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Journal of STEM Teacher Education

Abstract

Although studies have examined teachers’ science process skills, little is known about the extent to which in-service elementary teachers are familiar with science process skills and are interested in learning more about science process skills. Therefore, the purposes of this research study were to determine (a) in-service elementary teachers’ familiarity with, interest in, conceptual knowledge of, and performance on science process skills and (b) how in-service elementary teachers’ familiarity with, interest in, conceptual knowledge of, and performance on science process skills relate to each other. Forty-eight elementary teachers in 21 schools in the United States participated in this study. Data were collected using the Familiarity With Science Process Skills Questionnaire, the Conceptual Knowledge of Science Process Skills Test, the Science Process Skills Performance Test, and the Interest in Science Process Skills Survey. Results indicate that most teachers expressed high levels of familiarity with science process skills. Teachers performed well on the Science Process Skills Performance Test. In contrast, teachers demonstrated low conceptual knowledge of the science process skills. However, teachers expressed high levels of interest in learning more about science process skills. Specifically, teachers showed a significantly higher interest in learning more about the integrated process skills than the basic process skills. Correlations among familiarity, conceptual knowledge, performance, and interest were only significant between familiarity and interest. These findings have implications for science teaching, learning, and teacher education.

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