The Effect of Job Shadowing Practices on Science Teachers’ Career Perceptions

Abstract

This study, conducted within the scope of the acaSTEMy project supported by the European Union’s Erasmus Plus Programme, is a mixed-methods research that aims to develop the career awareness of pre-service science teachers and in-service teachers through a learning process based on job shadowing. With the participation of a total of 20 undergraduate and graduate students from Dokuz Eylül University, field observations were carried out across six different institutions, ranging from industrial organizations to technoparks and research centers. The main findings of the study indicate that the job shadowing experience had a significant and strong effect on the participants’ professional identities and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics career visions. According to the quantitative data obtained from the acaSTEMy Survey, the overall experience and the increase in career awareness point to a notably high levelof satisfaction. These results played a decisive role in participants’ re-evaluation of their pedagogical approaches, as they experienced firsthand that the field of science education has concrete applications in institutional and scientific contexts beyond schools. The studyoffers recommendations for the wider dissemination of such practices.