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This study looks at pre-service teachers, their usage of experiments in the classroom, and the factors that influence their behavior. In a longitudinal panel-study of high school/grammar school-level biology and chemistry pre-service teachers at all training colleges in the German State of Rhineland-Palatinate, we examine the role of attitudes, perceived behavioral controls, and subjective norms on the participants’ intention to- and actual use of experiments in the classroom. As a theoretical framework, we use the Theory of Planned Behavior. Attitudes, social norms, behavioural control and behavioural intention were measured at time points t1 and t2; behaviour with regards to experiments was measured at t3. In a second step, we examine which fundamental beliefs influence attitudes, social norms and behavioural control. The analyses show that attitudes, subjective norms and behavioural controls play important roles in determining the use of experiments. While for pre-service teachers with the subject biology attitudes play the most important role, for those with the subject chemistry it is behavioural control that most strongly influences the use experiments. The reform of teachers’ education programs in Germany has no significant effects on the intent or actual behaviour regarding experiments. |
