Designing A Science Lesson: Developing Pre-Service Teachers' Lesson Planning Skills Based on Real-Life Context Based Approach

This study aims to improve the skills of pre-service primary and science teachers in structuring science lessons based on Context-Based Science Teaching according to the 5E Model and increasing their knowledge and awareness of the current and basic science education paradigm. In this study, the action research type of qualitative research method was adopted. 13 pre-service primary and science teachers participated in the research. The data of the study were obtained from pre-post measurements, lesson plans developed by the pre-service teachers and observations made by the researchers as participant observers. The data were analyzed with descriptive and content analysis methods. The preliminary results show that pre-service teachers could not use basic dynamics such as the real-life contextual approach, nature of science, scientific reasoning, STEM activities, Web 2.0 tools, laboratory applications. At the end of the trainings, pre-service teachers’ competencies in preparing a science lesson plan based on context-based science teaching and in accordance with the current and basic science education paradigm increased significantly. This study supported the pre-service teachers’ science self-efficacy for introducing current practices related to science teaching during their undergraduate education to become classroom and science teachers and for gaining skills on how to reflect these practices in lesson plans. The findings indicate that there is a need for practical training in teacher training due to field studies in Turkey and that prospective teachers should adopt the 21st century science teaching approach.