The impact on elementary (primary) teachers' self-efficacy and knowledge and utilisation of nature of science through participation in a reform-style professional development program.

Abstract

Significant barriers to the teaching of science at elementary school level include teachers’ confidence, their science subject matter knowledge and the technical complexity of resources necessary to demonstrate scientific concepts. Even experienced teachers with sound pedagogical skills in the mechanics of general classroom teaching can have low self-efficacy in science knowledge and teaching, impacting on their overall pedagogical content knowledge for science, a knowledge identified by Shulman (1986) as a critical element in the knowledge base of teaching.

A contributor to teacher’s pedagogical content knowledge for science is their understanding of the nature of science. This study outlines and reports on a pendulum-based reform-style professional development program conducted in elementary schools in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia that involved the modelling of a pedagogical approach to the teaching of tenets of the nature of science using the pendulum as the context.

The pendulum lessons developed for the program utilised simple, cheap and readily available materials. Pre- and post-test were conducted utilising the Self-Efficacy Teaching and Knowledge Instrument for Science Teachers (SETAKIST), Views on the Nature of Science (VNOS) Form (D) and a researcher-developed pendulum questionnaire. Two case studies are reported to provide examples of how teachers approached curriculum and teaching practice innovation as a result of participation in the reform-style professional development program.

The findings from and analysis of both the quantitative and qualitative phases employed in this study indicate that a reform-style professional development program, unlike a standard-model program, has a positive impact on both teachers’ knowledge and teaching efficacy. The study also provides evidence that conducting the professional development activities in situ of teachers’ classrooms has a positive impact on the incorporation of nature of science teaching and learning strategies during curriculum development and in classroom practice.