Science Content Profundity among Pre-Service Teachers at Secondary Level

Indian Journal of Natural Sciences www.tnsroindia.org.in ©IJONS
Vol.14 / Issue 79 / Aug / 2023 International Bimonthly (Print) – Open Access ISSN: 0976 – 0997
58765
Yashoda
Science Content Profundity among Pre-Service Teachers at Secondary
Level
P.Ponnusamy1*, G.Ponselvakumar2 , M.Deivam3 and R.Kingston2
1Assistant Professor, Department of Education, Gandhigram Rural Institute (Deemed to be University),
Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, India.
2Guest Faculty, Department of Education, Gandhigram Rural Institute (Deemed to be University),
3Assistant Professor (Contract Basis), Department of Education, Gandhigram Rural Institute (Deemed to
be University), Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, India.
Received: 23 Dec 2022 Revised: 10 June 2023 Accepted: 18 July 2023
*Address for Correspondence
P.Ponnusamy
Assistant Professor,
Department of Education,
Gandhigram Rural Institute (Deemed to be University),
E.Mail: p.ponnusamy@ruraluniv.ac.in
This is an Open Access Journal / article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License
(CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original work is properly cited. All rights reserved.
The role of teachers in the educational system is essential for passing on knowledge to the next
generation in any nation. All teachers must be experts in their fields since teaching ability and subject
matter knowledge are interrelated and both greatly contribute to the academic success of pupils in the
classroom. In this situation, a study was conducted to determine whether or not the potential teachers
have sufficient knowledge of the science discipline. A sample of 120 secondary level pre-service teachers
was randomly chosen for this study from teacher education colleges in the Tamil Nadu districts of
Dindigul and Madurai. The study's key finding indicates that the majority of pre-service teachers had
moderate level science content knowledge and that there was a significant difference between pre-
service teachers who were male and female in terms of their knowledge of science.
Keywords: Content knowledge, Pre-service teachers, Science subject areas, Secondary level teacher
education programme.
ABSTRACT
RESEARCH ARTICLE

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INTRODUCTION
According to Nelson Mandela, the most effective tool we have to transform the world is education. Because
education will determine the destiny of humanity, it is crucial to maintain its quality. Teachers are crucial in
influencing student success along with the curriculum, and both have an impact on the standard of formal education.
The pre-service phase is one that affects the calibre of instructors. Prospective teachers acquire knowledge, opinions,
and values throughout the pre-service time that they will use in their future careers (1,2). Science teachers-to-be must
learn fundamental scientific principles and teach them to students. Owning a strong command of the subject matter
is essential for aspiring teachers, along with pedagogical expertise (3). We must determine the crucial topic
information required for teaching, how that knowledge must be understood, and how that knowledge is really
acquired in the classroom while preparing pre-service teachers (4).
Teachers' expertise and competence in the classroom have an impact on students' learning (5). As a result, in order to
handle the issues that arise in the classroom, instructors need to have a solid foundation of professional knowledge
that is continually updated (6). To comprehend and address societal problems, society must be scientifically literate.
This suggests that people need to be educated and develop a scientific basis. Science educators play a crucial role in
educating the public about how the world functions. According to AlSultan et al. (2018), pre-service instructors have
low self-efficacy views when they first start teaching (7). Science education became predominantly teacher-centered,
with limited opportunity for students' originality and curiosity, as a result of instructors' lack of mastery of the
science material. Ineffective scientific instruction and, ultimately, poor student science performance can result from
teachers' inadequate science content knowledge (8). Therefore, it is crucial to assess how well-versed in science the
potential instructors are in order to guarantee the future quality of the educational system.
NEED AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, profundity refers to the quality of demonstrating a clear and in-depth
comprehension of significant issues; as a result, profundity in content refers to a profound understanding of the
subject matter that the teachers were going to cover in the classroom. Teachers' success in the classroom may be
impacted by their unique perspectives of their skills and aptitudes. Many factors, such as training, preparation, and
higher education studies before starting to teach in a classroom, might affect a teacher's self-efficacy. However, both
science knowledge and teacher efficacy in primary schools are notoriously low (7). To help students create helpful
cognitive maps, connect ideas, and clear up misconceptions, teachers must have a comprehensive and flexible
mastery of the subject matter. Teachers need to understand how concepts relate to one another across disciplines and
to daily life.
Al Sultan, Henson, and Fadde (9), contend that instructors with high levels of scientific literacy and understanding
will also have high levels of self-efficacy because they will be appropriately schooled in science subject and science
teaching methods (7). The primary entry point into higher education and the workforce is through the school system.
The best place to successfully prepare the next generation of citizens for the development of the country is in the
classroom. The foundation for a person's future development is laid in school, so it is crucial to guarantee that
teaching and learning are of the highest calibre. The depth of the teachers' subject matter is one of several variables
that affect the quality of teaching and learning. Ladipo (10), one of the important causes of pupils' inadequate
performance in their public exams, attributes this to the calibre of the teachers (11). The type of training instructors
receive, as well as the depth of the material they are expected to teach, determines the quality of their instruction.
The depth of the teacher's subject matter determines how science teachers interpret a lesson's objectives. The depth of
the teacher's subject-matter knowledge affects how they respond to student inquiries and how easily they can
connect with them, which helps students develop scientific attitudes and a scientific temperament. Therefore, the
depth of the prospective teacher's science topic understanding is crucial for both their professional and academic
success. With this background, this study was undertaken to investigate the science content profundity of
prospective teachers at secondary level.
Ponnusamy et al.,

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OBJECTIVES OF STUDY
 To study the science content profundity level of pre-service teachers at secondary teacher education programme;
 To know whether there is any significant difference between science content profundity of male and female pre-
service teachers; and
 To know whether there is any significant difference between science content profundity of male and female pre-
service teachers with reference to subject content areas- Physics, Chemistry and Biology.
METHODOLOGY
Research Design
The descriptive survey research design was used in the study to know the secondary level science content profundity
among the pre-service teachers. The content topics from classes VI, VII, VIII, IX and X in Physics, Chemistry and
Biology were included in the Science Content Knowledge Test and was administered to the pre-service teachers to
examine their content profundity level.
Study Sample
A sample of 120 pre-service teachers from the secondary level teacher education programme was selected randomly
from six teacher education colleges located in the Dindigul and Madurai districts of Tamil Nadu, India. Among the
selected 120 pre-service teachers, there were 52 male and 68 female pre-service teachers.
Instrument
The Science Content Knowledge Test in science subject portions of the classes - VI, VII, VIII, IX and X textbooks was
prepared following with all the standardizations norms properly and same was administered to the selected sample
to collect the necessary data for investigation. The Science content knowledge test is divided into three sections:
Physics, Chemistry, and Biology, each with 50 multiple choice questions in each of these subject content areas. The
right response of the pre-service teachers in the achievement test was assigned a score of one mark, and the wrong
response had been assigned a score of zero mark. As a result, the Science content knowledge test has 150 questions in
total, with a maximum score of 150. The findings are summarised as below.
RESULTS
Analysis on Science Content Knowledge Test Scores of Pre-Service Teachers
The collected data scores from the pres-service teachers at secondary level to know about their science content
profundity were analysed and their obtained mean and standard deviation scores in Physics, Chemistry, Biology and
in total were summarized as follows. The table-1 data shows that the mean scores of pre-service teachers at
secondary level in Physics, Chemistry, Biology and in total are 35.88, 32.80, 32.48 and 101.16 respectively. This
indicates that the pre-service teachers were having better knowledge in Physics subject when compare it with
Chemistry and Biology. Further, their content knowledge levels were categorized based on their mean and SD scores
which furnished as follows.
Analysis on Science Content Knowledge Levels of Pre-Service Teachers
The results furnished in table -2 refers that 11.67% of pre-service teachers had low level of content knowledge in
Physics; 80% of pre-service teachers had moderate level of content knowledge in Physics; 8.33% of pre-service
teachers had good level of content knowledge in Physics. Similarly, 33.33% of pre-service teachers had low level of
content knowledge in Chemistry; 38.33% of pre-service teachers had moderate level of content knowledge in
Chemistry; 28.33% of pre-service teachers had good level of content knowledge in Chemistry. Then, 30.83% of pre-
service teachers had low level of content knowledge in Biology; 45% of pre-service teachers had moderate level of
content knowledge in Biology; 24.17% of pre-service teachers had good level of content knowledge in Biology.
Further, 15.83% of pre-service teachers had low level of content knowledge in total Science ; 70.83% of pre-service
Ponnusamy et al.,

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teachers had moderate level of content knowledge in total Science; 13.33% of pre-service teachers had good level of
content knowledge in total Science. Therefore, it is found that majority of the pre-service teachers at secondary teacher
education programme had moderate level of science content knowledge. The following table -3 describes the gender wise
comparison of mean scores of pre-service teachers in science content knowledge test.
Comparison of Science Content Knowledge of Pre-Service Teachers: Gender wise and Subject Area wise Analysis
The table -3 data describes that mean scores of male and female pre-service teachers in Physics content area are 37.21
and 34.85; 32.69 and 32.88 in Chemistry content area; 33.27 and 31.88 in Biology content area respectively. In general,
the male and female pre-service teachers obtained the mean scores 103.17 and 99.62 respectively in science content
knowledge test. In means that the male pre-service teachers' science content knowledge was better than that of
female pre-service teachers. The gender wise data analysis shows that there was a significant difference between the
science content knowledge of male and female pre-service teachers (t =1.987 and p =0.06 > 0.05) . Also, the
comparison on subject content area wise and gender wise indicate that there was a significant difference between the
content knowledge of male and female pre-service teachers in Physics contents but not in Chemistry and Biology as
well (In Physics, t =3.79 and p =0.00 > 0.05; Chemistry , t =0.17 and p =0.87 < 0.05; Biology t =1.22 and p =0.23 < 0.05) .
CONCLUSION
Main findings of the present study reveal that most of the pre-service teachers at secondary level teacher education
programme had moderate level of science content knowledge. Science and mathematics subjects are important
subjects to the students at school education system and therefore contents of these subjects should be taught among
the students carefully by the teachers and often they have to verify whether the transmission of the content
knowledge properly reached to the student end or not. Prior to this, the teachers of these subjects must have
adequate teaching competence and mastery in subjects as well. Teachers always be conscious on improving
themselves through reading their subject related books and the online resources.
CONFLICTS AND INTEREST
None.
REFERENCES
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Table-1 Subject wise Mean and Standard Deviation (SD) Scores of Sample in Science Content Knowledge Test
Subject Mean SD
Physics 35.88 3.86
Chemistry 32.80 6.21
Biology 32.48 6.15
In Total 101.16 9.80
Table-2 Science Content Knowledge Level
Content Knowledge
Level of Sample in %
Low Moderate Good
Physics 11.67 80.00 8.33
Chemistry 33.33 38.33 28.33
Biology 30.83 45.00 24.17
In Total 15.83 70.83 13.33
Table-3 Mean, SD Scores of Male and Female Pre-Service Teachers in Science Content Knowledge Test
Subject Gender N Mean SD t p
Physics
Male 52 37.21 2.08
3.79 0.00
Female 68 34.85 4.55
Chemistry
Male 52 32.69 6.21
0.17 0.87
Female 68 32.88 6.25
Biology
Male 52 33.27 6.28
1.22 0.23
Female 68 31.88 6.03
In Total
Male 52 103.17 9.99
1.987 0.06
Female 68 99.62 9.43
Ponnusamy et al.,

Science Content Profundity among Pre-Service Teachers at Secondary Level

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