Elementary Teacher Candidates’ Experiences with and Ideas About Digital Science Notebooks

This study explored the use of digital notebooks in an elementary science methods course to encourage teacher candidates (TCs) to think critically about and reflect on important aspects of elementary science teaching. Framed within John Dewey’s experiential education and the application of this work to science education, we examined how TCs experienced digital science notebooks and the ways in which TCs plan to use them in their future classrooms. Data sources from two course sections included pre- and post-surveys and focus group interviews and were analyzed qualitatively. Findings suggest TCs’ engagement in digital notebooks as an inquiry experience and the investigative tasks therein supported organization of thoughts and reflection, taking multiple perspectives, and resulted in different levels of confidence in using digital notebooks, particularly regarding technology. Teacher candidates valued digital notebooks for use with students, noting the recording of observations and scientific explanations, differentiation and multimodal strategies, accessibility/shareability, and creativity. Concerns about digital notebooks included technology difficulties, technology access, and appropriate usage for elementary students. This study provides critical insights into how TCs perceive digital notebooks, an online tool that can be used to support active inquiry experiences in science, as students and as teachers.