Exploring the Relationships between Scientific Epistemic Beliefs, Science Teaching Beliefs and Science-Specific PCK among Pre-Service Kindergarten Teachers in China. Issue 1 (2nd January 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wu, Dandan; Liao, Ting; Yang, Weipeng; Li, Hui
• Is Part Of: Early education and development. Volume 32:Issue 1(2021)
• Page Start: 82
• Page End: 97
• Publication Date: 2021-01-02
• Subjects: Child development -- United States -- Periodicals; Child psychology -- United States -- Periodicals; Education, Preschool -- United States -- Periodicals; Early childhood education -- United States -- Periodicals; 372.21097305
• DOI: 10.1080/10409289.2020.1771971
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1040-9289

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Research Findings: This study aims to explore the relationships between Scientific Epistemic Beliefs (SEB), Science Teaching Beliefs (STB) and Science-specific Pedagogical Content Knowledge (Science-PCK) in preservice kindergarten teachers from China. Altogether 987 preservice teachers were randomly sampled from a teacher education institution and were invited to complete Scientific Epistemic Beliefs Scale, Teachers' Science Teaching Beliefs scale, and Science-PCK scale. Their personal information (such as age, gender and family income) was collected, and their work-orientated interest and anxiety were also surveyed. CFA and path analysis generated a model with excellent fit, CFI =.946, TLI =.886, NFI =.923, RMSEA =.045, X 2 = 29.864, df = 10, p <.001. This model indicated that: (1) SEB strongly predicted STB and Science-PCK; (2) Science teaching anxiety partially mediated the association between SEB and STB; (3) STB partially mediated the association between SEB and Science-PCK; and (4) STB was a full mediator between Year/SES/Interest and Science-PCK. Practice or Policy : ECE teacher education program should be improved to pay more attention to SEB and STB training and to cater to individual differences in terms of Anxiety and SES backgrounds.