Advancing preservice teacher’s science pedagogy beyond the classroom

The goals of science education include providing students with real‐world learning experiences that connect directly to learning objectives and deepen student interest in science. Learning experiences that occur outside of the science classroom can help science educators respond to these goals. To encourage the use of learning environments beyond the four walls of a classroom, teacher preparation programs should integrate learning experiences for preservice teachers that engage them in learning science and methods for science teaching beyond the classroom. The purpose of this study was to investigate how preservice teachers’ learning and pedagogical experiences in an elementary science methods class that extends beyond the classroom setting may influence the frequency and type of out‐of‐classroom experiences they include in self‐constructed, 5E instructional sequences. Findings in this exploratory, multicase study indicate that preservice teachers who experienced out‐of‐classroom learning in their science methods course may be likely to include similar types of learning in their written lesson plans. However, PSETs who were offered multiple and varied learning experiences beyond the traditional classroom were more likely to include out‐of‐classroom experiences in self‐constructed 5E instructional sequences than those with limited or one‐time experiences.