INCREASING EFFICACY WITH PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS VIA A COMBINED SCIENCE AND SCIENCE METHODS COURSE

Instilling a passion for science in a K-8 education major can be a very difficult endeavor. The task is further exacerbated because students are also expected to advocate for many subjects in their future career including literacy and mathematics. For pre-service educators, the definitive goal should be not simply to familiarize future elementary teachers as to the nature of science, but rather to engage them with the excitement and wonder of science. Educators from St Norbert College, a small liberal arts college located in the greater Green Bay WI area, addressed the goal of producing passionate, future K-8 educators by combining a 4-credit science methods course from the education department with a 4-credit introductory geology course from the Natural Science Division. The new combined course is year-long and includes a 3-day pre-course geology field trip to northern Wisconsin. This revised delivery system for pre-service students also sought to address K-8 science needs related to the new NGSS standards.

Assessment of this new paradigm was based on qualitative and quantitative measurements of four learning characteristics; pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards science, the nature and depth of the pre-service teachers understanding of science and critical thinking skills, perceptions and recognition of the connections to science and science cross-cutting concepts, and perception of science and their thoughts on becoming a scientist. These characteristics helped measure the attitudes, perceptions, knowledge, skills, and dispositions of the students as they progress through the new K-8 geoscience instruction model. Four assessments were administered; a science attitude survey, focus group questions, the CAT (critical assessment test) administered by Tennessee Tech, and course work/grades. Preliminary results indicate that the students in the new course have a deeper appreciation of the nature of science and feel more confident in their critical thinking skills. Ironically they are more apprehensive about teaching science than the control group that did not participate in the new course. A national workshop on our new delivery system will be hosted at St. Norbert College in November of 2015.