How Pre-service Teachers’ Understand
and Perform Science Process Skills

Vivien Mweene Chabalengula; Frackson Mumba; Simeon Mbewe

doi:10.12973/eurasia.2012.832a

How Pre-service Teachers’ Understand and Perform Science Process Skills

Full Text (PDF)

Vivien Mweene Chabalengula ¹ ^* , Frackson Mumba ¹, Simeon Mbewe ¹

More Detail

¹ Southern Illinois University Carbondale, USA^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

This study explored pre-service teachers’ conceptual understanding and performance on science process skills. A sample comprised 91 elementary pre-service teachers at a university in the Midwest of the USA. Participants were enrolled in two science education courses; introductory science teaching methods course and advanced science methods course. Data were collected through a questionnaire. Results showed that pre-service teachers had limited conceptual understanding of science process skills. On the other hand, they had higher performance on the science process skills. Whilst majority of the participants were unable to provide correct definitions of the science process skills, they performed well on the test that involved novel situations of the process skills. The findings have implications for science teaching, learning and teacher education.

Keywords

conceptual understanding
performance
pre-service teacher
science process skills

License

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, 2012, Volume 8, Issue 3, 167-176

https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2012.832a

Publication date: 12 Jan 2012

Article Views: 4743

Article Downloads: 2441

Open Access References How to cite this article

References

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (1989). Science for all Americans: Project 2061. Washington, DC.
American Association for the Advancement of Science. (1993). Benchmarks for science literacy. New York: Oxford University Press.
Anderson, R. D. (2002). Reforming Science Teaching: What research says about inquiry. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 13(1), 1-12.
Barbosa, P. & Alexander, L. (2004). Science inquiry in the CORI framework. In J. T. Guthrie, A. Wigfield, & K. C. Perencevich (Eds.), Motivating Reading Comprehension: Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction, pp.113-141. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Boardman, L. & Zembal-Saul, C. (2000). Exploring prospective teachers’ conception of scientific inquiry. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST), New Orleans, LA.
Burns, J. C., Okey, J. R. & Wise, K. C. (1985). Development of an integrated process skill test: TIPS II. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 22(2),169-177.
Cain, S. (2002). Sciencing. (4th ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Dana, T., Boardman, L., Friedrichsen, P., Taylor, J., & Zembal-Saul, C. (2000). A framework for preparing primary science teachers to support children’s scientific inquiry. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for the Education of Teachers of Science (AETS). Akron, OH.
Duit, R. (1984). Learning the energy concept in school - empirical results from the Philippines and West Germany. Physics Education, 19(2), 59-66.
Emereole, H. U. (2009). Learners’ and Teachers’ Conceptual understanding of Science Processes: The Case of Botswana. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 7, 1033-1056.
Farsakoglu, O.F., Sahin, C., Karsli, F., Akpinar, M. & Ultay, N. (2008). A study on awareness levels of prospective science teachers on science process skills in science education. World Applied Sciences Journal, 4, 174-182.16
Gao, L. (2002). Conceptions of teaching held by school science teachers in P.R. China: Identification and crosscultural comparisons. International Journal of Science Education, 24(1), 61-79.
Glynn, S. M. & Duit, R. (1995). Learning science meaningfully: Constructing conceptual models. In S. M. Glynn and R. Duit (Eds.), Learning science in the schools: Research reforming practice, pp. 3-33. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Lotter, C., Harwood, W. S. & Bonner, J. J. (2007). The influence of core teaching conceptions on teachers' use of inquiry teaching practices. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 44, 1318-1347
Luft, J. A. (2001). Changing inquiry practices and beliefs: The impact of an inquiry-based professional development programme on beginning teachers and experienced secondary science teachers. International Journal of Science Education , 23(5), 517-534.
Marion, R., Hewson, P. W., Tabachnick, B. R., & Blomker, K. (1999). Teaching for conceptual change in primary and secondary science methods courses. Science Education, 83, 323–346.
Mbewe, S., Chabalengula, V. M. & Mumba, F. (2010). Preservice teachers’ familiarity, interest and conceptual understanding of science process skills. Problems of Education in the 21st Century, 22(22): 76-86.
Ministrell, J. & van Zee, E. H. (2000). Inquiring into Inquiry Learning and Teaching in Science. Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science
National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB). (2005). Science framework for the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress. Washington, DC: American Institutes for Research.
National Research Council (NRC). (1996). National Science Education Standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). (2002). NSTA Position Statement: Elementary school science. Retrieved from National Science Teachers Association website: http://www.nsta.org/about/ positions/ elementary.aspx.
O’Sullivan, C. Y., Reese, C. M. & Mazzeo, J. (1997). NAEP 1996 science report card for the nation and the states. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.
Padilla, M., Cronin, L., & Twiest, M. (1985). The development and validation of the test of basic process skills. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, French Lick, IN.
Padilla, M.J. (1990). The science process skills (Research matters – to the science teacher No. 9004). Retrieved from National Association of Research in Science Teaching website: http://www.narst.org/ publications/ research/skill.cfm.
Rillero, P. (1998). Process skills and content knowledge [Editorial]. Science Activities, 35(3), 3.
Rollnick, M., Lubben, F., Lotz, S. & Dlamini, B. (2002). What do underprepared students learn about measurement from introductory laboratory work? Research in Science Education, 32(1), 1-18.
Roth, W. M., McGinn, M. K. & Bowen, G. M. (1998). How prepared are pre-service teachers to teach scientific inquiry? Levels of performance in scientific representation practices. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 9(1), 25-48.
Scharmann, L. C., (1989). Developmental influences of science process skill instruction. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 26(8), 715-726.
Settlage, J., & Southerland, S. A. (2007). Teaching science to every child: Using culture as a starting point. New York: Taylor & Francis.
Song, J. & Black, P. J. (1992). The effects of concept requirements and task contexts on pupils' performance in control of variables. International Journal of Science Education, 14(1) , 83-93.
Virginia Department of Education. (Spring, 2007). Virginia Standards of Learning Test Form S0117, Core 1. Released Test, Grades 3 & 5, Science.
Zembal-Saul, C., Boardman, L.A., Severs, M. & Dana, T. (1999, March). Web-based portfolios: A vehicle for examining preservice primary teachers’ emerging ideas about teaching science. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Association for Research on Science Teaching (NARST), Boston, MA.
Zembal-Saul, C. & Oliver, M. (1998, January). Meeting the science content needs of prospective primary teachers: An innovative biology laboratory/recitation course. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for the Education of Teachers of Science (AETS), Minneapolis, MN.

How to cite this article

APA

Chabalengula, V. M., Mumba, F., & Mbewe, S. (2012). How Pre-service Teachers’ Understand and Perform Science Process Skills. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 8(3), 167-176. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2012.832a

Vancouver

Chabalengula VM, Mumba F, Mbewe S. How Pre-service Teachers’ Understand and Perform Science Process Skills. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2012;8(3):167-76. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2012.832a

AMA

Chabalengula VM, Mumba F, Mbewe S. How Pre-service Teachers’ Understand and Perform Science Process Skills. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2012;8(3), 167-176. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2012.832a

Chicago

Chabalengula, Vivien Mweene, Frackson Mumba, and Simeon Mbewe. "How Pre-service Teachers’ Understand and Perform Science Process Skills". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2012 8 no. 3 (2012): 167-176. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2012.832a

Harvard

Chabalengula, V. M., Mumba, F., and Mbewe, S. (2012). How Pre-service Teachers’ Understand and Perform Science Process Skills. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 8(3), pp. 167-176. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2012.832a

MLA

Chabalengula, Vivien Mweene et al. "How Pre-service Teachers’ Understand and Perform Science Process Skills". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 8, no. 3, 2012, pp. 167-176. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2012.832a