Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 16, Issue 2, Article 5 (Dec., 2015) Youngmi GO and Jinju KANG Early childhood pre-service teachers’ self-images of science teaching in constructivism science education courses Contents Next

Early childhood pre-service teachers’ self-images of science teaching in constructivism science education courses

 

Youngmi GO¹ and Jinju KANG^2*

¹Department of Early Childhood Education, Soonchunhyang University, Asan, Chungnam, Republic of KOREA, 31538
²Department of Early Childhood Education, Pusan National University,
Geumjung-gu, Busan, Republic of KOREA, 46241
^*Corresponding author. Email: jinjukang@gmail.com

Received 28 Oct., 2014
Revised 19 Nov., 2015

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Contents

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Methodology
  • Early Childhood Science Education Courses
  • Participants
  • Data Collection
  • Data Analysis
• Results and Discussion
• Implications and Conclusion
• References

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Abstract

The purpose of this study is two-fold.  First, it investigates the self-images of science teaching held by early childhood pre-service teachers who took constructivism early childhood science education courses.  Second, it analyzes what aspects of those courses influenced these images.  The participants were eight pre-service teachers who took these courses during the spring semester of 2013 at universities in Korea and the United States.  A Draw a Science Teacher Test Checklist (DASTT-C), questionnaires, individual interviews, researchers’ field notes, and participants’ documents were collected.  The results showed that four participants who displayed teacher-centered images before taking the courses changed to child-centered images after the courses.  The factors that influenced those images were changed perspectives of a teacher’s role and experiences of constructivism-based science teaching for young children.  The other four pre-service teachers who held child-centered images before the course solidified child-centered images after the course.  The influences on those images were learner-centered learning experiences and experiences with constructivism-based science teaching for young children.  This result implies that early childhood science education should provide opportunities for pre-service teachers to reconstruct their own views about science teaching in order to learn and teach based on constructivism.

Keywords: self-images of science teaching, DASTT-C, early childhood pre-service teachers, constructivism early childhood science education courses