Preservice Student Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Chemistry Teaching: The Case Of Egerton University, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes held by pre-service chemistry student teachers. A survey was conducted on Egerton University students in the 2002/2003 academic year. The sample included all the Bachelor of Education (Science) pre-service chemistry students. These students had just covered the Chemistry Subject Methods course and were about to start their teaching practice programme. The sample consisted of 71 male and 34 female student teachers, making a total of 105 respondents. A modified Chemistry Teachers’ Attitudes Questionnaire (CTAQ) for measuring chemistry teachers’ attitudes towards teaching was developed and used for data collection. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The results show that pre-service chemistry student teachers have high positive attitudes towards teaching. Student teachers’ gender and subject combination have no influence on their attitudes towards chemistry teaching. These findings suggest that the current teacher training approach at Egerton University should be maintained and enriched.