Perceptions and Competence of Turkish Pre-service Science Teachers with regard to Entrepreneurship

Abstract

The aim of this study is both to determine the perceptions of pre-service science teachers towards the concepts of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial characteristics and to investigate the perceptions of pre-service science teachers regarding transferring the entrepreneurial characteristics to students. This study is designed as a qualitative study and a phenomenological research approach is used. A total of 12 pre-service science teachers from grades 5 to 8 participated in the study. Data were gathered through the use of semi-structured interviews. The data were evaluated through both descriptive and content analysis. The results show that the perceptions of the 12 pre-service science teachers indicated a limited and inadequate understanding of the concept of entrepreneurship, based on their interviews. From these results, it can be said that there is a need to develop educational content in such a way as to increase pre-service science teachers’ knowledge and experience with regard to entrepreneurship in science teacher training.