Undergraduate research experience for future science teachers: A first effort

Conclusion

As a means of providing some insights into the research activity for future science teachers, the project was a qualified success. Throughout its inception and implementation there remained an uneasy compromise between conducting a piece of worthwhile research and providing the maximum possible range of experiences for the students undertaking the subject. The experience undoubtedly was valuable for the students, it provided them with insights which served as the bases for developing individual research proposals, for the evaluation of a curriculum change in a secondary school. In general, through, the scope of the project was too ambitious for the time that was available and this led to a feeling of frustration, if not in the students, certainly in the authors.

The investigation itself suffered from obvious limitations which have been discussed above. However, the gains observed in favour of the class using SCIS materials are congruent with those identified by a four-year longitudinal study conducted by Renner et al. (1973) and suggest that a more rigorous investigation is warranted. It may be possible to engage our under-graduate students in a longitudinal study of the effectiveness of SCIS by involving different groups at different stages of the project. We believe that the first attempt has shown that it is a worthwhile component of pre-service teacher education.