The implementation of early science education in preschool teachers’ initial teacher education. A survey of teacher educators about their aims, practices and challenges in teaching science

ABSTRACT Initial teacher education is the main opportunity to prepare pre-service preschool teachers to foster young children’s science competences. Although initial teacher education is important for preschool teachers’ later instruction in practice, little is known about early science education in initial teacher education. To gather first insights into initial teacher education, this study explored the lesson aims, the frequency of different content taught and teaching methods used, and lessons preparation sources of 72 German teacher educators. In addition, teacher educators reported their challenges regarding their teaching of early science education. Data was gathered by using self-reports. Results revealed that the key lesson aims of teacher educators involved refer to the promotion of pre-service preschool teachers’ motivation and the preparation of the students for implementing science learning experiences in preschools. The teacher educators also reported challenges they faced teaching early science education, which included the students, general conditions, the actual teaching of early science education and teacher educators’ own qualifications. With regard to the teaching practices, we found a high variance in the content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge taught. Implications for policymakers, professional development providers and initial teacher education institutions are discussed.