Preservice Elementary School Teachers’ Understandings of Theory Based Science Education

Authors

Edmund A. Marek, University of Oklahoma
Timothy A. Laubach, University of Oklahoma
Jon Pedersen, University of OklahomaFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2003

Comments

Published in Journal of Science Teacher Education 14:3 (2003), pp. 147-159. Copyright © 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Used by permission.

Abstract

Undergirding the science education program examined in this study is a theoretical foundation based upon four cornerstones that reflect scientific inquiry. These four cornerstones are best represented by four key questions: (a) What is science; (b) What are the goals or standards for elementary school science education; (c) What theory describes how elementary school children construct knowledge; and (d) What teaching approach represents the discipline of science, achieves the goals of elementary school science education and accommodates to how children construct knowledge? The learning cycle (Barman & Kotar, 1989; Bentley, Ebert,& Ebert II, 2000; Lawson, Abraham, & Renner, 1989; Marek & Cavallo, 1997) is an inquiry based teaching approach and is the mortar that cements our theory base for science education (Renner & Marek, 1990).