Comparing Academic Performance of Elementary Education Majors in General Education Science Courses
Ryan S. Nixon, Elizabeth Gibbons Bailey, Miguel Ángel Queiruga-Dios, Miguel Ángel Queiruga-Dios, Miguel Ángel Queiruga-Dios

TL;DR
Elementary education majors perform similarly to other students in general science courses, but score lower than STEM majors in physical science.
Contribution
The study provides empirical evidence comparing the academic performance of elementary education majors in general science courses against other majors.
Findings
Elementary education majors received grades similar to most other majors in general education science courses.
They scored comparably to STEM majors in Biology but scored worse in Physical Science.
The findings suggest elementary education programs may benefit from specialized physical science courses.
Abstract
It is important for elementary teachers to understand the content they are responsible for teaching their students, known as content knowledge. In the content area of science, elementary teacher preparation programs often expect preservice teachers to develop content knowledge in college science courses completed prior to entering the program. These college science courses are often general education courses, not specifically designed for preservice elementary teachers. General education courses may not be adequately serving preservice elementary teachers. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of general education science courses on preservice elementary teachers, as compared to other students at the same institution. We collected student grades in six different general education courses across ten years of instruction, resulting in a data set with 195860 grades. These data…
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Taxonomy
TopicsDiverse Educational Innovations Studies · Science Education and Pedagogy · Mathematics Education and Teaching Techniques
