A case study of specialized science courses in teacher education and their impact on classroom teaching

Specialized science courses (SSCs) integrate content knowledge (CK) with pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and prepare pre-service teachers (PSTs) for reform-oriented teaching. Studies of individual SSCs report positive short-term outcomes, including an increase in self-efficacy and CK. However, few studies explore the longer-term impact of SSCs on classroom teaching. We carried out an exploratory case study of three PSTs from a Norwegian teacher education program that included SSCs. In the context of their field practicum, we compared PSTs’ teaching of topics taught in SSCs (aligned lessons) with topics not taught in SSCs (unaligned lessons). Data collection consisted of field observations of one aligned and one unaligned lesson as well as stimulated recall interviews based on video recordings. In our analyses, we compared PSTs use of instructional strategies in aligned and unaligned lessons and how their knowledge for teaching 20 informed these instructional decisions. We found that SSCs supported PSTs in using more topic-specific instructional strategies when teaching aligned lessons. In the aligned lessons, their teaching was better informed by knowledge of students’ understandings in science. We also examined PSTs’ perceptions of how they drew upon SSCs in their classroom teaching. They reported that SSCs had a major impact on their CK, PCK and self-efficacy for science teaching. Through this study, we provide unique insights into how PSTs draw on SSCs in their classroom teaching. We include implications for further research and the design of SSCs