Comparing Academic Performance of Elementary Education Majors in General Education Science Courses

Area of Science:

• Science education
• Teacher preparation programs

Background:

• Elementary teachers require robust content knowledge, particularly in science.
• Preservice elementary teachers often acquire science content knowledge through general education college courses.
• The efficacy of these general education courses for preservice elementary teachers is a key concern.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the academic performance of preservice elementary teachers in general education science courses.
• To compare their performance against students from other academic majors at the same institution.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 195,860 grades from six general education science courses over ten years.
• Utilized linear mixed modeling to predict course grades for different student majors.

Main Results:

• Preservice elementary teachers generally achieved grades comparable to students in most other majors.
• Performance was similar to STEM majors in Biology courses.
• Preservice elementary teachers scored lower than STEM majors in Physical Science courses.

Conclusions:

• General education science courses seem to adequately prepare most preservice elementary teachers.
• Institutions may consider enhancing physical science offerings for elementary education majors.
• Targeted improvements in physical science instruction could benefit future elementary science educators.