A Comparative Study on Science Teacher Education System

An important issue for qualified science teacher education should be a proper system of pre-service education for the science teacher. There are various types of science teacher education systems in accordance with their socio-cultural backgrounds. In this paper, science teacher education systems were analysed into 3 different types: Focusing Undergraduate Certification of Education (FUCE), Open Undergraduate Certification of Education (OUCE), and Post Graduate Certification of Education (PGCE). Science teacher education systems and their outcomes, such as the quality of the science teacher, were discussed with their socio-cultural backgrounds, compared by the 3 types of science teacher education systems. For this the results of meta-analysis from TIMSS-R and OECD data sets were used. Special interests focused on countries; Japan, Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States, which would represent stereotypes of science teacher education systems and different backgrounds of oriental and western culture.