Concern about the impact of teacher education, the theory-practice divide, and the rejection of education studies in the
teaching profession is still being articulated in the literature today, despite numerous attempts at reconceptualising the
issue and proposing possible solutions (Anderson & Freebody, 2012; Korthagen, 2017; McGarr, O’Grady, & Guilfoyle,
2017). The ways in which teachers compare knowledge from their subject discipline to their professional knowledge, and
the impacts of these comparisons, have received little attention in the literature (Löfström & Pursiainen, 2015; Sjølie,
2014).
This research study aims to contribute to this gap in the literature by examining student science teachers’ beliefs as they
study both science and education studies concurrently during their initial teacher education. Using a Discipline Focused
Epistemic Belief Questionnaire (Hofer, 2000) and in-depth semi-structured interviews, comparisons between the two areas
of knowing were elicited at two separate time-points; at the beginning (n=12) and end (n=7) of their final year of teacher
education. These constitute the first two points of an ongoing longitudinal study.
The unique finding of this study is that science teachers appear to draw on epistemic beliefs about science in order to
justify negative criticism of knowledge from education studies components of their teacher education, while others with
more developed epistemic beliefs advocate for the utility of education studies to teachers’ professional practice. Certain
experiences on school placement and carrying out a final year research project appeared to cause changes in how some
student teachers compared knowledge.
That subject area epistemic beliefs might be influential for student teachers acceptance or rejection of education studies is
an important finding for teacher educators. It suggests that a focus on explicit epistemic development in teacher education
is necessary; a point which is already supported in the science education literature (Erduran, Bravo, & Naaman, 2007).
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Further research is necessary in other subject areas, however, in order to examine the similarities and nuances of
comparisons between subject area knowledge and education studies.