Kindergarten Teachers’ Beliefs and Experiences in Science Education = Kindergarten Teachers’ Beliefs and Experiences in Science Education

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study investigates kindergarten teachers’ beliefs and their learning experiences in science education through qualitative case study. This research addresses these topics by exploring two key questions: First, what are a sample of kindergarten teachers’ learning experiences as students? Second, how do these kindergarten teachers’ learning experiences affect their beliefs toward teaching science? The qualitative data was obtained through formal and informal interviews with four kindergarten teachers from a public elementary school in Texas, US. In addition, observations of the science lessons were also conducted. Based on the data, this study found a relationship between the teachers’ beliefs and their learning experiences in science education. In other words, the participant teachers’ personal learning history and past schooling experiences along with more recent experiences influence their beliefs about teaching and learning science. For instance, the participant teachers recalled their negative experiences with traditional school science lectures and their desire to teach differently in their science lessons. In this study, due to the participant teachers’ science learning experiences as students, they ranked highly the value of students’ interest in science, and that value influenced the way they taught science. The teachers’ experiences as students encouraged their beliefs that science lessons for young children should be interesting.