Professional knowledge and self-efficacy expectations of pre-service teachers regarding scientific reasoning and diagnostics

Abstract

Understanding and knowledge of scientific reasoning skills is a key ability of pre-service teachers. In a written survey (open response format), biology and chemistry pre-service teachers (n = 51) from two German universities claimed central decisions or actions school students have to perform in scientific reasoning in the open inquiry instruction of an experiment. The participants’ answers were assessed in a quality content analysis using a rubric system generated from a theoretical background. Instruments in a closed response format were used to measure attitudes towards the importance of diagnostics in teacher training and the domain-specific expectations of self-efficacy. The pre-service teacher lacked pedagogical (didactics) content knowledge about potential student difficulties and also exhibited a low level of content methodological (procedural) knowledge. There was no correlation between the knowledge of student difficulties and the approach to experiment-ing with expectations of self-efficacy for diagnosing student abilities regarding scientific reasoning. Self-efficacy expectations concerning their own abilities to successfully cope with general and experimental diagnostic activities were significantly lower than the attitude towards the importance of diagnostics in teacher training. The results are discussed with regard to practical implications as they imply that scientific reasoning should be promoted in university courses, emphasising the importance of understanding the science-specific procedures (knowing how) and epistemic constructs in scientific reasoning (knowing why). © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Keywords

Author Keywords

self-efficacy Professional knowledge Diagnostic competencies Scientific reasoning skills Students’ difficulties

Index Keywords

Author Affiliations

Institute for Educational Research in Natural Sciences, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Niedersachsen, Germany

Biology Education, Universität Kassel, Kassel, Hessen, Germany

Funding & Acknowledgements

Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF

Grant: 01JA1909

Funding text 1: Funding: This research was funded by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (Federal Ministry of Education and Research), at the Technische Universität Braunschweig in the project Diagonal-NaWi, grant number: 01JA1909 and at the Universität Kassel in the project PRONET2, grant number: 01JA1805. Both projects are part of the “Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung”, a joint initiative of the Federal Government and the Länder which aims to improve the quality of teacher training. The authors are responsible for the content of this publication. Funding of APC: The authors acknowledge support by the Open Access Publication Funds of Technische Universität Braunschweig.; Funding text 2: This research was funded by the Bundesministerium f?r Bildung und Forschung (Federal Ministry of Education and Research), at the Technische Universit?t Braunschweig in the project Diagonal-NaWi, grant number: 01JA1909 and at the Universit?t Kassel in the project PRONET2, grant number: 01JA1805. Both projects are part of the ?Qualit?tsoffensive Lehrerbildung?, a joint initiative of the Federal Government and the L?nder which aims to improve the quality of teacher training. The authors are responsible for the content of this publication. Funding of APC: The authors acknowledge support by the Open Access Publication Funds of Technische Universit?t Braunschweig.Acknowledgments: We would like to thank Femke Sander for her support in rating as well all pre-service teachers who participated in the study. We also thank Di Fuccia (University of Kassel) for his support in recruiting pre-service teachers with chemistry as a subject. We thank the academic editors, and two anonymous reviewers whose recommendations substantially improved the quality of the article.

Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF

Funding text 1: Funding: This research was funded by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (Federal Ministry of Education and Research), at the Technische Universität Braunschweig in the project Diagonal-NaWi, grant number: 01JA1909 and at the Universität Kassel in the project PRONET2, grant number: 01JA1805. Both projects are part of the “Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung”, a joint initiative of the Federal Government and the Länder which aims to improve the quality of teacher training. The authors are responsible for the content of this publication. Funding of APC: The authors acknowledge support by the Open Access Publication Funds of Technische Universität Braunschweig.; Funding text 2: This research was funded by the Bundesministerium f?r Bildung und Forschung (Federal Ministry of Education and Research), at the Technische Universit?t Braunschweig in the project Diagonal-NaWi, grant number: 01JA1909 and at the Universit?t Kassel in the project PRONET2, grant number: 01JA1805. Both projects are part of the ?Qualit?tsoffensive Lehrerbildung?, a joint initiative of the Federal Government and the L?nder which aims to improve the quality of teacher training. The authors are responsible for the content of this publication. Funding of APC: The authors acknowledge support by the Open Access Publication Funds of Technische Universit?t Braunschweig.Acknowledgments: We would like to thank Femke Sander for her support in rating as well all pre-service teachers who participated in the study. We also thank Di Fuccia (University of Kassel) for his support in recruiting pre-service teachers with chemistry as a subject. We thank the academic editors, and two anonymous reviewers whose recommendations substantially improved the quality of the article.

Technische Universität Braunschweig

Funding text 1: Funding: This research was funded by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (Federal Ministry of Education and Research), at the Technische Universität Braunschweig in the project Diagonal-NaWi, grant number: 01JA1909 and at the Universität Kassel in the project PRONET2, grant number: 01JA1805. Both projects are part of the “Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung”, a joint initiative of the Federal Government and the Länder which aims to improve the quality of teacher training. The authors are responsible for the content of this publication. Funding of APC: The authors acknowledge support by the Open Access Publication Funds of Technische Universität Braunschweig.; Funding text 2: This research was funded by the Bundesministerium f?r Bildung und Forschung (Federal Ministry of Education and Research), at the Technische Universit?t Braunschweig in the project Diagonal-NaWi, grant number: 01JA1909 and at the Universit?t Kassel in the project PRONET2, grant number: 01JA1805. Both projects are part of the ?Qualit?tsoffensive Lehrerbildung?, a joint initiative of the Federal Government and the L?nder which aims to improve the quality of teacher training. The authors are responsible for the content of this publication. Funding of APC: The authors acknowledge support by the Open Access Publication Funds of Technische Universit?t Braunschweig.Acknowledgments: We would like to thank Femke Sander for her support in rating as well all pre-service teachers who participated in the study. We also thank Di Fuccia (University of Kassel) for his support in recruiting pre-service teachers with chemistry as a subject. We thank the academic editors, and two anonymous reviewers whose recommendations substantially improved the quality of the article.

Universität Kassel

Grant: 01JA1805

Funding text 1: Funding: This research was funded by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (Federal Ministry of Education and Research), at the Technische Universität Braunschweig in the project Diagonal-NaWi, grant number: 01JA1909 and at the Universität Kassel in the project PRONET2, grant number: 01JA1805. Both projects are part of the “Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung”, a joint initiative of the Federal Government and the Länder which aims to improve the quality of teacher training. The authors are responsible for the content of this publication. Funding of APC: The authors acknowledge support by the Open Access Publication Funds of Technische Universität Braunschweig.; Funding text 2: This research was funded by the Bundesministerium f?r Bildung und Forschung (Federal Ministry of Education and Research), at the Technische Universit?t Braunschweig in the project Diagonal-NaWi, grant number: 01JA1909 and at the Universit?t Kassel in the project PRONET2, grant number: 01JA1805. Both projects are part of the ?Qualit?tsoffensive Lehrerbildung?, a joint initiative of the Federal Government and the L?nder which aims to improve the quality of teacher training. The authors are responsible for the content of this publication. Funding of APC: The authors acknowledge support by the Open Access Publication Funds of Technische Universit?t Braunschweig.Acknowledgments: We would like to thank Femke Sander for her support in rating as well all pre-service teachers who participated in the study. We also thank Di Fuccia (University of Kassel) for his support in recruiting pre-service teachers with chemistry as a subject. We thank the academic editors, and two anonymous reviewers whose recommendations substantially improved the quality of the article.

Universität Kassel

Funding text 1: Funding: This research was funded by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (Federal Ministry of Education and Research), at the Technische Universität Braunschweig in the project Diagonal-NaWi, grant number: 01JA1909 and at the Universität Kassel in the project PRONET2, grant number: 01JA1805. Both projects are part of the “Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung”, a joint initiative of the Federal Government and the Länder which aims to improve the quality of teacher training. The authors are responsible for the content of this publication. Funding of APC: The authors acknowledge support by the Open Access Publication Funds of Technische Universität Braunschweig.; Funding text 2: This research was funded by the Bundesministerium f?r Bildung und Forschung (Federal Ministry of Education and Research), at the Technische Universit?t Braunschweig in the project Diagonal-NaWi, grant number: 01JA1909 and at the Universit?t Kassel in the project PRONET2, grant number: 01JA1805. Both projects are part of the ?Qualit?tsoffensive Lehrerbildung?, a joint initiative of the Federal Government and the L?nder which aims to improve the quality of teacher training. The authors are responsible for the content of this publication. Funding of APC: The authors acknowledge support by the Open Access Publication Funds of Technische Universit?t Braunschweig.Acknowledgments: We would like to thank Femke Sander for her support in rating as well all pre-service teachers who participated in the study. We also thank Di Fuccia (University of Kassel) for his support in recruiting pre-service teachers with chemistry as a subject. We thank the academic editors, and two anonymous reviewers whose recommendations substantially improved the quality of the article.

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Professional knowledge and self-efficacy expectations of pre-service teachers regarding scientific reasoning and diagnostics

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