Research on Integration of the Sustainable Development Goals and Teaching Practices in a Future Teacher Science Education Course

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the levels of pedagogical competencies and ESD competencies in a group of future primary school teachers when integrating teaching practices and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into a science education course. Both quantitative and qualitative research approaches were used. Eighty-eight of the student teachers demonstrated pedagogical and ESD competencies, as evidenced by the self-rated scores and course instructor-rated scores of their teaching practices which were collected and analyzed. In addition, the lesson plans designed by the student teachers were coded and scrutinized to identify their ESD-specific competencies related to designing primary science instruction. Furthermore, the student teachers responded to the questionnaires about their views and attitudes towards the integration of the SDGs and teaching practices. The findings reveal a difference between the participants’ self-rated scores and the instructor-rated scores for pedagogical competencies during the teaching practices, whereas the scores for general ESD competencies were closely aligned. Content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and motivation and value related to sustainable development and science education were well represented in the lesson plans, and the student teachers generally held a positive attitude towards the integration of the SDGs and teaching practices. This study offers practical insights into the effective integration of pertinent topics and knowledge regarding sustainable development into teacher education and science education curricula.

1. Introduction

One of the key areas that requires urgent attention and action to accelerate progress towards the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda (Agenda 2030) is “Teachers, teaching, and the teaching profession” [1]. Teachers play a critical role in the process of societal change and in leading towards a sustainable future [2,3,4]. However, the 2023 Sustainable Development Goals Report highlights that a significant proportion of teachers still fail to possess the minimum qualifications required for their profession [5]. The way a teacher chooses to design and implement instruction can have a direct impact on students’ intellectual capacities and values. Therefore, improving content knowledge and pedagogical competency of future or novice teachers is a prerequisite for the development of students [6,7]. Meanwhile, education for sustainable development (ESD) has been considered as an important approach to advancing societies towards a sustainable future [7,8,9,10]. Teacher education courses and programmes should prioritize the cultivation of teachers’ competencies pertaining to teaching and ESD.

Science education is essential for future sustainable development and for active participation in society and societal issues [5,11,12]. In China, many core scientific concepts and themes in primary school science teaching and textbooks are closely connected to sustainable development, such as life science, earth science, energy transformation, and the environment [13]. Integrating the SDGs and ESD content into the science education curriculum for future primary school teachers can enable them to design and implement science instruction concerning sustainability-oriented topics and to be aware of sustainable development challenges [14]. Additionally, encouraging future primary teachers to actively participate in the teaching practice of ESD can deepen their understanding of the concepts and principles of sustainable development, strengthen their identity as future change agents, and increase the likelihood of their future involvement in practical activities to realize the SDGs and facilitate positive societal transformations [15,16,17].

Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of integrating teaching practices and the SDGs into a future teacher science education course on a group of future primary teachers’ pedagogical competencies and ESD competencies, as well as their attitudes and values towards the teaching practices and the SDGs within the course. The research questions guiding this investigation are the following:

(1)

How did the future primary teachers demonstrate their pedagogical competencies in the teaching practices of the science education course towards SDGs?

(2)

How did the future primary teachers demonstrate ESD competencies in the teaching and learning processes of the science education course towards SDGs?

(3)

What were the future primary teachers’ views on the integration of teaching practices and the SDGs into the science education course?

2. Related Literature

2.1. Pedagogical Competencies and ESD Competencies

There has been a debate in recent years concerning what contributes to the development of a qualified educator [18]. A number of studies have defined, examined, and elaborated upon various competence models and frameworks, primarily on the basis of Shulman’s classification [19] of what constitutes a competent teacher. Baumert and Kunter [20] developed a competence model that identifies four categories of a teacher’s professional competencies: knowledge, beliefs, motivation, and self-regulation. In this model, knowledge serves as a key component of a teacher’s professional knowledge and can be divided into various dimensions with specific aspects. For example, content knowledge represents a deep understanding of the content of a particular subject, and pedagogical content knowledge is about how to teach knowledge in a specific area. Continuing the investigation of this model, Bertschy and colleagues [3] introduced a comprehensive model of “ESD-specific professional action competency in Kindergarten and primary school”. This model provides a complete description of the competencies required for the successful implementation of ESD in everyday school practices. Overall, the competence models and frameworks confirm the significance of developing competencies in teacher education. Therefore, a successful implementation of ESD in future teacher education should put more emphasis on the cultivation of student teachers’ pedagogical competencies and ESD competencies.

Pedagogical competencies include the knowledge, pedagogy, belief, and experience of teachers that enable them to carry out instructional activities effectively and organize exchanges between teachers and students in a purposeful manner [21]. Every teacher should possess adequate pedagogical competencies in order to achieve effective teaching and learning [22,23]. Qualified teachers with up-to-date knowledge and proficient pedagogical competencies form the cornerstone of any educational system [24].

For future or new teachers, pedagogical competencies are primarily cultivated through teaching practices within practice-based or action-oriented teacher education. Teaching practices have been increasingly acknowledged for their vital contribution to teacher education curricula and early professional development [16,25,26,27]. Typical teaching practice activities that are intended to develop the pedagogical competencies of future teachers include understanding instructional tasks, designing lesson plans, regulating teaching processes, and evaluating learning outcomes [28,29].

Meanwhile, developing competencies related to sustainable development is crucial for future teachers, as they can draw more attention to sustainability issues and contribute to fostering a more sustainable society [30,31]. An important approach for transforming societies towards a sustainable future and achieving the SDGs is via ESD [7,8,9,10]. ESD competencies focus on the competencies that teachers and educators need to possess to foster the sustainable development of their students in educational settings [32]. The international community increasingly recognizes ESD as an integral component of quality education and a key element in promoting sustainable development [30,33,34]. Thus, it is essential for future teachers to acquire and develop competencies in ESD so as to facilitate the acquisition of sustainable development by future students and integrating ESD into future teacher education courses and programs is both necessary and feasible [35].

ESD competencies frameworks within teacher education differ across countries, institutions, and disciplines [3,18,36,37]. For future primary teachers, general ESD competencies, such as systems thinking, critical thinking, and strategic thinking, should be emphatically focused and measured [9,10,38]. Additionally, the cultivation of personal behaviors and public commitments related to sustainable development transcends the scope of everyday teacher education and science education courses, and the successful implementation of ESD requires specific knowledge and competencies, and the alignment of pedagogical practices with ESD. Future primary teachers need specific content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and motivation to plan, implement, and evaluate ESD instruction effectively [3,39,40].

2.2. Science Education towards SDGs

The United Nations declared the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 through its General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro and incorporated them into the 2030 Agenda [41]. Since then, the dissemination of the achievements of the United Nations Decade has become a main goal of the Global Program of Action (GAP), “to give everyone the opportunity to acquire the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes that empower them. To contribute to sustainable development” [1,42]. The SDGs are composed of 17 inclusive and transformative goals that are aimed at improving the well-being of all people so that they can have a sustainable, prosperous, peaceful, and just life now and in the future [43].

Science education is intrinsically linked to the SDGs. Firstly, many of the themes and topics in science curricula align with the SDGs, such as climate change, resource efficiency, water management, and bio-geodiversity [13,44,45]. Secondly, the interdisciplinary features of science education can invite learners to combine science, knowledge, and skills with real-world issues and interpret ways to connect knowledge to values and attitudes regarding sustainable development [41,46]. Thirdly, one of the key goals of science education is preparing students to become critical future citizens [47], equipping them with the competencies to think responsibly, critically, and creatively to respond to social issues arising from the impact of science and the SDGs on life and society [48,49].

Despite the growing importance attached to science education by the government, society, schools, and the rapid development of ESD in China, the literature on the empirical development of and theoretical reflection on ESD in Chinese teacher education and science education remains limited [50,51,52,53]. Studies suggest that the SDGs need to be taken into account in the content of science education curricula to raise learners’ awareness of the targets and engage them in achieving these goals [54,55]. Nonetheless, designing and implementing SDG-oriented teaching and learning activities is not an easy thing [56]. Therefore, science education courses and programmes preparing future teachers should not only enhance pedagogical competencies but should also explore innovative methods to integrate the SDGs and develop ESD competencies.

Furthermore, to provide future teachers with opportunities to better understand, examine, and attempt to analyze and solve the important issues involved in the SDGs while taking part in science education, teacher education programs and courses need to embrace pedagogies that build their capacities to become competent change agents in the future [40]. However, developing and realizing learning objectives and activities for teacher education that promotes sustainable development can be a complex task, as it demands the knowledge of sustainable development and sustainability, the skills required to design effective forms of teaching and learning, and sufficient willingness and motivation [57]. Although previous researchers investigated what competencies student teachers need to become competent ESD teachers [18,40], few studies have focused on the extent to which existing teaching and learning formats can play a supportive role to the development of these competencies.

3. Methodology

3.1. Context and Participants

This study was conducted during the 2023–2024 academic year at a normal university in East China, within the Primary School Science Instructional Design course. This sixteen-week science education course consisted of two sessions. During the first ten-week classroom instruction session, the course instructor provided the students with relevant learning materials and integrated SDG and ESD-related knowledge and content into the preset course design. For example, when teaching the unit Instructional Design for Teaching New Knowledge, specific SDGs, such as SDG-7 (affordable and clean energy), SDG-13 (climate action), and SDG-15 (life on land), were selected as important topics to be integrated into the instructional objectives and activities sections of the primary science lesson plans. The course instructor also attempted to correlate these SDGs with topics in the primary science textbooks and demonstrated to the students how to skillfully incorporate these goals into the teaching of new knowledge during primary science classroom instruction. For the rest of the course, each student teacher was asked to design a science lesson plan whose topic stemmed from the units and lessons included in primary school science textbooks and was encouraged to incorporate ESD and SDGs-related content. Then, they conducted a simulated teaching practice based on the individual lesson plan.

Participants were two classes of undergraduate students majoring in Primary Education who will serve as primary school teachers in the rural areas upon graduation. A total of 101 students, 20 male students and 81 female students, aged 21 to 24 years old, took the science education course. They were students of the investigator who served as the course instructor and was responsible for the design and implementation of this study. The students were provided with informed consent forms during the initial period of this course and all agreed to be enrolled in this study. The dataset was collected from 88 participants as not all student teachers completed the lesson plans and questionnaires at the end of this study.

3.2. Data Collection and Analysis

To provide more evidence and make the research outcome stronger than either a quantitative or qualitative study alone, the data collection and analysis employed both qualitative and quantitative approaches, utilizing three types of data sources. The first type was a measurement scale assessing participants’ performance in the simulated teaching practices which was synthesized and developed by the investigators. It comprised two components: pedagogical competencies and the ESD competencies. Pedagogical competencies can be measured based on an instrument designed for analyzing the composition of the basic teaching skills used in classroom teaching of student teachers, encompassing seven categories, namely leading-in competency, lecturing competency, questioning competency, demonstration competency, board design competency, teaching language competency, and lesson closing competency [22,58]. For the ESD competencies dimension, three key sustainability competencies that can be integrated into a science education course were included, namely systems thinking, critical thinking, and strategic thinking. There were two main reasons for the selection of these three general ESD competencies for this instrument. Firstly, these ESD indicators are widely recognized and appear in numerous studies that have developed or reviewed scales used for the measurement of ESD competencies in teacher education [10,18,36,37,59,60,61]. Secondly, they would not overlap with the indicators for detecting ESD-specific competencies in the lesson plans. Generally, the measurement scale includes 10 items, each item is worth 10 points, with a total score of 70 for pedagogical competencies and 30 for ESD competencies. The measurement scale has been tested for reliability and validity using SPSS software, in which the value of Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was met with the satisfactory level of 0.80. And a strong linear relationship existed between the indicators in the scale (KMO = 0.915, p < 0.001 in the Bartlett’s test).

To investigate how the participants comprehended the conceptual and motivational knowledge related to ESD and the SDGs, we analyzed participants’ lesson plans as the second data type. The model “ESD-specific professional action competence of teachers in kindergarten and primary school” was employed and adapted to code the lesson plans to identify the future primary teachers’ ESD-specific competencies (Table 1). The original model was introduced by Bertschy and colleagues and focuses specifically on teachers’ competencies regarding lesson design in the interest of ESD [3,18]. Content analysis identified three indicators: sustainability-related content knowledge (CK), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), and motivation and volition to implement science education and ESD (MV). Adaptations were made to align with the context of this study and the subject of primary school science. For instance, the description “Content that involves knowledge and skills that stem from primary science textbooks and curricular standards and related to sustainable development” was added to the content knowledge indicator. The maximum unit of analysis was a paragraph describing a designed science teaching activity, and the minimum unit was a completed utterance [62]. Any differences that arose were discussed by four trained coders until a consensus was reached. The total number of codes was recorded and several sample lesson plans are presented in the following section.

Table 1. Coding scheme for ESD-specific competencies in lesson plans.

Knowledge and Ability		Motivation and Volition
(refers to content knowledge)	(refers to pedagogical content knowledge)
Content that involves knowledge and skills that stem from primary science textbooks and curricular standards and is related to sustainable development. Content that involves the awareness of conflicts of goals and interests of agents in a field relevant to sustainable development, ESD, and SDGs, and the knowledge and ability to cope with them. Content that involves knowledge of participative processes and process steps.	Content that involves possible topics and to evaluate their aptitude for ESD regarding their economic, ecological, social, and cultural design and their relevance for sustainability. Content that makes economic, ecological, social, and cultural perspectives graspable and accessible to the students within this chosen topic and by means of questions. Content that involves learners appropriately confronting conflicts of goals and interests, and can help and guide their to cope with them. Content that involves developing and providing efficient learning opportunities concerning the qualification for participation.	Content that involves pursuing sustainable development as a task and a challenge in for the maintenance of ecological balance and world justice. Content that involves the role of science education as a tool for the tackling the tasks and challenges related to the SDGs. Content that involves developing ethical judgment as an educational goal and as a central part of the co-creation competency. Content that involves personal willingness and motivation to teach science using ESD.

The third data type was a questionnaire for understanding participants’ views and attitudes on the integration of teaching practices and the SDGs into the course. Questions mainly addressed their perspectives on the integration, identified problems in the teaching practices, future sustainable teaching practice plans, and the impact of the course design on their perceptions of ESD and SDGs. The questionnaires were sent to the participants via email before the end of the course. Participants were all informed and agreed that their responses would be collected and analyzed for this study use only. To minimize the risks to the confidentiality, the responded questionnaires were highly protected under the supervision of the investigators.

3.3. Procedure

In addition to giving lectures on primary school science curriculum and instruction, the course instructor also properly introduced content related to sustainability and sustainable development, such as ESD competencies and models, the visions and objectives of the SDGs. Before participating in the teaching practices, each student teacher needed to design a lesson plan based on the Science Curricular Standards for Compulsory Education, primary school science textbooks, and assigned course materials, and then prepared a simulated teaching practice in combination with the lesson plan. After each participant conducted the simulated teaching practice, the course instructor immediately rated their individual teaching performance using the criteria described in the measurement scale. The final rating scores ranged from 68 to 96. After finishing the simulated teaching practices, the participants were invited to evaluate their pedagogical competencies and ESD competencies with the scale. Thus, both the course instructor’s ratings and the student teachers’ self-rated scores were collected. Additionally, the participants were asked to complete questionnaires regarding their teaching practice and ESD experiences, and to continuously update and refine their lesson plans before submitting them to the course instructor.

4. Results

4.1. Student Teachers’ Pedagogical Competencies in the Teaching Practices

The pedagogical competencies and general ESD competencies that were exhibited by the participants in the simulated teaching practices were measured in two ways, through self-rated scores by the student teachers and the scores given by the course instructor based on the measurement scale. Table 2 presents the means of the self-rated scores for each competency item, reflecting the participants’ evaluation of their own teaching performance in the practices. The self-rated scores for the seven sub-competencies of the pedagogical competencies were very close to each other, ranging from 7.61 to 8.00, indicating a perceived equilibrium in the development of pedagogical competencies throughout the teaching process. Overall, the student teachers thought they demonstrate a good level of pedagogical competency in the teaching practices, as evidenced by the overall mean score (over three quarters of the total score of seventy).

Table 2. Participants’ self-rated pedagogical competencies and ESD competencies.

Pedagogical Competencies (PC)	Mean	General ESD Competencies	Mean
Leading-in competency	7.92	Systems thinking	7.74
Lecturing competency	7.85	Critical thinking	7.70
Questioning competency	7.75	Strategic thinking	7.74
Demonstration competency	7.84
Board design competency	7.80
Teaching language competency	8.00
Lesson closing competency	7.61
Overall	54.77	Overall	23.18

Table 3 reveals that there was a statistically significant difference between the self-rated and instructor-rated means and the standard deviations in pedagogical competencies dimension (p < 0.05), while the two ratings were consistent in terms of the general ESD competencies.

Table 3. Comparison of the rating scores by the course instructor and the student teachers.

Category	Mean	SD	t-Value	Sig. (2-Tailed)
Instructor ratings on PC	58.94	3.49	3.485	0.001
Students ratings on PC	54.77	10.67
Instructor ratings on ESD	23.91	2.85	1.221	0.224
Students ratings on ESD	23.18	4.81

4.2. Student Teachers’ ESD Competencies in the Teaching and Learning of the Course

The participants demonstrated ESD competencies in two ways. Firstly, as shown in Table 2 and Table 3, the student teachers rated themselves with a medium–high score of 23.18/30 in terms of their general ESD competencies in the simulated teaching practices, which aligned with the course instructor’s rating scores (p > 0.05). Most participants thought they were able to effectively integrate systems thinking, critical thinking, and strategic thinking within the teaching materials and content during the teaching practices.

Secondly, in addition to the general ESD competencies that the future primary teachers developed through the teaching practices, they also demonstrated ESD-specific competencies in their lesson plans. This echoes the argument proposed by Bertschy et al. (2013) that future teachers of kindergarten or primary school children tend to draw attention to profession-specific competencies with regard to designing lessons in the interest of ESD [3]. Therefore, we coded the lesson plans with the three competency aspects of content knowledge (CK), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), and motivation and volition (MV) in relation to ESD or the SDGs. Table 4 presents the coding of a sample lesson plan excerpt. The topic of this lesson, Wind Energy and Water Energy, is the third lesson of the unit Natural Resources in the sixth grade primary science textbook. This lesson topic is strongly connected to SDG-7, affordable and clean energy. Table 5 provides frequency statistics for the three competency codes for all of the lesson plans. Pedagogical content knowledge appears most frequently and the three ESD-specific competencies appear at least once in the lesson plans on average.

Table 4. Coding of a sample lesson plan.

Lesson Plan (Excerpt)	Supposed Code
Wind Energy and Water Energy
Learning Situation Analysis:
In the previous two lessons, the students have understood the characteristics of non-renewable resources such as coal, oil, and natural gas through a comparison and analysis on the basis of previous learning to identify renewable resources. Learning Objectives:
1. Scientific concept dimension: Knowing that wind energy and water energy can be continuously renewed and repeatedly utilized under current natural conditions, meaning that natural resources are renewable.	(CK)
2. Scientific thinking dimension: By comparing wind energy, water energy with coal, oil, and natural gas, students can obtain a preliminary understanding of the characteristics of renewable resources and the significance of developing and utilizing clean energy.	(CK)
3. Inquiry and practice dimension: Experiencing the process of converting water and wind energy into mechanical energy and then into electricity by carrying out wind and water wheel activities.	(MV)
4. Responsibility and attitude dimension: Recognizing the importance of the utilization of wind and water energy for societal construction, and cultivating a good habit of saving resources.	(MV)
Teaching Procedure:
1. Introduction: The teacher plays a video of wind blowing and raining and then raises a guiding question: In our life, we often encounter wind and rain. In fact, both wind and water have energy, can we do anything with them?
2. Knowledge delivery: Activity 1: Learn by communicating The teacher presents a map which shows the distribution of wind and water energy resources in China and organizes a group discussion activity in which students need to discuss the effective ways for the utilization of wind and water energy and the significance of the two types of energy to our economy.	(PCK)
Activity 2: Learn by doing The teacher plays a video of the process of making wind and water wheels, organize groups to work together on the wheel-making activity, and asks a question during the activity: How can we make a wind or water wheel spin faster?	(PCK)
3. Knowledge application and extension: Clean energy: Wind energy and water energy do not produce pollutants in the process of their utilization and therefore belong to clean energy. In addition to the two types of energy, solar energy, biomass energy, and geothermal energy are all clean energy.	(CK)
4. Class Summary Through this lesson, students not only learn that wind and water energy can be converted into electricity, but also recognize that it is a renewable resource and belongs to the category of clean energy.

Table 5. Frequencies of the ESD-specific competency codes in lesson plans.

Lesson Plan Number	CK	PCK	MV
88	188	221	115

4.3. Student Teachers’ Views on the Teaching Practices and the SDGs in Science Education

To explore the student teachers’ views and attitudes towards the procedures involved in designing a future primary teacher science education course, the course instructor distributed an online questionnaire which featured several open-ended questions. Participants were invited to complete the questionnaire after finishing the teaching practices and instructional design tasks. Since there were no strict guidelines for completing the questionnaire, the responses varied in length and quality. Through an initial screening of the responded questionnaires, responses from a representative sample of five participants were selected from those with a sufficient length and quality (about 30% of the responses). Table 6 presents the competencies acquired through the science course, problems identified during the simulated teaching practices, and their attitudes toward the integration of the SDGs into teaching practices.

Table 6. Participants’ learning experiences in the science education course.

	Key Competencies Gained	Problems Identified in Teaching Practices	Attitudes towards the Course Design
Student A	Pedagogical competencies(Peda), Systems thinking.	Non-standardized teaching language	Positive
Student B	Peda, CK, PCK.	Lack of lesson design techniques	Positive
Student C	Peda, CK.	Unfamiliar with content knowledge	Positive
Student D	CK, PCK, MV.	Limited opportunities for teaching practices	Positive
Student E	Systems thinking, Peda.	Lack of Confidence	Positive

4.3.1. Learning Experiences in the Simulated Teaching Practices

When asked about their experiences incorporating the simulated teaching practices as an important session of the primary science teacher education course, the majority of student teachers indicated in their questionnaires that the teaching practices would be beneficial for their future science instruction. Student A noted:

“This course, Primary School Science Instructional Design, brought me a lot of inspiration. Especially in the simulated teaching practice, I deeply experienced the complexity and diversity of primary science teaching by developing and implementing science instruction. Such practice not only improved my pedagogical competencies, but also made me more clear about the qualities and competencies essential for my future role as a primary school science teacher”.

The student teachers clearly recognized and identified their own problems in implementing the teaching practices through self-reflection after their teaching practices, for instance:

“I was not familiar with the teaching content and textbooks prior to the teaching practice, resulting in a disjointed teaching sequence. I felt somewhat anxious while teaching. Next time, I will familiarize myself with the teaching content in advance, and conduct several trial teaching practices to ensure a smooth delivery.”

(Student C)

“Additional practices are needed to improve my mandarin and teaching language competency.”

(Student A)

A certain number of the student teachers expressed that they would find appropriate opportunities to use similar sustainable teaching practices after the course:

“I plan to regularly conduct similar teaching practices. I also utilize online platforms for remote simulated teaching, so that I can be more flexible in scheduling time and place, and can also communicate and learn from more peers.”

(Student B)

“I hope to gain opportunities to teach in actual classroom settings, or to participate in collaborative teaching and learning with classmates to foster mutual growth and improvement.”

(Student D)

4.3.2. Enhanced Understandings of ESD and the SDGs

In response to the question “How did this science education course influence your understanding of ESD and the SDGs”, almost all of the student teachers considered the inclusion of knowledge and materials related to ESD and the SDGs in the science education course as being necessary to raise awareness and deepening students’ understanding of sustainable development:

“After taking the primary science instructional design course, I gradually formulate a deeper understanding of the topic of sustainable development. The introduction of ESD methods and the SDGS in the lectures made me realize that as a future teacher, I should not only teach knowledge of science, but also guide my students to think about how to practice the concept of sustainable development in their daily lives. This course has greatly enhanced my pedagogical competencies and ESD competencies, especially in integrating resources, designing activities, and promoting active learning among students.”

(Student A)

“Participating in this course has given me a more comprehensive understanding of the SDGs. The course covers not only the science curricular standards, textbooks and teaching methods, but also emphasized the significance of ESD. Through simulated teaching practices and participatory learning, I learned how to create learning contexts that will allow students to understand and engage in the practices of future sustainable development. This will have a positive impact on my future as a qualified primary school science teacher, especially in promoting student participation in community service and environmental protection activities.”

(Student D)

4.3.3. Attitudes towards the Teaching Practices and the SDGs Integration

When asked about their attitudes and views towards the integration of the teaching practices and the SDGs into the science education course, almost all the participants held a positive attitude towards the design. For instance, Student B made the following statement after finishing his teaching practice:

“To be honest, I really felt a little overwhelmed at the initial stage. In particular, it was quite difficult to balance the need to concretize the abstract concepts into the lesson plans that were suitable for primary students to understand, taking into account the transfer of science content knowledge and focusing on cultivating a sense of sustainable development for primary students. There is also the challenge of designing activities that are both interesting and educational so that the children not only learn but also enjoy themselves. However, I think such design is necessary since our future world needs such a new generation with the sense of responsibility and the realization of sustainable development. As future teachers, we should be responsible to make sure that the children develop the right values at their early ages”.

Another participant, Student E, expressed her feelings and transformation during the simulated teaching:

“I was a bit nervous when standing at the “podium” in front of the classmates and worrying that my performance would not be perfect. At the same time, translating the concept of the SDGs into a form that primary students could understand requires a lot of creativity and ingenuity. At times, I wondered if my ideas were appealing enough to primary students. Nevertheless, the simulated teaching practices were very helpful in improving my confidence and pedagogical competencies. It allows me to recognize the problems that I may encounter in the practical teaching and prepare for them in advance. I believe that such training has brought me one step closer to become a qualified teacher”.

5. Discussion and Conclusions

Teaching practice is a critical method for developing qualified future teachers and serves as an effective means to promote the application of ESD in science education [45]. This study sought to integrate unconventional instructional components, such as teaching practice and the SDGs, into a traditional science education course to explore new paths for the growth and development of future primary school teachers in terms of teaching science. The future primary school teachers identified that they had developed pedagogical and ESD competencies through the teaching practices. Although there was a discrepancy between the participants’ self-rated scores and instructor-rated scores for pedagogical competencies during the teaching practices, the variance may stem from a misjudgment of their actual pedagogical competencies, or a small number of students may have evaluated their own performances without careful consideration. Nevertheless, the dedication and excellence of the majority of student teachers in the teaching process is undeniable.

Another notable finding is that attempts to integrate the SDGs into science education could impact the pedagogical competency of future primary teachers. While a limited number of empirical studies on this topic exist [14,57,63], few studies have been carried out to take a closer look at the specific relationship between ESD and pedagogical competencies. The implementation of ESD in teacher education or science education requires innovative and transformative approaches to teaching and learning [18,40,57]. Students also need to pay attention to CK and PCK beyond the preset content of the primary science curriculum, such as the issues and challenges faced in the process of sustainable development, and the actions and measures that are necessary to deal with these challenges [6]. The similarity between the student teachers’ self-rated scores for pedagogical competencies (78.24%) and ESD competencies (77.27%) indicates that the appropriate integration of the SDGs and ESD in the preparation and design of primary science teaching and learning is unlikely to hinder the development of the student teachers’ pedagogical competencies.

Additionally, the competencies and commitment of future teachers towards sustainable development are key for the successful implementation of ESD in school practices [64]. Content analysis of the student teachers’ lesson plans and questionnaire responses indicated that the future teachers had developed various types of competencies and that they generally held a positive and receptive attitude towards the course integration. A certain number of student teachers claimed a strong willingness to incorporate knowledge of sustainable development into their lesson materials and teaching experiences. This finding is in line with several previous studies [63,65,66,67]. After the course instructor introduced pertinent knowledge and carried out specific teaching sessions, the student teachers were provided with adequate opportunities and space to improve their pedagogical and ESD competencies, thereby gradually deepening their understanding of sustainable development and sustainability. Such foundational preparation is of considerable practical importance for these future primary teachers and change agents in their future endeavors towards achieving the SDGs.

Nevertheless, we need to clearly recognize that it is not easy to infuse the concepts of sustainable development into the minds of every educated individual [10,68]. On the one hand, primary school science teachers should consider how to translate the relatively complicated ideas and concepts of sustainable development and sustainability into knowledge that is accessible to the pupils through instructional design and implementation, so that this group of students can better understand the content and importance of sustainable development. On the other hand, it is necessary for students to realize that they are agents of change, and that profound transformations in the way they think and act are required [45]. They also need to assume corresponding social responsibilities and obligations, to balance the relationship between society, economy, culture, and environment, and thereafter to engage more actively in the process of advancing the realization of the SDGs [16,31].

A limitation of this study is that the design and implementation of the science education course were not exclusively based on established ESD methodologies. When the challenges of achieving transformative change for sustainability at the institutional level are encountered, it is imperative to consider how to effectively integrate the SDGs and ESD into everyday teacher and science education courses while other parts remain unchanged, such as combining relevant content and knowledge with the original course design or developing stand-alone units [63,69]. On the other hand, although the student teachers enrolled in the course agreed to participate in this study, not all of them provided valid data. The investigator, in collaboration with those involved in data compilation, meticulously screened, collected, and consolidated data from the scores, lesson plans, and questionnaires completed by the participants to finalize the data set. Although the number of responses was limited, it was relatively authentic, objective, and valid. This pilot study represents an initial exploration, and further sorting and in-depth analysis of the data are required. The design and implementation of the future primary teacher science education course need to be refined and improved, for instance, by incorporating project-based and problem-based teaching methods, or by increasing opportunities for real-context practices and decision making for both students and teachers. In addition to the continuous improvement in content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and motivational aspects for both the investigator and the participants, the support of the society, schools, policy makers, and practitioners in science and teacher education is crucial as well.