confidence in STEM+CS and there is limited number of teacher…

This study examines pre-service primary school teachers' (PSTs') possible selves in relation to science teaching and the ways in which these possible selves change over time. This longitudinal study adds to the body of knowledge by examining PSTs' possible selves at various time points throughout their teacher preparation: three PSTs, selected…

Scientific inquiry is widely accepted as a method of science teaching. Understanding its characteristics, called Nature of Scientific Inquiry (NOSI), is also necessary for a whole conception of scientific inquiry. In this study NOSI aspects were taught explicitly through student inquiries in nature in two summer science camps. Students conducted…

The aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes of prospective science teachers at Sultan Qaboos University towards and their views about using journal writing in the Methods of Teaching Science course. Twenty-six prospective science teachers were asked to write about each topic in the course in their journal to show their understanding of…

This study examined the impact of microteaching experiences of preservice elementary teachers enrolled in a science teaching methods course. The microteaching lessons targeted the physical science concepts represented in the Texas Educational Agency's exam for early childhood through sixth grade teacher certification. The results of this study…