Analyzing Pre-Service Science Teachers' Physics Materials

Abstract

Misconceptions are problematic issues not only for students, but also for teachers in science education. As a result, for more than fifty years, misconceptions have often been a focus of interest for researchers. Recently, with the influence of STEM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics) education approach, material design has become an important aspect within science courses. The material development course in science teaching programs is a unique opportunity to evaluate pre-service science teachers' material designs. In this study, pre-service science teachers' physics materials were subjected to criticism, while the authors discussed the misconceptions in their designs. The photos and notes with regards to the collected materials were the data for educational technologies and material design course , which, in fact, is a compulsory course in all Turkish science education curricula. In the study, content analysis technique, as one of the qualitative analysis methods was used. There were 27 materials and lesson plans in total, concerning the physics phenomena. The findings are presented under the titles of energy, light, sound, and electricity. Only three of the materials were linked to a misconception. What can be recognized as a more critical finding in this research was the unwillingness of the participant pre-service teachers. Other than a small number of misconceptions, most of the participants chose to design either too simple, easy to build, easy to find, digital, or irrelevant materials. These findings are discussed with an effort to settle not only the misconceptions, but also the unwillingness.