Theme 1: The Role of Reflexivity

Fostering Preservice Teacher Identity in Science through a Student-Selected Project

by Donald J . Wink, Julie Ellefson, Marlynne Nishimura, Dana Perry, Stacy Wenzel, and Jeong-Hye Hwang Choe

The education of students in general education courses presents an important challenge to educators; the courses are almost always outside a student’s focus on a particular field, which is usually signi- fied when they declare a major. In some cases, general education becomes an opportunity for students to explore other ideas and disciplines that are of interest to them. But in other cases the spirit and the practice of general education requires students to take courses in areas that are neither interesting nor, from a personal perspective, inviting to them. The problem is perhaps worsened when the requirements for a particular component of general education is also associated with a specific training requirement for a student, as often occurs in pre-professional programs such as nursing (which may require sociology), criminal justice (psychology), and education (natural science and mathematics). And almost all students in the humanities are also expected to read and analyze texts and other materials, both to enhance their communication skills and to increase their understanding of human experience as expressed through culture. Thus, general education is not aimed just at exposing students to ideas: it also seeks to give students particular abilities that they can later use in new situations. This, in turn, means that students must somehow link the new knowledge to their own identity as it emerges during college and young adulthood.