Developing a Tool to Evaluate
Differences in Beliefs About
Science Teaching and Learning
Among Freshman Science Student
Teachers from Different Science
Teaching Domains: A Case Study
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1
University of Bremen, Bremen, GERMANY
2
University of Cyprus, Nicosia, CYPRUS
Publication date: 2008-04-22
EURASIA J. Math., Sci Tech. Ed 2008;4(2):109-120
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
This paper presents a pilot case study on developing a qualitative tool to evaluate science
student teachers‟ beliefs concerning science teaching and learning. The study is based on
student teachers‟ drawings of themselves in a typical classroom situation and four open
questions. Data was collected from 104 freshman science student teachers, and evaluated
based on the basic tenets of Grounded Theory. Applying Grounded Theory led to a
framework of categorising the student teachers‟ beliefs in three categories: (I) Beliefs
about Classroom Organisation, (II) Beliefs about Teaching Objectives, and (III)
Epistemological Beliefs. All three categories were expanded to a dimension between more
traditional beliefs and beliefs in line with modern educational theory. The participants in
the study were from different groups of student teachers in one of four domains of
science teaching: secondary school Biology, Chemistry or Physics or Primary Science. The
tool proved to be interesting for gaining insights into the beliefs of freshman science
student teachers. The initial results from this case study indicate that secondary student
teachers of Chemistry and, even moreso, Physics hold teacher- and content-structurecentred
beliefs about science teaching and learning, whereas Biology student teachers, and
even more pronouncedly Primary Science student teachers, hold more student-centred
and scientific literacy-oriented beliefs.