Pre-service science teachers’ judgment accuracy across science competencies: Evidence from a digital classroom simulation

Science teachers' ability to accurately judge students' knowledge and skills is essential for successful teaching and, thus, highly relevant to science teacher education. Findings from studies focusing on language and mathematics have shown that (pre-service) teachers' judgment accuracy is not only subject-specific but may also vary across particular competencies within a subject. Science is a highly multifaceted domain. Therefore, the question arises as to whether (pre-service) science teachers' judgment accuracy is specific to particular science competencies. In the present study, we investigated the judgment accuracy of pre-service science teachers across two science competencies of the PISA 2025 Science Framework: “Explain phenomena scientifically” and “Research, evaluate and use scientific information for decision making and action.” We assessed participants' judgment accuracy in these two competencies using two distinct modules of the digital classroom environment Simulated Classroom Biology (SCRBio). Further, we examined factors influencing their judgment accuracy using blockwise hierarchical regression analyses. For each science competency, 53 participants conducted a simulated lesson in the SCRBio and judged a total of 2831 virtual student answers. Participants' judgment accuracy was not significantly correlated across the two competencies examined, providing an initial indication that pre-service science teachers' judgment accuracy might be specific to particular science competencies. Based on our results, we suggest that judgment accuracy should be promoted separately for each competency; however, future research should further investigate the specificity of science teachers' judgment accuracy with larger sample sizes. In both SCRBio modules, participants' content knowledge related to the respective competency was a predictor of their judgment accuracy. Our simulation-based approach proved to be beneficial for controlling potential biases and examining the judgment accuracy of pre-service teachers. Moreover, the SCRBio enabled us to analyze both participants' evaluations of student answers during a simulated lesson and their judgments of virtual students' overall performance.