Investigation of the pre-service science teachers’ opinions about the concept of “Semi-conductor”

Abstract

In the current study, the purpose was to determine the pre-service science teachers’ opinions about the concept of semi-conductor. The participants of the current study carried out in 2015-2016 academic year were 55 third year pre-service science teachers. In the study, open-ended questions were used to determine the pre-service teachers’ opinions about semi-conductors. After the administration of the open-ended questions, the students were taught the topic of semi-conductors within the lesson of special issues in physics. Then the open-ended questions were directed to the pre-service teachers again. The pre-service teachers’ responses to these questions were categorized by using qualitative analysis method and their frequency values were obtained. The findings of the study revealed that the pre-service teachers had difficulties, before and after the administration of the questions, in defining semi-conductors. At the end of the study, the pre-service teachers were found to have some misconceptions; for example, they think that semi-conductors conduct the half of the electricity conducted by conductors. In the study, it was found that the pre-service teachers cannot define the concept of semi-conductor and this might indicate that they will not be able to teach this concept when they become teachers. In this connection, it can be suggested that studies and activities performed for teaching of abstract concepts such as conductor, semi-conductor, and insulator should be increased.