Confidence in science among pre-service primary teachers: Pedagogical implications

Abstract

The way in which science and technology are shown and perceived by society—and by teachers in training—can influence attitudes that emerge towards science and technology subjects in the classroom. This study examines attitudes, primarily confidence, towards science and technology in general, and considers how this would influence attitudes towards science subjects. To do so, we administered a survey on perceptions of science and technology to a sample of 452 prospective primary school teachers and performed a descriptive and multivariate analysis of the data. The results show that pre-service teachers have less interest in science, are less informed, and show less confidence than their age cohort. This should encourage institutions to reflect on their selection and hiring processes for teaching careers. It seems that recruiting future teachers with a spontaneous interest, trust in scientific matters and a greater level of basic scientific knowledge would provide a sample of teachers closer to the different attitudes to science that exist in society. The findings also suggest that knowledge about social perception of science impacts the classroom. Therefore, it should be included in the training of future teachers and be a component of pedagogical content knowledge.