An Exploration into Changes in the Image of Teaching Science Before and After the Farming & Fishing Village Practicum in Pre-service Elementary School Teachers

This study aimed to explore changes in the image of teaching science before and after the farming & fishing village practicum (FFVP) in pre-service elementary school teachers. As research subjects, this study selected 79 junior education university students, who completed the course of elementary science education theory and participated in the FFVP for two weeks. The results of this study can be summarized as follows; Before the FFVP, the student-centered image was highest in rate, followed by the teacher-centered image and the intermediate image in a similar rate. After the practicum, however, the student-centered image became much higher in rate, and remained highest, followed by the teacher-centered image and the intermediate image. When analyzing the trend of change, this study found out that there took place the most change from the teacher-centered image to the student-centered image, followed by the change from the intermediate image to the student-centered image and the change from the student-centered image to the teacher-centered image in order. Especially, it was analyzed that all the changes into the student-centered image resulted from the pre-service teachers’ experiences of a wider laboratory, compared to the number of students per class, an environment possible for outdoor education, smart device application, and the science-exclusive teacher system, etc. The results of this study imply that the FFVP has positive effect on pre-service teachers’ image of teaching science as well as the importance of practicum environment.