The Influence of Previous Biology Lessons on Prospective Teachers’ Beliefs About Learning Biology

Professional teaching competence is significantly influenced by beliefs about learning. Prospective teachers start their teacher training at university with quite persistent beliefs about learning processes. Beliefs about learning can be differentiated into two perspectives: beliefs about student learning and beliefs about one’s own learning. Theoretical considerations suggest that the latter influence beliefs about student learning and both perspectives are influenced by the way in which prospective teachers experienced their own lessons as pupils at school. We investigated how prospective biology teachers remembered their own biology lessons and how these experiences influenced their beliefs about learning regarding both perspectives. The sample consisted of 164 prospective biology teachers (M age = 21.58 years, SD age = 2.5, 66.02% female) in Germany. Results of a simple mediation model indicate that previous experiences in biology lessons had an impact on both perspectives. Moreover, we found that the influence that previous lessons had on the beliefs about student learning was fully mediated by one’s beliefs about own learning processes. This suggests that experiences from one’s own schooling have an impact on how teachers view learning of their students. As implications for teacher training and future research, our findings suggest that both perspectives of beliefs need to be further taken into account and that an explicit focus on beliefs about teachers’ own learning is needed.

Beliefs about teaching and learning range on a continuum from instructivist to constructivist views (Porcaro, 2011;Zaruba et al., 2021). Researchers in the field of science teacher education advocate using a constructivist approach to teaching and learning (Treagust et al., 1996;Hartinger et al., 2006;Voss et al., 2013). Studies suggest, that the instructional behavior is related to prospective teachers' beliefs about learning processes (Stipek et al., 2001;Staub and Stern, 2002;Dubberke et al., 2008;Weißeno et al., 2013). For example, teachers who hold constructivist beliefs offer their learners more opportunities to make choices in the learning process. In such lessons, learners feel more self-determined and report higher levels of interest (Hartinger et al., 2006). The positive impacts of constructivist beliefs manifest themselves in, for example, increased learning success (Staub and Stern, 2002).
Theoretical considerations based on a small body of research suggest that the beliefs about learning are influenced by the learning environment the prospective teachers experienced during their schooling (Kagan, 1992a;Kagan, 1992b;Pajares, 1992;Skamp and Mueller, 2001;Woolfolk Hoy et al., 2006;Da-Silva et al., 2007;Mellado et al., 2007;Markic and Eilks, 2013;Zaruba et al., 2021). In Germany, natural sciences are not taught as a single subject, but in three different subjects (i.e., chemistry, biology and physics). Such instruction requires subject-specific teacher training in which subject-specific knowledge and beliefs are acquired (see Großschedl et al., 2019). School lessons in Germany are typically divided into 45-min intervals and can include segments of instruction as well as segments of experiments. In the current study, we focus on prospective biology teachers. The findings regarding the implementation of constructivist teaching styles in German secondary biology classes are based on little research (Fischer et al., 2003;Dorfner et al., 2017). However, constructivist didactics has been the dominant paradigm in biology teacher education for more than two decades in Germany (Hartinger et al., 2006;Voss et al., 2013). Hence, the aim of this study was to examine how prospective biology teachers' previously experienced biology school lessons affect their beliefs about learning.

Beliefs About Learning
Research has brought beliefs about learning to center stage (Prawat, 1992) because they influence the classroom learning environment in terms of teachers' action-guiding preferences (Baumert et al., 2004). These preferences are considered to be a part of teachers' professional competence (Dann, 2000;Kleickmann, 2008;Baumert and Kunter, 2013). Beliefs about learning biology refer to a specific domain and are assigned to the subject-specific pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for science (Magnusson et al., 1999). In line with Magnusson et al. (1999), we classify beliefs about learning biology as a specific facet of preservice teachers' PCK: "concepts of learning in a scientific subject" (Bromme, 1992;Borko and Putnam, 1996;Krauss et al., 2008;Kleickmann et al., 2010). Like Kleickmann et al. (2010), we conceptualize beliefs as an amalgam of epistemologically validated knowledge aspects (Magnusson et al., 1999) and the teachers' subjective experiences and assumptions (Kleickmann, 2008;Lloyd and Wilson, 1998;Pajares, 1992;Richardson, 1996;Richardson, 2003).
There are numerous views on teaching and learning which can be sorted on a continuum from instructivist to constructivist views (Porcaro, 2011). The current study focuses on constructivist beliefs in order to concentrate on a clearly defined set of beliefs that have been advocated for regarding the teaching of the natural sciences (Widodo and Duit, 2004;Cakir, 2008). Constructivist beliefs have been well described in pertinent literature (Buelens et al., 2002;Dubberke et al., 2008;Kleickmann et al., 2010). From a constructivist point of view, learning is an active, constructive, intentional, conscious, reflexive, and social process (Drechsel, 2001;Glasersfeld, 2001;Reinmann and Mandl, 2006). Not all of those characteristics are distinct from other learning theories (Porcaro, 2011;Yilmaz, 2011) and Terhart (2003) assumes that characteristics describing constructivist learning might actually describe good learning from every theoretical point of view. A key assumption of the constructivist learning approach is that learners need to integrate new information into their own thinking processes and individual knowledge structures (Dubs, 2009). In the constructivist epistemology the teacher is not able to induce the construction of clearly defined knowledge (Porcaro, 2011). Thus, the focus is on the learning process itself and not on the result (Dubs, 1995). Constructivist teaching is characterized by allowing for individual learning paths (Buelens et al., 2002;Marsch et al., 2009) and students' own wording and solutions (Reinmann and Mandl, 2006) as well as errors (Dubs, 1995). During collaborative phases students negotiate the intersubjective meaning of what they experienced and thought, individually (Porcaro, 2011). The role of the teachers is to facilitate students' own knowledge construction (Porcaro, 2011) by providing appropriate tasks (Marsch et al., 2009) and relating the course content and methods to the previous experiences and interests of their students (Dubs, 1995). The tasks should enable students to discover principles which are presented in their authentic contexts (Marsch et al., 2009). To sum up constructivist beliefs about teaching and learning should reflect a learner-centered teaching style and learning as an active coconstruction of knowledge. Brauer et al. (2015) differentiate beliefs about learning into two perspectives: beliefs about student learning and about one's own learning processes (Brauer and Wilde, 2018). However, the term beliefs about learning has generally been used synonymously with beliefs about students' learning and no distinction between the two perspectives was made. To successfully professionalize prospective teachers, a distinct view of those two perspectives seems crucial (Brown et al., 2013).

Perspectives of Beliefs
The teaching profession is a special occupational field because prospective teachers have already gained previous experiences prior to their formal training at universities. Pajares (1992) describes prospective teachers as "insiders" who have gained many years of first-hand experience (p. 323; Woolfolk Hoy et al., 2006). Kleickmann et al. (2012) point out that, as a result, prospective teachers start their university education with various distinct conceptions about the teaching and learning process, which are largely based on their own experiences as students at school (Windschitl, 2003). These experiences with various teaching and learning styles influence their beliefs regarding both perspectives, their own learning and students' learning (Huibregtse et al., 1994;Stofflett and Stoddart, 1994;Da-Silva et al., 2007). This can be explained by anticipatory socialization (Kohli, 1986), which describes an anticipatory preoccupation with the field of action even before the actual activity begins. Kagan (1992b) presumes that the subjective assumptions are preferred over the formally acquired knowledge in university education.
A distinct analysis of the two perspectives reveals that beliefs about student learning are influenced by beliefs about one's own learning processes (Brauer and Wilde, 2018;Kleickmann et al., 2012;Meyer, Tabachnick et al., 1999;Schumacher et al., 2018). This can be explained by the origin of both perspectives: At first prospective teachers develop beliefs about their own learning process and subsequently form their beliefs about student learning (Meyer et al., 1999). Prospective teachers' experiences from their own school time can lead them to justify learning approaches and deal with the learning difficulties of their students on the basis of their own experiences and preferences (Nespor, 1987;Kagan, 1992b;Simmons et al., 1999;Woolfolk Hoy et al., 2006;Kellner et al., 2011). This is particularly the case for prospective teachers without any practical experience (Meyer et al., 1999) because they have not had sufficient opportunities to reflect on their views on teaching and learning. When it comes to those teachers, Kagan (1992a) suggests instructing them on the basis of their previous educational experiences. Brown et al. (2013) concur and argue that the lessons they have experienced should also be integrated into teacher training in order for them to break the didactic cycle of learning and teaching. To the authors' knowledge there are only a few international studies that explore the instructional quality of the present teaching in schools. For mathematics, Handal (2003) was able to show that teachers predominantly represent instructivist beliefs about teaching and learning. Koballa et al. (2000) describe the majority of teachers' beliefs in chemistry as reproductive. Such a tendence was found in other studies [Klinghammer et al., 2016 (physics); Ferguson and Bråten, 2018;Southerland and Gess-Newsome, 1999 (not subjectspecific)]. The few existing studies indicate that German prospective biology teachers generally hold constructivist beliefs about learning at the beginning of the university-level teacher training (Schumacher and Wilde, 2021;Brauer et al., 2014;Markic et al., 2006). However, there is still a lack of conclusive evidence about the design of recent biology learning environments at German schools (Dorfner et al., 2017;Fischer et al., 2003;Widodo and Duit, 2004;Widodo and Duit, 2005).

HYPOTHESES
Prospective teachers' beliefs about learning are rooted in their experiences from their own school time (Kagan, 1992b;Skamp and Mueller, 2001;Da-Silva et al., 2007). Several studies have investigated the influence of the lessons (prospective) teachers experienced at school on the beliefs about learning (Kagan, 1992b;Woolfolk Hoy et al., 2006). However, these findings are based on mostly qualitative studies with small sample sizes. In line with the findings of these studies, previously experienced biology lessons were assumed to be a predictor of the development of beliefs about constructivist student learning. Because beliefs about one's own learning process influence teachers' beliefs about student learning, they are considered to be a mediator (Brauer and Wilde, 2018;Meyer et al., 1999). Thus, we hypothesized that: The biology lessons prospective teachers experienced during their schooling predict the presence of constructivist beliefs about student learning. This direct relationship is mediated by the constructivist beliefs about one's own learning processes.

Sample and Procedure
The sample consisted of N 164 prospective secondary schoollevel biology teachers (M age 21.58 years, SD age 2.5, 66.02% female) from one university in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. A questionnaire was administered during the first session of the lecture "Introduction to Biology Education". Participation in the survey was a voluntary part of the lecture. This was the first time these students were confronted with didactic topics in their biology teacher training at university, although the lecture was 1.5 years after the start of their university education. At the beginning of their teacher training in biology, students take courses on the basics of biology. Didactic topics in biology are first taught in the examined lecture (Bielefeld University, 2021). Thus, it can be assumed that this was the first time that they had been confronted with constructivist views about teaching and learning biology during the first phase of teacher training at university. This time point was selected in order to be able to assess the subject-specific constructivist beliefs without inducing a potential bias in their answers due to their university studies. Having heard about constructivist biology teaching before assessing prospective teachers' experiences at school and their beliefs about biology learning would have influenced the knowledge facet of their PCK and might also have confounded their memories about their schooling.

Measurement
Biology lessons experienced at school. An adapted and extended version of the short questionnaire for the analysis of a constructivist learning process (Basten et al., 2015) was used to assess the participants' experienced secondary-level biology lessons (EBL; see Table 1 and Supplementary Material). The original instrument was designed and validated to assess the constructivist design characteristics of a school lesson according to Reinmann and Mandl (2006). In our study we adapted the instrument by asking the participants to rate the learning environments in the last biology lessons they experienced at school. This retrospective analysis offers the possibility to record the experienced school biology lessons quantitatively without a longitudinal data set. Five-point rating scales coded from 0 to 4 were used Frontiers in Education | www.frontiersin.org July 2021 | Volume 6 | Article 707746 (0 "strongly disagree" to 4 "strongly agree"). Internal consistency, reported as Cronbach's alpha, was satisfactory for both scales (see Table 1; Lienert and Raatz, 1998).
Beliefs about constructivist learning. An extended version of the C-questionnaire, which assesses the constructivist beliefs about learning of prospective biology teachers, was applied (Brauer et al., 2015). The questionnaire was specifically designed for students who aim to become biology teachers and is the only published and validated instrument, which assesses both perspectives -the constructivist beliefs about one's own learning processes (BOL) and beliefs about student learning (BSL) -with two scales (Brauer and Wilde, 2018). Seven-point rating scales coded from 0 to 6 were used (0 "not true at all" to 6 "totally true"). Internal consistency, reported as Cronbach's alpha, was also satisfactory (see Table 1 and Supplementary Material).

Statistics
The statistical analysis was executed with IBM SPSS Statistics 26. A simple mediation analysis with the SPSS macro PROCESS 3.3 (Hayes, 2018) was performed. The dependent variable beliefs about constructivist student learning (Y) was hypothesized to be predicted by the independent variable previously experienced biology lessons (X). The prediction of X on Y is mediated by the assumed mediator beliefs about one's own learning processes (M). To estimate the significance of the indirect effect, we calculated the 95% confidence intervals based on the bootstrap resampling method with 10,000 iterations together with heteroscedasticity consistent standard errors (Davidson and MacKinnon, 1993). If the confidence interval for the indirect effect did not include zero, there was a significant mediation effect (Hayes, 2018).

RESULTS
We were interested in the effects of the students' previously experienced biology lessons at school on their current beliefs about their own learning processes and beliefs about student learning. All variables correlated significantly with average to high effect sizes (Cohen, 1988; see Table 2). A simple mediation model was performed to analyze whether the previous biology lessons at school predicted constructivist beliefs about student learning and whether the direct path would be mediated by the constructivist beliefs about one's own learning processes. Table 3 provides the results of the regression analyses.
A significant effect of previously experienced biology lessons at school on constructivist beliefs about student learning was observed (Model 1, total effect c: β 0.32, p < 0.001). After entering the mediator, the previously experienced biology lessons significantly predicted the mediator (constructivist beliefs about one's own learning processes; Model 2, a: β 0.37, p < 0.001). In turn, the mediator constructivist beliefs about one's own learning processes predicted the beliefs about constructivist student learning significantly (Model 3, b: β 0.48, p < 0.001). After entering the mediator into the model, the direct effect of previously experienced biology lessons on constructivist beliefs about student learning was no longer significant (Model 3, direct effect c': β 0.14, ns). As a result, the relationship between the students' previously experienced biology lessons at school and the constructivist beliefs about student learning was fully mediated by the constructivist beliefs about one's own learning processes [indirect effect ab: β 0.18, 95%-KI (0.10, 0.26)]. For an overview of the results, the simple mediation model is illustrated in Figure 1. 1 | Scales are shown below. For each scale, the number of items and the internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) is listed. An example item for each scale is provided. Previously experienced biology lessons (EBL), constructivist beliefs about student learning (BSL) and constructivist beliefs about one's own learning processes (BOL).

Scale (item number)
Example α

EBL (27)
"I was able to choose how to study." 0.90 BSL (7) "Important for the learning process of school students is that they can develop their own ideas." 0.79 BOL (7) "When it comes to my learning process it is important that I can develop my own ideas." 0.82

DISCUSSION
In our study, we focused on understanding the origin of prospective biology teachers' beliefs about learning. We wanted to analyze whether their beliefs about student learning were influenced by the biology lessons they had experienced during their school time. Furthermore, we were interested in whether this relationship was mediated by their beliefs about their own learning processes. The influence of prospective teachers' experienced lessons at school on their beliefs has been discussed in previous studies (Pajares, 1992;Da-Silva et al., 2007;Mellado et al., 2007). However, there was a lack of empirical evidence for their assumed relationship. This study extends the understanding of the influence of future teachers' own experiences as students at school on their beliefs about learning by distinguishing beliefs about students' biology learning and own biology learning (Brauer et al., 2015;Brauer and Wilde, 2018;Schumacher et al., 2018). As a further contribution to the existing findings, this study conducted a regression analysis of the relationship between experienced lessons at school and beliefs about learning. It could be shown that the beliefs about one's own learning had an impact on the beliefs about student learning among prospective teachers at the beginning of their university-level teacher education. Furthermore, the effect of the experienced biology lessons at school on the beliefs about students' biology learning was fully mediated through prospective teachers' beliefs about their own biology learning. Therefore, it can be assumed that the currently predominant focus on (prospective) teachers' beliefs about their students' learning ) falls short.
As implications for teacher training and future research, our findings rather suggest that the perspective of beliefs about one's own learning needs to be taken into account, additionally, and that an explicit focus on experiences from future teachers' own schooling is needed (Kagan, 1992b). Moreover, the development of these two perspectives of beliefs during teacher education needs to be analyzed more closely. The awareness of the two belief perspectives should be facilitated during teacher training since (prospective) teachers have to counter the problem of transferring one's own learning difficulties to their students' difficulties (Nespor, 1987;Kagan, 1992a;Simmons et al., 1999;Woolfolk Hoy et al., 2006). In tertiary-level teacher education, little attention has been paid to students' previous experiences at school and their beliefs about their own learning processes. Thus, the knowledge and experiences the prospective teachers acquire during their school time are intended to be "replaced" rather than reflected on when it comes to future practice. As a result, previously formed beliefs about learning are deepened without adequate reflection (Hellmann, 2019). Teacher education programs need to reveal these deeply rooted beliefs in order to help students understand how they influence the way they develop learning environments for their learners Kellner et al., 2011;Fives et al., 2015). Our study measured the prospective teachers' beliefs about learning biology from two perspectives and their relationship to experiences at school. In a next step, future studies should apply a longitudinal design in order to track the development of the beliefs during first and potentially second phase of teacher training. Future research should also assess additional variables related to the personal learning biography of the prospective teachers in order to gain a deeper insight into the development of their beliefs. There were also some limitations to our study. The results of the retrospective assessment of the experienced biology lessons at school need to be interpreted carefully. The problem with this type of retrospective longitudinal study is that memory effects and selective perception cannot be controlled for (Döring and Bortz, 2016). The study was conducted during the first lecture of a course on the theories about learning biology. Hence, the constructivist approach is one of the main topics that would be covered in the course at a later date. Therefore, there is the possibility that students answered in a socially desired manner. Still, the present study can serve as a basis for further longitudinal studies. To address the issue of a potentially socially desired answer another measuring point could be added at the end of the lecture. This would also further expand the understanding of the development of teachers' beliefs. Since all participants of this study were recruited from the same university the inferences that can be drawn from it are limited. It would therefore be beneficial to extend it to other universities for a more diverse sample that allows for more general conclusions. Furthermore, the study focused on prospective biology teachers and the beliefs about teaching and learning biology. From a cross-cultural perspective, the specific focus on biology can be considered fragmentary regarding a comprehensive science education. On the other hand, the singular condition in a. o. Germany that science is taught as three distinct subjects provides the opportunity to investigate different aspects of science, individually. A comparison of findings on beliefs about science teaching and learning and beliefs about biology, physics and chemistry teaching and learning, respectively, might provide a more detailed view on (prospective) teachers' beliefs as well as the relationships among them. These considerations should be taken up in future research.
Finally, the effect sizes of the regression coefficients were moderate which means that the beliefs about one's own learning as well as indirectly the beliefs about student learning cannot be fully explained by prospective teachers' experiences during their own school time. Further studies should aim at revealing other factors that substantially influence prospective teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning biology as well as other subjects.

CONCLUSION FOR EDUCATIONAL PRACTICE
One way to increase prospective teachers' awareness of the beliefs they hold (Brown et al., 2013) could be to use interventions based on the theoretical concept of research-based learning (Huber, 2009). While conducting their own research projects on teaching methods, students deal with authentic teaching problems and at the same time are required to engage in (self-)reflection (Huber, 2009). The aim of this approach is to promote future teachers' ability to reflect in the sense of a "reflective practitioner" (Schön, 1987). This can be achieved, in particular, through university training (Hatton and Smith, 1995;Kellner et al., 2011). Various studies have found positive results stemming from this form of university guidance (Brouwer and Korthagen, 2005;Gröschner et al., 2013;Schumacher et al., 2018). Reflection on one's beliefs about learning should explicitly include raising the two perspectives. This kind of university teaching might also foster a preference for the use of constructivist teaching methods as a biology teacher. Another way to model constructivist teaching might be teaching the concept of constructivism using other forms of inquiry learning not attached to student research projects on teaching methods instead of a lecture (Windschitl, 2003). These approaches might be a more fruitful way to break through the didactic cycle of learning and teaching mentioned by Huibregtse et al. (1994) because reflecting on one's beliefs regarding both perspectives is indispensable for changing established views on learning and teaching (Gregoire, 2003;Philipp, 2007). Addressing this issue at an early stage of teacher training appears to be the best starting point since prospective teachers are more open to reform-related changes in their beliefs than experienced teachers (Fives and Buehl, 2012). In future studies, the effects of such types of research-or inquiry-based learning activities on future teachers' constructivist beliefs should be investigated. A common assumption in the context of teacher education is that "teachers teach the way they were taught" (e.g., Lortie, 1975, "Apprenticeship of observation"). This means that teachers already have a rich educational biography with quite persistent beliefs about good and bad teaching before they actually start their teacher education at university. To verify this assumption, it is important to assess how teachers were taught in their own school years. This was addressed in this study, by assessing the experiences of their own biology lessons at school. In order to be able to deduce whether these experiences from their own school biology lessons might have an influence on their future teaching, the connection between experiences and beliefs about learning were investigated. The study thus provided empirical evidence and a better understanding of the much-described phenomenon mentioned by Lortie (1975) and other authors. Stofflett (1994) points out that reflecting on one's own experiences (conceptual change) is a necessary condition for a successful teacher education in order to break the didactic circle of teaching and learning described above (Huibregtse et al., 1994). In the context of the conceptual change approach (Patrick and Pintrich, 2001), pre-service teachers should be exposed to alternative teaching and learning methods while engaging in research-based learning in order for them to scrutinize their own beliefs and the experiences from their own school lessons.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

ETHICS STATEMENT
Ethical review and approval was not required for the study on human participants in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. Written informed consent for participation was not required for this study in accordance with the national legislation and the institutional requirements.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work and approved it for publication.

FUNDING
We acknowledge support for the publication costs by the Open Access Publication Fund of Bielefeld University.