Abstract:

Studies show that teachers’ attitudes, beliefs and self-efficacy towards science teaching are important factors that influence their practice in class. Moreover, these factors also influence their students’ construction and understanding of scientific knowledge, research abilities, attitudes and curiosity towards science, scientific literacy and trajectories. Research is limited regarding pre-school student teachers’ self-efficacy, attitudes and beliefs toward science and science teaching, however there are indications that instructional methods are one of the influential experiences to develop these aspects.

The aim of this study was to explore the extent and nature of changes in pre-school student teachers’ self-efficacy, attitudes and beliefs toward science and science teaching during their 3-years of studies in Early Childhood Education (ECE) program. In addition, this study explores whether these personal aspects differ between pre-school student teachers with and without science specialization. To address this need, we utilized the Hebrew version of the Preschool Teacher Attitudes and Beliefs toward Science Teaching questionnaire [P-TABS]), which has 35 items designed to address several aspects of self-efficacy, attitudes and beliefs toward early science teaching. The questionnaire was given to teacher students studying in their first, second and third year, at the beginning and end of the year.

The sample comprised 292 pre-school student teachers: 70 in their first year, 89 in their second year and 133 in their third year of studies.
Data analysis revealed that pre-school student teachers’ self-efficacy, attitudes and beliefs towards science teaching are more positive during second and third year than for first year of training. In addition, self-efficacy, attitudes and beliefs towards science teaching of pre-school student teachers with science specialization were more positive than those without. Overall, the change in self-efficacy, attitudes and beliefs towards science teaching during 3-years of studies in the ECE program was similar for pre-school student teachers with and without science specialization. We think that practicable courses, and especially the experience in teaching science subjects during actual practice in preschool classes contributed to the positive attitudes of the student teachers towards teaching science in early childhood.

Keywords:

Early childhood education, Student teachers, Early science education, Training.