Making initial teacher education meaningful: Pre-service science teachers' development for effective teaching

Every aspect of teachers? practice is not only affected by the teaching strategies they use in the classroom, but also their beliefs and attitudes. This exploratory study was aimed at exploring the development of pre-service beliefs about effective science teaching, and how the learning environment influences their teaching and learning as they transition from pre-service teachers in preparation for becoming professional teachers. A convenience sample of pre-service teachers enrolled for a 4-year teacher education programme at a University of Technology participated in the study. Data gathering instruments including the Teacher Beliefs about Effective Science Teaching (TBEST) questionnaire and Constructivist Learning Environment (CLES) survey were administered to participants. TBEST is an instrument that aligns teachers? views about science teaching and learning with their measure of self-efficacy, their attitudes towards science, their beliefs about science teaching environment and the nature of science. CLES was used to assess the degree to which the classroom climate is conducive to students connecting science subject matter to their prior knowledge. The findings revealed that an effort is required to support, enhance and improve the teaching and learning of science pre and post teacher training. This will help to establish the relationship between the participants? beliefs about learning as pre-service teachers and actual teaching practice. It is important to note that teachers? attitudes and beliefs about teaching and learning are critical, as these might inform and influence the type of teachers they will become. This has implications on teacher education efforts to improve science teaching and learning, involving professional development to deepen teacher content and pedagogical content knowledge, in the belief that enhancing teacher knowledge will lead to improved classroom practice.