Prospective teachers’ opinion about the content of modern basic education in the science context
2017
Cedere, D., University of Latvia, Riga (Latvia) | Jurgena, I., Riga Teacher Training and Educational Management Academy (Latvia) | Kalnina, S., University of Latvia, Riga (Latvia)
The development of society is closely connected with science and technology education; however, many international and national studies reveal the contradiction between the increasing societal needs and the insufficient quality of education in this field. The science knowledge acquired at school often is formal; it is not based on understanding and students learn without interest. The study is focused on the following theses: modern society needs scientific literacy; learning without interest is unproductive; all subject teachers must give support to education of science literate young people. The aim of the study is to find out the attitude of prospective teachers to science and their opinion about what knowledge and skills in science correspond to interests and needs of Grade 9 students nowadays. Students from two higher education institutions have been surveyed; the questionnaire included both closed and open questions. The 4 point Likert scale is used in closed questions. The participants of the study are prospective teachers who are not connected with teaching science subjects. The survey was organized on-line. SPSS program have been used for data processing. The findings show that on the whole prospective teachers’ value highly the importance of science education; besides there is no statistically significant difference between the prospective teachers representing different specialities. Respondents’ opinion on some of the science acquisition issues differs depending on their different work and life experience. Unequivocally cognitive interest has been recognized as the learning motive as well as the teacher’s role in the promotion of the interest. The study gave a possibility to attract the attention of future teachers to the importance of science education. The obtained results will be further applied in teacher education in higher education institutions.
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