An effective web-based approach to support the initial training of science teachers

This paper reports the processes and ways in which a dedicated website has been developed by a group of seven colleagues at the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) Science Department to support their student-teachers’ development of teaching competence during various kinds of field experience activities such as practicum, teaching practice and school visits etc. From the outcome of our project, a comprehensive web-based system was created to help our student-teachers develop confidence and skills for the effective teaching of various science topics in schools. A questionnaire survey was administered to about 150 students in five different teacher education programmes to collect feedback for evaluating the effectiveness of the website. The initial results indicated the definite success of the project. More detailed findings and analysis of this questionnaire survey and the use of this project to facilitate post-lesson conference will be thoroughly discussed in this paper. Copyright © 2005 International Society for Teacher Education.