To infer points to consider for redesigning the teacher-training program, 32 participants at the University of the Ryukyus who wished to earn lower secondary school science teacher certification took a science examination (60-point full marks), which was the 2014 Okinawa prefectural upper secondary school entrance examination. Their answers were analyzed.
The respective average mark and correct answer rate were 41.1 points and 69.0%. Mann–Whitney U tests found no significant difference in average marks according to college difference, gender, or hometown. Medium positive correlation was found between the participants and lower secondary school students preparing for the examination with regard to the percentage of correct answers, which suggests that “questions that were difficult for the students were also difficult for the study participants”. Academic development of teachers is necessary to improve the academic achievement of students. Most questions that all low-scoring students solved wrong and those which were answered correctly by the study participants less frequently than the upper secondary school preparatory students were questions designed to evaluate knowledge and understanding. For three questions evaluating analytical thinking, decision-making, and expression, the participants’ percentages of correct answers were much smaller than the estimated percentages of correct answers. Three questions were left unanswered by four or more participants: one evaluated knowledge understanding to answer using Kanji; the others were questions that evaluated participants’ skill in using numerical calculations in the Earth Science area. Related to this result, seven participants commented “Science learning of the past relied on memorization, mainly to prepare for exams”. Because many of them had learned with reliance on memorization, the fixing of knowledge was weak. Knowledge had been learned by rote without understanding scientific phenomena or how to solve problems logically.