Cultivation And Enlightenment Of Science Teachers In Pre-service Primary And Secondary Schools In Developed Countries In The Context Of STEM Education

Currently,the United States,the United Kingdom,Australia,and other major developed countries in the world have taken a series of measures for STEM talent development from the national strategic level.It not only increases the investment in STEM education but also coordinates the government,universities,primary and secondary schools,social institutions,and communities together to promote the development of STEM education.Meanwhile,STEM education focuses on allowing students to solve real-life situational problems through inquiry,and then understand the natural world and real life,with special emphasis on the comprehensive and interdisciplinary characteristics of education.Obviously,the key to effective implementation of STEM education lies in high-quality primary and secondary school science teachers,and the quality of pre-service primary and secondary school science teacher cultivating directly affects the effectiveness of STEM education implementation.Therefore,it is necessary to strengthen the research related to the cultivating of pre-service primary and secondary school science teachers.Among it,the relevant comparative studies in developed countries can provide some reference experiences for how to train pre-service primary and secondary school science teachers in the context of STEM education in China.In this paper,it analyzes the current status of international research on science teacher preparation in pre-service elementary and secondary schools by combing through relevant research on pre-service elementary and secondary school science teacher preparation at home and abroad.Based on this analysis,policy documents,development reports,and research materials on science teacher preparation in pre-service primary and secondary schools in the United States,the United Kingdom,and Australia are collected.At the macro level,the current situation of STEM education in the US,UK,and Australia as well as the cultivating model(teacher standards,cultivating objectives,curriculum,etc.)of science teacher cultivating in pre-service primary and secondary schools are elaborated horizontally to grasp the overview of science teacher cultivating in pre-service primary and secondary schools in the US,UK,and Australia.At the micro level,one representative university from each of the three countries,Towson University in the US,York University in the UK,and the University of Sydney in Australia,are selected to introduce in detail the specific implementation of pre-service primary and secondary science teacher preparation.Through an inductive analysis,the standards,cultivating objectives,and curricula of pre-service science teacher preparation in the United States,the United Kingdom,and Australia are juxtaposed and compared.Besides,the commonalities among the three countries in pre-service science teacher preparation are summarized by means of a concluding summary.It found that all three countries have introduced standards applicable to pre-service science teacher cultivating at the national level,i.e.,phased cultivating objectives and focus on developing pre-service science teachers' STEM literacy and science practice skills.Moreover,the curriculum structure can all be broadly divided into four categories: general education courses,teacher education courses,disciplinary courses,and practical courses.Ultimately,the following enlightenment are proposed by combing with the full study: 1.National level should introduce STEM education concept-based cultivating standards for primary and secondary school science teachers;2.Colleges and universities should pay attention to the cultivation of STEM literacy of pre-service primary and secondary school science teachers;3.Colleges and universities should strengthen the cultivation of science practice ability of pre-service primary and secondary school science teachers;4.It should build a diversified collaborative cultivation mechanism for pre-service primary and secondary school science teachers.