Making Teaching Visible: Redesigning Elementary Science Preservice Teacher Education Through Co-Teaching and Integrated STEM Preparation

Elementary teachers are increasingly expected to provide science instruction that is phenomenon-driven, inquiry-oriented, and connected to students’ everyday experiences. Yet many preservice elementary teachers enter science methods courses with uneven confidence in science content and limited exposure to three-dimensional science teaching in practice. This article describes the redesign of the elementary science methods sequence at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Two grade-band courses were merged into a single K–6 science methods course with an added laboratory component and a companion integrated math/science course. The redesign aimed to strengthen vertical coherence across K–6 standards, preserve attention to developmental differences, reduce repeated foundational content, and model co-teaching practices candidates are expected to use during residency. We describe the rationale for the redesign, instructional structures that anchored the course, and signature learning experiences such as Predict–Explain–Observe–Explain investigations and the culminating 4E lesson design task. Preservice teacher feedback suggests that modeling co-teaching, emphasizing relevance, and making instructional decision-making visible strengthened candidates’ confidence and understanding of science teaching. Lessons learned and future directions for program improvement are also discussed.