Using social media to promote pre-service science teachers’ practices of socio-scientific issue (SSI)

1. Teacher Knowledge
A teacher’s prior knowledge and beliefs are based on experiences as students of science within K-12 education and the university (Dana & Tippins, 1998). Therefore, teacher education, for both pre-service and in-service teachers, is expected to develop their knowledge and belief about new classroom practices (Bell, 1998). Magnusson, Krajcik & Borko (1999) proposed five domains of teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge: an orientation toward teaching science, knowledge of science curriculum, knowledge of students’ understanding of science, knowledge of instructional strategies, and knowledge of assessment in science. These aspects of teacher knowledge act as a mirror of what they know, what they think, and how they act in the classroom (Borko & Putnam, 1996). SSI-rich instructional contexts may well provide a productive context that promotes integration of knowledge structures including pedagogical content knowledge (Zeidler et al., 2005).

However, in SSI-based teaching, many factors affect pre-service science teachers’ understanding of SSI-based teaching. Relationships, personal experiences, and societal discourses have all been shown to be important factors affecting students’ thinking about SSI (Brotman, Mensah, & Lesko, 2010; Kolstø, 2006). Similarly, Sadler (2004) noted that personal experience, values, and beliefs play integral roles for students’ learning about SSI. Due to limited knowledge of and experience with SSI, pre-service science teachers may design units that are focused content that they felt familiar with (Forbes & Davis, 2008). Nuangchalerm (2009) indicated that if pre-service science teachers understand the nature of science in the context of SSI-based teaching, it will help them to understand that one strength of science lies in its subjectivity.

2. Teacher Practices
Teaching is a very complex process. The teachers may have knowledge of strategies and teaching methods but may not understand how to apply these methods and strategies to specific situations occurring in everyday teaching experiences (Korthagen & Kessels, 1999). Consequently, students’ competencies will not improve unless teachers’ teaching practices improve (Loucks-Horsley et al., 2003). These teaching practices are influenced by educational backgrounds (Thomas & Pedersen, 2003) and many types of teacher knowledge (Even & Tirosh, 1995), and teaching experience improves the understanding of teaching (Guskey, 2002). Therefore, it is important to provide pre-service teachers with meaningful experiences of science teaching and learning. Teaching practice is one of the indispensable aspects of teacher preparation programs because it provides pre-service teachers with opportunities to practice teaching and develop a greater understanding of teaching and learning (Poster, 1996). Learning to teach does not only occur during university-based courses, but it also takes place during field experiences (Geddis & Roberts, 1996 cited in Geddis & Wood, 1997). For SSI-based teaching, there are some factors that have an effect on science teaching practice. Forbes & Davis (2008) found that pre-service science teachers might shy away from discussing the broader issues that require integration of topics with which they were not familiar.

3. Teacher Preparation
In science teacher education, a pre-service science teacher is considered an adult learner, and this actively influences their views of teaching and learning science (Northfield, 1998). Pre-service teachers are also required to have active involvement with knowledgeable people, such as university supervisors and cooperating teachers. We can view mentors and supervisors as facilitators and scaffolders (Bell, 1993) who support pre-service teachers’ learning.

For successful development of pre-service science teachers, many educators suggest that professional development programs should relate to individual needs (Darling-Hammond & Sykes, 1999), have sufficient time and on-going professional support (Radford, 1998), and provide necessary resources (Loucks-Horsley et al., 2003). It takes time and persistence for knowledge and belief to change (Loucks-Horseley et al., 2003). This changing process can occur when pre-service teachers recognize a need, make plans to improve, implement improvements, and allow time to evaluate the effectiveness of the new practices (Boling & Martin, 2005). Loucks-Horsley et al. (2003) proposed multiple strategies focused improving teaching, such as reflection on experiences in the classroom and evaluation of students’ learning and these strategies can include action research, mentoring, study groups, lesson study, case discussions, and examining student work.

4. Mentoring with social media
Mentoring is a professional development strategy that provides long-term, ongoing, professional learning. Mentoring can occur between a teacher new to a field and an experienced teacher taking on a new role or new teaching approach. An effective mentor serves as coach, content specialist, guide, facilitator, advocate, collaborator, and resource provider. The primary purpose of mentoring is to provide support for the new teachers, so mentoring provides support for the new teachers as they become more deliberate about effective teaching, learning, and assessing (Loucks-Horsley et al., 2003). However, most Thai pre-service teachers cannot link theory to practice in field settings, and mentor teachers often provide little instructional support in these areas (Faikhamta, Coll, & Roadrangka, 2009). Therefore, technology for professional development can be considered as communication and delivery to support and expand on in-person professional development or provide distance learning with or without facilitation. The use of technology for profession development can increase teachers’ science content knowledge, deepen understanding of student thinking and learning, and enhance the teachers’ use of varied teaching strategies. There are many technologies for professional development such as the Internet, e-mail, real-time electronic conversation, or video conferencing. These technologies are now used instead of face-to-face interactions, and to provide follow-up support after in-person learning events (Loucks-Horsley et al., 2003).

A social network is an interactive platform that allows people to create, share, and exchange information or ideas. There are many kinds of social media such as Facebook, Myspace, hi 5 , video-sharing Sites, YouTube, Micro Blog, Twitter, and so on (Cheung, Chiu & Lee, 2010 ). Knouse (2001) has suggested that the Internet provides several unique advantages over traditional one-on-one mentoring with its immediate access to tremendous amounts of information. In addition, many research reports which indicate that using social media can promote students’ learning (Churchill, 2009; Goldfarb et al., 2011 ). However, there is still a question about using social media to mentor pre-service science teachers’ teaching according to SSI-based teaching.