Investigation of the Earth Science Teacher Education Programs in the College of Education and their Improvement Plans

The purpose of this study is to propose an improvement plan based on an analysis of the current earth science teacher education curriculum in the department of education in the four fields of teaching profession theory: student teacher practice, subject lesson education, and subject content education. The following are the conclusions and suggestions of this study. In case of teaching profession theory, too much emphasis is put on pedagogical theory over practical issues, and a problem arises upon completion. Therefore, it is sugguest that teaching profession theory might be completed before subject lesson education to ensure more authentic subjects performing teaching profession. The current term for student-teacher training is too short to understand the whole school system. Current school system does not have any off-job training course or internship system. Therefore, student-teacher training term should be increased by at least 3 similar to 6 months to play a vital role in the current system. The credit number of subject lesson education is too small compared with subject content education. Consequently, the credit number of subject lesson education should be increased, and more professor majored in subject lesson education should be recruited. Significant deviation between the content of subject content education and that of middle school grade exists, and there is also much difference in the ratio of subject according to university. To get rid of these problems, subject content education should be connected with subject lesson education and appropriate number of credit needs to be assigned to each subject domain.