Abstract

The present case study examined pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards 6 courses taught in 3^rd till 6^th semesters at the Lebanese University, the Faculty of Education, during the academic year 2016-2017. They also assessed science teaching courses that are essential for preparing future teachers to teach science to primary and elementary pupils. These courses were: Action Research I and II in Teaching Science, New trends in Teaching Science, Teaching Science I and II. All of those courses are taken by pre-service teachers majoring in elementary science education, and Teaching Science for Early Childhood Education, recently referred to as primary education. Qualitative and Quantitative Data were gathered from a) a survey questionnaire consisting of 16 items; some were of Likert scale type that aimed at collecting students’ opinions on courses, in terms of teaching, assessment and class environment. The sample consisted of 67 pre-service teachers, who filled 105 questionnaires and b) pre-service science and mathematics teachers’ reflections (N=35) in their last semester in Science and Mathematics, in order to know more about their opinions of teaching science courses for teacher preparation at the Faculty of Education, their skills gained and for improving the present curriculum of science education. Pre-service teachers were satisfied with science teaching courses and they have admitted that they gained a good pedagogical content knowledge, such as, lesson planning, use of various teaching and assessment strategies, and how to do action research in a science class.