Pre-Service Science Teachers’ Experiences of an Expert-Guided Online Education Project

Abstract

There exist different approaches and models in teacher training. Among them, the constructivist approach is widely preferred in many countries. The constructivist approach is commonly embraced for its role in helping educators nurture students who actively investigate, inquire, and exhibit curiosity about the world. In recent years, incidents such as pandemic and natural disasters seriously affect normal life and have led to educational environments becoming online. Thus, the need to adapt constructivist learning approaches to online environments emerged. In line with this need, an online education project was organized to enable pre-service science teachers to gain knowledge, experience and awareness about how constructivist learning approaches can be integrated into distance education environments. This research aimed to reveal the experiences of pre-service science teachers (PSST) regarding the online education project. The research adopted the phenomenology design. Data were collected from 19 PSSTs through semi-structured focus group interviews. The PSSTs’ experiences fell in the following six themes: the perceptions of the teaching profession, the use of constructivist approach in distance education, lesson planning competencies in distance education, technological/pedagogical competencies, (Limited) contribution to subject knowledge and professional and academic career goals. The research findings offer valuable insight regarding the advantages of education project focused on enhancing the lesson planning skills of pre-service science teachers in line with the constructivist approach within distance learning settings. Based on the results, suggestions were made that could shed light on similar educational projects for teachers and teacher candidates from other fields.