Investigating Science Misconceptions of Pre-service Early Childhood Education teachers at the Lebanese University, Faculty of Education

Abstract

Teacher preparation programs aim mainly to develop both pedagogical and content knowledge of pre-service teachers. Graduate teachers should master all concepts and approaches related to their teaching field. In the Lebanese context Early Childhood Education (ECE) graduates should be able to teach languages, science and math from Kindergarten to grade 3 (K-3). As science educators at the Lebanese University, Faculty of Education, the researchers noticed that ECE pre-service teachers lack mastery in basic scientific concepts. This research aims to identify science misconceptions, compare ECE pre-service science teachers’ conceptions over the three years, and propose new strategies and techniques to overcome any misconceptions. For this purpose 150 pre-service ECE teachers distributed over the three year of the ECE preparation program completed an open ended questionnaire to merge their conceptions. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data collected was performed. Results show that pre-service ECE teachers hold major scientific misconceptions over the three years in all science related areas.