Reflecting on Feedback: How Formative Feedback Shapes Pre‑Service Science Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Inquiry from Context‑Based STEM Lesson Designs
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Abstract
This study addresses a persistent gap in teacher education, namely the limited empirical understanding of how structured formative feedback influences pre-service science teachers’ design and revision of inquiry-based, context-based STEM lessons. Employing a qualitative method intervention with 33 pre-service science teachers, participants completed four iterative lesson-design cycles framed by an inquiry from a context-based model (Sutaphan & Yuenyong, 2019). They received targeted formative feedback informed by a validated rubric (inquiry alignment, contextual relevance, pedagogical content knowledge, and assessment coherence). Qualitative measures include rubric scores, self-efficacy surveys, and lesson coherence indices; qualitative data comprise reflective journals and semi-structured interviews analysed via thematic coding. Thematic analysis is expected to reveal four central mechanisms-targeted conceptual framing, scaffolding assessment design, context-driven motivation, and reflective revision-that mediate these gains. The study contributes novel empirical evidence and a pragmatic rubric for linking formative feedback to concrete design improvements, offering methodological advances for evaluation and practical guidance for integrating the iterative feedback cycle into teacher education to strengthen preservice science teachers’ capacity to design inquiry-rich, contextually meaningful STEM learning experiences
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