Teachers’ and pre-service teachers’ perceptions of integrating scientific concepts into everyday life in classroom teaching

Abstract

This study examined how in-service and pre-service science teachers perceive the pedagogical value of linking scientific concepts to everyday life. The study involved 120 Arabic-speaking participants from northern Israel, 60 in-service science teachers and 60 third-year pre-service science teachers, who completed a researcher-developed questionnaire before and one week after a brief video-based intervention. The instrument measured perceived effects of everyday-life integration on student engagement, interest and curiosity, and achievement across chemistry, physics, biology, and technology. Internal consistency was high across the three subscales (α = .87 to .91). Correlations among the three perceived outcomes were positive at pre-test and became stronger at post-test. Mixed ANOVA results showed significant time effects and significant group × time interactions across all three dimensions and all four subject domains, with in-service teachers reporting slightly more favorable perceptions than pre-service teachers at both time points. The findings indicate that a short, carefully modeled intervention can strengthen teachers’ beliefs about contextualized science teaching, but the findings reflect changes in participants’ perceptions of pedagogical value rather than direct measures of student learning. The study contributes a bounded but useful account of how career stage shapes responses to context-based science teaching in one regional and sociocultural setting.