Abstract:

Teacher educators should help cultivate teacher candidates by informing practice with background knowledge of teacher candidates, modeling, and provide teacher candidates to reflect on their own pedagogy and beliefs. The author describes how to use different technology to improve science methods courses to help develop 21st century skills.

The presentation is based in helping to best prepare future 21st century elementary teachers and how to teach science in a meaningful manner. The methods course anchors instruction using the learning cycle (Bybee et al., 2006). Teaching science involves a many decisions encompassing science tools, academic language, culture and pedagogical skills. Teacher candidates in the field experience need to practice teaching and keep in mind all the learners in their particular classroom context. Each individual learner in the classroom should have the opportunity to participate in learning science. The complexity of the desired endpoint in the methods courses require extensive preparation: with scaffolded experiences incorporating candidate knowledge and experiences; modeling lessons; use of cooperative learning; observations; feedback; reflection on teaching and learning, and modification of lessons through formative assessments. Ultimately, the goal of a science course being to implement science lessons within the field experience.

The author will share a model for science methods with regard to a scope and sequence. Furthermore, different educational technology tools that complement learning outcomes for the course will be shared. The modeling of technology in the science methods course allowed for the classroom to extend beyond the walls allowing for an engaging, active, and cooperative culture in the methods course. This culture translated into lesson plan design and the teaching practices of the teacher candidates during their field experience. Some of the technology utilized in the course were as follows: Mentimeter for classroom polling, Nearpod as a lesson platform, Kahoot for formative assessments, Storytime from Space for children’s literature integration, and Nepris to connect with scientists. The initial beliefs of teacher candidates in regards to science instruction were centered on the ideas of science being fun and hands-on. By the end of the course, the findings of the study indicate a more complex belief system encompassing ideas of inquiry, student-centered lesson and concepts around 21st century skills. Further findings, benefits and recommendations will be shared during the presentation. Teacher preparation is multi-faceted and requires a backward design approach to best meet the need of the interconnected world. It’s a challenge that teacher preparation needs to collectively tackle.

References:
[1] Aguirre, J., & Speer, N.M. (2000). Examining the relationship between beliefs and goals in teacher practice. Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 18(3), 327-356.
[2] Brown, C. P., Englehardt, J., & Mathers, H. (2016). Examining preservice teachers' conceptual and practical understandings of adopting iPads into their teaching of young children. Teaching and Teacher Education, 60, 179-190.
[3] Rehmat, A. P., & Bailey, J. M. (2014). Technology integration in a science classroom: Preservice teachers’ perceptions. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 23(6), 744-755.

Keywords:

Teacher preparation, pedagogy, technology, STEM education.