Enhancing Preservice Teachers’ Understanding of Circulation System Concepts, Attitude and Motivation

Nazlı Gökben Atilboz

doi:10.52134/ueader.989718

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of the learning cycle instruction on preservice elementary teachers’ understanding of human circulatory system concepts, attitudes towards biology and motivations. The Human Circulatory System Concepts Test, Attitude Towards Biology Scale, Science Process Skills Test and Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire were used to collect data. The test was administered to preservice elementary teachers in control and experimental groups. The quasi-experimental design was used as research design. The analysis of covariance revealed a statistically significant difference in favor of the experimental group after treatment. The learning cycle instruction was more effective when compared with teacher-centered instruction in eliminating the students’ misconceptions about the circulatory system. There was no significant effect of the learning cycle instruction on students’ attitudes towards biology and motivation. Students’ prior knowledge and science process skills were related to students’ science achievement. Teacher educators should provide preservice teachers with different opportunities of experiencing the learning cycle as a teacher in teacher education programs.

Highlights

The technological advancements and global changes in the world have increased the importance of responsibilities and goals of science education to develop scientific literacy and scientific inquiry skills in recent years
Menon and Sadler (2016) emphasized that preservice teacher education programs must provide new training and positive changes to encourage the improvement of conceptual understanding and science self-efficacy beliefs because science conceptual understandings are related to science teaching efficacy beliefs
While the lessons in the experimental group were educated by the learning cycle method, lessons in the control group were only educated through the teacher-centered methods

Summary

Introduction

The technological advancements and global changes in the world have increased the importance of responsibilities and goals of science education to develop scientific literacy and scientific inquiry skills in recent years. It is expected from teachers more innovative roles and responsibilities to provide quality in science education. More recent studies in science education focused on the understanding of how students learn, students’ and preservice teachers’ alternative conceptions. Science understanding of preservice teachers is important to teach science effectively and for promoting conceptual learning in their students. It can be critical to implement new practices for preservice teachers’ learning cycle and inquirybased instruction for our instruction and developing activities based on the learning cycle as a teacher in teacher education programs (Hanuscin & Lee, 2008; Kazempour, Amirshokoohi & Blamey, 2020)

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