Abstract

This chapter examines the historical development of science education in India, beginning with the policy context in pre-independence India to the present day, with a specific focus on school science education and teacher education. Specifically, this study examines the pedagogical orientation of pre-service science teachers, who had been a part of two-year Bachelor of Education teacher education program in India. They had taught middle grades science during their school internship program in different genres of schools, ranging from state-funded to private-funded during internship. Assessment items in Pedagogy of Science Teaching Test were used to identify their pedagogical orientations, and reasons for their specific orientations were probed through interviews. It comes out that pre-service teachers develop varying pedagogical orientations, ranging from direct instruction to open inquiry, emerging from several school-related factors like class size, availability of resources, leadership guidance; discrepancies between professional development and school culture, and other personal constraints.