The reflections of differentiated science education for gifted students on prospective classroom teachers

Abstract

This study was designed to delve into the impact of differentiated science education for gifted students on prospective classroom teachers in terms of some variables. A concurrent embedded research design from mixed research methodologies was employed in this study. The participants were 69 sophomore students studying in the Department of Primary Education in the Faculty of Education in Amasya University during 2018-2019 academic year. The data collection instruments were the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Scale, the Academic Self-Efficacy Scale, the Competence Scale for Science Teaching, the Outdoor Science Activities Performing Scale, and a structured interview form. For the qualitative data, a deductive approach was employed, and themes and codes were used to show the findings. Based on the results, there is evidence to suggest that differentiated science education applications develop prospective teachers’ science teaching efficacy beliefs, their competences for learning science, their academic self-efficacies, and their outdoor science activity performing beliefs. The findings also show most of the participants hold the belief that their educational background contributes to their professional and personal developments as well as science teaching skills, and helps them gain awareness of such concepts as giftedness, outdoor learning, and differentiated teaching. Several recommendations for making differentiated education prevalent for prospective teachers are provided. © 2021, Ozgen Korkmaz. All rights reserved.