Abstract
Over the past several decades, policymakers, researchers, and practitioners have placed an emphasis on inquiry-based science and mathematics instruction in elementary school. While inquiry-based science and mathematics instruction can support student learning and engagement, teacher preparation programmes have experienced challenges in preparing elementary teachers to use and maintain inquiry-based teaching practices. In this study, we describe how one teacher preparation programme in Canada partnered with a local elementary school to design a novel initiative that provided elementary preservice teachers with authentic opportunities to employ inquiry-based instructional practices for science and mathematics. Using a thematic approach, we explored 46 elementary preservice teachers’ beliefs, emotions, and feelings about the initiative and its impact on their future careers as teachers. We found preservice teachers were enthusiastic about the initiative and believed it had a positive impact on their future as teachers. The findings suggest implications for programmatic design in elementary teacher preparation programmes.
Résumé
Au cours des dernières décennies, les responsables des orientations politiques, les chercheurs et les praticiens ont mis l’accent sur un enseignement des sciences et des mathématiques fondé sur l’enquête à l’école élémentaire. Bien que cet enseignement puisse favoriser l’apprentissage et l’engagement des élèves, les programmes de formation des enseignants n’ont pas toujours su bien préparer les enseignants du primaire à utiliser et à garder des pratiques d’enseignement fondées sur l’enquête. Dans cette étude, nous décrivons comment l’association d’un programme canadien de formation des enseignants à une école primaire locale a permis la conception d’une initiative novatrice qui a donné aux enseignants en formation initiale des occasions réelles d’utiliser des pratiques d’enseignement fondées sur l’enquête en ce qui a trait aux sciences et aux mathématiques. À l’aide d’une approche thématique, nous avons sondé les croyances, les émotions et les sentiments de 46 enseignants en formation initiale au sujet de la démarche et de son impact sur leur future carrière d’enseignant. Nous avons constaté que les enseignants en formation initiale étaient enthousiastes à l’égard de l’initiative et qu’ils percevaient un effet positif sur leur avenir en tant qu’enseignants.
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Notes
All school names and student names are pseudonyms.
In the science education course, preservice teachers were placed in groups of two to three, and they implemented their lessons with smaller groups of elementary learners. In the mathematics education course, preservice teachers were placed in larger groups (e.g. 10), and they implemented their plans with the whole class of elementary students. In mathematics education, the preservice teachers subdivided their groups into smaller groups and created stations with two to three preservice teachers at each station. Therefore, preservice teachers worked in small groups for both the mathematics and science lessons.
Data were gathered for 46 of the 48 preservice teachers for the reflection assignment.
Although we referred to this experience as “STEM Day” for preservice teachers, we did not present STEM as an integrated concept for the purposes of this initiative. Therefore, in this paper, we replace “STEM Day” with “Science/Math Exploration Day” for consistency.
We replace students’ use of “STEM Day” with “Science/Math Exploration Day” to maintain consistency in the paper.
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This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada under Grant 892-2021-3015.
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Campbell, T., Singh, D., Hillier, C. et al. Preparing Elementary Preservice Teachers for Inquiry-Based Science and Mathematics Instruction Through a Novel Initiative. Can. J. Sci. Math. Techn. Educ. 23, 703–719 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42330-023-00303-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42330-023-00303-z