New Perspectives in Science Education

Edition 13

Accepted Abstracts

Improve Science Student Teachers’ Attitudes toward English for Science Teacher by Using Peer Instruction at Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Thailand

Sumalee Tientongdee, Faculty of Education, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University (Thailand)

Abstract

The main goal of this study was to investigate science student teachers’ attitudes toward English for science teachers taught by using Peer Instruction (PI). This subject is a requirement course for third year undergraduate science student teachers at Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Bangkok, Thailand. As our nation joined the ASEAN community, consisting of 10 countries in Southeast Asia, all the science teachers have been encouraged to improve their English skills since then. This was a case of how we could empower our new generation of science teachers. In this research, there were 46 students taking this course in the second semester of 2015. It was quasi-experimental design. The quantitative and qualitative approach were used to collect the data. The Science Student Teachers’ attitudes questionnaire was used to measure students’ attitudes toward English for Science Teacher before and after they learned through PI class. The researcher conducted focus group interview to ask students’ opinion about PI and their English skill improvement. Descriptive statistics and content analysis were used to analyze the data. The results indicated that science student teachers’ attitude toward English for science teacher was significantly higher after they studied in PI class. Their opinions were mostly positive and they thought that their English skills especially reading skill was improved and PI helped them working better with others. 

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