Abstract:

In many cases, understanding the nature and validity of information presented on the basis of scientific findings is necessary for application in contemporary society. Similarly, in line with the rapidly developing fields of science, technology, and engineering, it is necessary to have enough competent people prepared to work in these areas. As a result, scientific skills appear to be an essential components of science literacy, the development of which is the education of pupils focused in many countries. It is important that pupils’ scientific skills do not remain only declared in the written curriculum, but that the implementers of education – teachers – also identify themselves with this direction of science education. Teachers’ attitudes to the importance of scientific skills in educational practice play an essential role because the perception of their importance is the starting point for mediation their importance to pupils and, consequently, for their development in pupils. It is also important that teachers feel sufficiently competent to teach these skills. A condition for this is that they are sufficiently supported in higher education teacher training. The research aim was to find out how competent pre-service teachers consider themselves to be in scientific skills, how they perceive the importance of scientific skills for pupils and teachers, and how they evaluate higher education preparation in this area. A multi-item questionnaire using Likert scales was developed for this purpose. The research involved 187 Czech students of the Faculty of Education of Charles University in the academic year 2021/2022 in the final stage of studying a follow-up master’s programme (ISCED 7) focused on primary or secondary education. It was found that students consider scientific skills rather important for themselves, teachers in general and pupils. In contrast, students are more likely not to consider themselves competent in scientific skills and do not consider their higher education preparation in scientific skills to be adequate. In a more detailed analysis, it was found that males perceive themselves more competent in scientific skills than females. Women do not think that they are sufficiently prepared in scientific skills in higher education. While men are slightly more satisfied with their preparation in higher education. The findings show that pre-service teachers are aware of the importance of scientific skills and hence are likely to be inclined to incorporate them in their teaching practice. However, the perceived lack of competence and preparation in this area is a significant limitation and a challenge for teacher education.

Keywords:

Scientific thinking and reasoning, professional development, teaching, pre-service teachers, attitudes.