Turkish Pre-service Science Teachers Research Articles

Laboratory Use Self-Efficacy of Turkish Pre-Service Science Teachers Trained in Different Teacher Education Programmes

In Türkiye, the science teacher education programme changed in 2018. While physics, chemistry and biology courses were taught through theoretical and laboratory applications in the previous programme (Programme-I), the course hours of these courses were reduced and laboratory hours were abolished in the new programme (Programme-II). The present research, which adopts a causal-comparative design of quantitative research, aims to compare the laboratory self-efficacy of pre-service science teachers who attended these two science teacher education programmes. The research data was collected from 289 pre-service science teachers educated in Programme-I and II through the science laboratory use self-efficacy scale and then analysed using the independent samples t-test. The results show that the total scores of laboratory use self-efficacy of pre-service science teachers trained in Programme-I is significantly higher. The scores of the pre-service science teachers from Programme-I were also found to be significantly higher than those from Programme-II in terms of the sub-dimensions using the physical environment and equipment, working independently, and crisis management. On the other hand, there was no significant difference between the two programmes in the sub-dimension applying scientific process skills. These results and their implications are discussed in the light of current literature.

Comparison of Turkish Pre-Service Science Teachers and Secondary School Students within the Scope of Natural History Topics

"Natural history includes the period from the formation of the Earth to recent times and all the changes it has gone through throughout this vast period. The biggest challenge in understanding natural history is the age of the Earth. Even though natural history is quite difficult to understand, pre-service science teachers are expected to be knowledgeable about this matter to a fundamental degree. Therefore, this study aims to determine the knowledge levels of secandary school students and pre-service science teachers on some natural history topics and compare compare these two groups in this context. . To conduct such research in which a qualitativenatured case study design was used, the data obtained through 15 open-ended questions were analyzed through content analysis. As a result, percentages of correct answers regarding the time perception component were quite low both for secaondary students and pre-service science teachers. While both groups were close in the component of the transformation of the Earth, it was founden that students answered more questions correctly. As expected, pre-service teachers correctly answered more questions regarding the component of diversity of living things than the students."

Turkish Pre-service Teachers’ Understanding of Daily Life Phenomena Related to Chemistry and Compatibility with the Current Chemistry Curriculum

The aim of this study is to determine Turkish pre-service science teachers’ levels of chemical explanations of various daily life phenomena and to investigate whether these examples are in accordance with the high school chemistry curriculum in Turkey. This study was carried out with descriptive research methods. The participants are 71 freshmen pre-service science teachers in a state university in Turkey. The data of the study were collected with the “Chemical Explanations of Daily Phenomena” Questionnaire previously developed in the literature. The phenomena in the questionnaire were related to chemistry concepts such as diffusion, temperature, combustion reactions and the law of conservation of mass, isotopes, reaction rate, redox reactions, and mixtures and solutions. The answers were analyzed in three categories: correct, wrong, and can’t determine and the frequencies and percentages of the categories were determined. Also, the learning outcomes in the latest version of the Turkish high school chemistry curriculum were examined in order to determine whether they were related to the chemistry concepts in the questionnaire. Document analysis was utilized to analyze the learning outcomes in the chemistry curriculum. The findings of the study revealed that most of the pre-service teachers answered correctly the questions that are compatible with the chemistry curriculum. Their misconceptions were mostly related to heat transfer and specific heat capacity, the law of conservation of mass, and heavy water and isotopes. The findings indicated that future curriculum changes should integrate some important chemistry concepts closely related to everyday life, such as radioactivity and heat transfer.

What are Turkish Preservice Science Teachers’ Claims about Daily Life-Threatening Situations?

Abstract Introduction: Science courses involve a wide range of content. The benefits of science education become clear when science is applied to daily life because science has the capability of raising the quality of life by eliminating a variety of problems. Accordingly, as technological advances are made, daily life applications are frequently refreshed and improved. Though such improvements aim to make contributions to human life, many points still need to be considered carefully. In this study, we wanted to address this issue from the perspective of preservice science teachers. The target of the present study therefore is to investigate the claims of preservice science teachers about daily life-threatening situations which can be explained within the scope of their scientific knowledge of physics, chemistry and biology. Thus, the study will introduce examples given by preservice teachers regarding everyday situations that endanger daily life, along with their reasons for providing these examples. It will also be possible in this way to determine situations that were not mentioned by the participants. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted with a total of 153 third-year preservice science teachers studying in three different state universities in western Turkey. Data were collected with the help of a questionnaire consisting of three open-ended questions. Content analysis was utilized in the data analysis. The analysis results yielded themes and categories that the participants identified as daily life-threatening situations. An analysis was also made of why the participants chose to offer these particular examples. Results: According to the results, the most common daily life-threatening situations identified by the participants were electric shock (68.6%), which fell within the scope of their physics knowledge; not taking safety precautions while working with chemicals (74.5%), falling within the scope of their chemistry knowledge; and damaging nature (33.3%), which fell within the scope of their biology knowledge. The participants generally referred to health and environmental problems as the reasons leading them to provide their examples. Discussion: The study focused on the association of scientific knowledge with daily life, which is one of the aims of science education. The results indicated that preservice teachers associated their scientific knowledge with daily life-threatening situations at various levels. Also, the reasons they offered made connections with various health and environmental issues. In addition to the examples provided by the participants, several situations were seen to be ignored. Additionally, and in line with the literature, a few misconceptions were encountered in their explanations. Limitations: The present study was limited to the findings obtained from three state universities in Turkey. Similar investigations might be conducted in different countries so that further comparisons may be made possible in this context. Conclusion: To conclude, preservice science teachers were aware of various health and environmental issues with respect to the examples they offered. However, there were also gaps in their associations between scientific knowledge and daily life. The findings obtained from the present study might be used to design the content of courses (such as Environmental Science or Science Teaching Laboratory Practice) given in faculties of education, and to raise awareness among preservice teachers in this context.

Psychological modeling of preservice science teachers’ argumentativeness, achievement goals, and epistemological beliefs: a mixed design

This study was conducted to investigate the relationships among Turkish preservice science teachers’ argumentativeness, epistemological beliefs, and achievement goals, as well as the reasons for coherencies and incoherencies among these variables. A sequential explanatory research design was applied within the 2 following studies. In Study I, the data from 930 preservice science teachers were investigated with structural equation modeling analysis. This analysis presented evidence regarding the relationships among the variables of the study. For example, preservice science teachers’ scientific epistemological beliefs significantly predicted their argumentativeness and goal orientations. In Study II, 2 students were selected for each argument approach and argument avoidance cases. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and analyzed via a content analysis. The results of this study showed that participants’ self-construal impacted the relationships among their argumentativeness, goal orientations and scientific epistemological beliefs. An investigation of a more comprehensive belief system model including preservice science teachers’ self-construal is suggested considering the overall results.

Investigating Turkish Pre-service Science Teachers’ Moral Reasoning in Genetics related Socioscientific Issues

In this study, Turkish pre-service science teachers' moral reasoning patterns and the factors which influence their decisions while discussing genetics-related socio-scientific issues (SSI) were investigated. A basic qualitative approach was adopted for this purpose. Seven third-grade pre-service science teachers enrolled in the study. Semi-structured interviews for different genetics related SSI were conducted. The results revealed that decisions were generally based on the consequences of genetic applications (consequentialist) or based on moral principles or prescripts (principle-based). Most participants used consequence-based moral reasoning in their decisions, while principle-based moral reasoning was less used. They also used emotion-based moral reasoning. Their decisions were influenced by emotions, including empathy or sympathy toward the characters, or the unborn baby, in the scenarios. Additional and varied factors, including legal, ethical, economic, and technological concerns, were revealed as influential. Participants' decisions were also shaped by their own experiences, media resources, and faith in science. The implications for science teacher education programs are discussed.

Modelling pre-service science teachers’ pro-environmental behaviours in relation to psychological and cognitive variables

Grounded in large-scale studies, this research further investigates the nature of pro-environmental behaviours and related factors by selecting a nation-wide sample of Turkish pre-service science teachers as educators of future generations. We examined the relationships between pro-environmental behaviours and psychological and cognitive variables by evaluating the proposed theoretical model through path analysis. Data were collected from 1497 pre-service science teachers using environmental future scale, behaviour inventory of environmental action, knowledge of environmental issues scale, environmental attitude (ecocentric and anthropocentric) scale, and Environmental Action Internal Control Index. Highlighting the explanatory power of some cognitive and psychological attributes on pro-environmental behaviours in Turkey, this research identified attitudinal motives as the primary indicator of pro-environmental behaviours, compared to other constructs. Accordingly, the study implies that the promotion of pro-environmental behaviours could be achieved by redesigning the teacher education curriculum around the development of a realistic sense of hope and optimism via ecocentric worldviews.

Examination of Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions about Evolution Course

This is a study that explored 117 Turkish preservice science teachers’ views about evolution course. The data for the study were collected through a questionnaire that has open-ended questions. The preservice science teachers answered the questions by filling out the questionnaire at the beginning and end of the evolution course. Most of the preservice science teachers stated that they had many misconceptions and prejudice about the theory of evolution before taking this course. However, after taking it, they noticed that the theory of evolution is not only about human ancestors but it is related to all living things. Another important result of this study, as they have stated many times, evolution was a very interesting theory for them, and since meeting the theory, they had been asking too many questions to themselves and wondering and doing lots of research on it. All these results of this study show that evolution course was successful in engaging the preservice science teachers in evolution and enhancing their learning.

Preservice Science Teachers' Discrimination Level of Science and Pseudoscience

This quantitative study aimed to examine Turkish pre-service science teachers’ beliefs regarding the demarcating between science and pseudoscience. Participants completed the Science and Pseudoscience Distinction Scale. Data collected from the 123 pre-service science teachers were examined based on the dimensions of the instrument, namely science as a process of inquiry (SCI), demarcating between science and pseudoscience, and pseudoscientific beliefs (PS). This study found that these pre-service science teachers generally did not hold strong beliefs on distinguishing science and pseudoscience. Their beliefs regarding SCI were not highly favorable. Moreover, this study revealed that they had some PS. Considering the role of gender and year in the program, the results of two-way MANOVA indicated that there was no statistically significant difference on the related belief constructs for these pre-service science teachers. Thus, the present study intended to shed light on pre-service science teachers’ mindsets about identifying accurate scientific information rather than pseudoscientific confusions that could aid preparing scientifically literate students. It was shown that their teacher education program did not facilitate favorable beliefs. This study highlights some potential areas for further exploration of addressing pre-service science teachers’ discrimination skills of science and pseudoscience.

PRESERVICE SCIENCE TEACHERS’ VIEWS ABOUT SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY

The goals of this study are to determine the Turkish preservice science teachers’ views about scientific inquiry. In this research, simple descriptive survey is conducted for the purpose of describing pre-service science teachers’ views about scientific inquiry. For this purpose, “Views about Scientific Inquiry (VASI) Questionnaire” was utilized to collect data. Seventy two senior preservice teachers in a Science Teacher Education Program at a large university participated in this study. Data were collected using qualitative research methods of individual open-ended instrument, and semi-structured interviews. Findings revealed that the majority of the preservice teachers’ responses of the scientific inquiry aspects are naive. On the other hand, for only three aspects of SI, the pre-service science teachers have informed views. These aspects are inquiry procedures are guided by the question asked and all scientists performing the same procedures may not get the same results. In this research “All scientists performing the same procedures may not get the same results” was the best understood aspect of inquiry and “Scientific investigations all begin with a question” was the least understood aspect of inquiry. This lack of aspect means that senior PST were not well aware that investigations are based on questions. Also, data analysis indicated that preservice science teachers have difficulties with defining the experiment, observation, data, evidence, and different scientific methods. Article visualizations:

Turkish primary science teachers’ perceptions of an ideal teacher education system

The goals of this descriptive study were to determine Turkish pre-service science teachers’ perceptions of an ideal teacher education system. The sample consisted of 137 pre-service teachers, including 74 females and 63 males. The questionnaire was based on open-ended questions and was developed to investigate ideal teacher education system components as perceived by pre-service science teachers. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. The results of this study showed that the Turkish pre-service science teachers defined the ideal teacher education system components as the following: the personality of the teachers, the teacher educators as possessing professional knowledge, teacher education curriculum and professional development process. The results and implications of this study are discussed in the context of teacher education studies. Keywords: Teacher education, primary science teachers, ideal teacher education

From the Editors

Dear Colleagues
 It is a great honour for us to welcome you as Editors of Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences, which has accepted publications indexed in qualified databases since 2006. Our main aim is to increase the quality of the journal day by day. We are ready to publish the new issue of Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences, which has seven articles written by authors from Nigeria, Cyprus and Turkey.
 The aim of this issue is to give the researchers an opportunity to share their academic studies. First of all, I would like to thank all authors who have contributed to this issue. The focuses of the articles are varied. For example, Abdulrasaq Hamzat, Ganiyu Bello and Isaac Olakanmi Abimbola examined the effects of the computer animation instructional package on secondary school students’ achievement in practical biology in Ilorin, Nigeria. The researchers recommend that biology teachers should employ computer animation instructional packages to teach the practical aspects of photosynthesis, among other biology topics. On the other hand, Necla Işıkdoğan Uğurlu and Nilay Kayhan in their study intended to evaluate children with different special needs medically and educationally, and as a result of their evaluations, to identify families’ expectations, opinions and suggestions concerning the special education process, services and the functioning of special education institutions. The study results show that children who were diagnosed/evaluated at an early stage were integrated into education earlier and benefit more from special education institutions compared to other children.
 Another study was conducted by Muhammet Bastug, Hasan Kagan Keskin and Mustafa Akyol. It was observed in this research how the endurance status of fluent readers and poor readers changed as the text became lengthier. A total of 40 students who were attending the 4th grade in primary school, 20 of whom were fluent readers and other 20 were poor readers, participated in the research. At the end of the study, it was seen that fluent readers’ reading rates did not differ significantly from the beginning to end of the text, whereas poor readers’ reading rates differed in favour of the first parts of the text. Also, the aim of the study of Gönül Akçamete, Nilay Kayhan, Emel Sardohan Yildirim constitutes what professional ethical principles in the field of special education should be, the degree of importance of these principles, and examining the extent of compliance of individuals working in special education with these professional ethical principles according to experts and teachers. Moreover, the purpose of this study was to develop a scale of principles in professional ethics for specialists and educators working in special education and to conduct its validity and reliability studies. As a result, the findings of this study showed that the scale is a valid and reliable tool that can be used with individuals who are working in the special education field. Another descriptive study conducted by Hünkar Korkmaz and Ahmet Altındağ had the aim to determine Turkish pre-service science teachers’ perceptions of an ideal teacher education system. The results of this study showed that Turkish pre-service science teachers defined an ideal teacher education system with the following components: the personality of the teachers, the teacher educators as possessing professional knowledge, teacher education curriculum and the professional development process. The aim of the study of Hayat Boz and Yakup Dağlı is to address the contribution of applying qualitative research methods for identifying educational activities planned for adults. Also, Deniz Özcan and Huseyin Uzunboylu in their study analyse the need for curriculum development of special education teachers who work at special education centres and schools with resource rooms with regard to different variables and determine their perceptions of self-efficacy.
 I would like to express my thanks to all authors preferring the Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences to publish their articles, and to all reviewers working seriously in this process.
 Best regards,
 Editor-in-Chief
 Prof. Dr. Huseyin Uzunboylu
 Executive Editor
 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cigdem Hursen

The classroom observation protocol for socioscientific issue-based instruction: development and implementation of a new research tool

Background: For the past decade, science educators have been exploring the use of Socio-scientific Issues (SSI) as contexts for science teaching and learning, and research indicates that doing so can support significant learning gains. However, research related to how teachers take up the practice of SSI-based instruction is far more limited, due in part to a lack of tools for use in this kind of research.Purpose: The focus of this research is development and testing of a new classroom observation protocol specifically designed for SSI-based instructional contexts.Design and methods: Development of this SSI-Observation Protocol (SSI-OP) took place in four distinct phases: review of existing protocols and SSI-based instruction frameworks, writing and revision of protocol items, initial testing of the draft protocol, and soliciting feedback from SSI experts.Sample: Following the four stages of SSI-OP development, we progressed to a series of field tests. The field tests were conducted with three different samples. The first sample was an experienced (10 + years) high school biology teacher and one of her honors biology classes. The second sample consisted of seven Turkish Pre-service Science Teachers (PST) participating in a science methods course. The third sample included two Thai PST from a field experience course embedded within a teacher education program.Results: The final version of the protocol addressed five dimensions of SSI-based instructional activities: focus of instruction, teaching moves, role of teacher, role of students, and classroom environment.Conclusions: The SSI-OP could be used in a variety of ways for research including documentation of current practices, impacts of professional development and/or curricula on teaching practices, and changes in teaching over time. We offer the SSI-OP as a new tool with the potential to contribute to science teacher education and research that may advance the teaching and learning of science through SSI.

Turkish pre-service science teachers' awareness, beliefs, values, and behaviours pertinent to climate change

ABSTRACTThis study examined Turkish pre-service science teachers’ awareness, uncertainty beliefs, values, and behaviours pertinent to climate change. It aimed to determine significant predictors of climate change-related behaviours and uncertainty beliefs about the reality of climate change. A Turkish-adapted survey was administered to 1277 pre-service science teachers from different geographical regions of Turkey. While majority of the respondents were certain that climate change is happening, there were also indicators of uncertainties in such belief. Pre-service teachers who value nature for its own sake tended to show favourable behaviours to mitigating climate change. Disinterest in and scepticism about the reality of climate change did not emerge as significant determinants of climate change-related behaviours.

A Comparison of Swiss and Turkish Pre-service Science Teachers' Attitudes, Anxiety and Self-efficacy Regarding Educational Technology

In this study, pre-service science teachers' anxiety, self-efficacy and attitudes regarding educational technology were investigated. Given the increased emphasis on educational technology in the classroom, teachers' attitudes, anxiety and self-efficacy regarding educational technology are important. The study was conducted with a total of 726 pre-service science teachers enrolled in teacher education courses in Turkey and Switzerland. Three different questionnaires, with appropriate reliability and validity values, were used to collect data for pre-service science teachers' attitudes, anxiety and self-efficacy regarding education technology. The differences between the pre-service science teachers' attitudes, anxiety and self-efficacy regarding education technology were determined by t-test and one-way ANOVA. The data were analysed based on the dimensions of gender, country and age. Pearson's correlation coefficients were used for the relationships amongst the dependent variables. The findings revealed statistically significant differences amongst the pre-service science teachers' anxiety towards educational technology for all three dimensions (gender, country and age). Also, there were meaningful differences amongst the pre-service science teachers' self-efficacy in the three dimensions. When pre-service science teachers' attitudes towards educational technology were considered, there were only differences in the country dimension. The study revealed that pre-service science teachers had a high level of self-efficacy, an average level of anxiety and a high level of positive attitudes towards educational technology, and it also revealed that self-efficacy, anxiety and attitudes regarding educational technology are correlated.

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

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.

Swiss and Turkish Pre-service Science Teachers’ Anxiety Levels for Educational Technology

This study aims to culturally explain pre-service science teachers’ instructional technology-related anxiety levels by analyzing the variables of their instructional technology using experiences, frequency of using instructional technologies, access to instructional technologies, instructional technology-related attitude and their instructional technology-related self-efficacy perceptions. The participants were 538 pre-service teachers studying at the Dicle University Ziya Gokalp Education Faculty and 188 pre-service teachers studying at the University of Teacher Education during the 2011-2012 academic year. The findings indicate that the higher the degree of Turkish and Swiss pre-service science teachers’ technology experience, the higher instructional technology-related anxiety levels they have. Furthermore, the frequency of Turkish pre-service science teachers’ technology use is in reverse ratio to their instructional technology-related anxiety level. However, the frequency of Swiss pre-service science teachers’ technology use was found to be in direct ratio to their instructional technology-related anxiety levels.

Turkish preservice science teachers’ socioscientific issues-based teaching practices in middle school science classrooms

Background: Despite a growing body of research and curriculum reforms including socioscientific issues (SSI) across the world, how preservice science teachers (PST) or in-service science teachers can teach SSI in science classrooms needs further inquiry.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe the abilities of PSTs to teach SSI in middle school science classrooms, and the research question that guided the present study is: How can we characterize Turkish PSTs’ SSI-based teaching practices in middle school science classrooms (ages 11–14)?Sample: In order to address the research question of this study, we explored 10 Turkish PSTs’ SSI-based teaching practices in middle school science classrooms. A purposeful sampling strategy was used, thus, PSTs were specifically chosen because they were ideal candidates to teach SSI and to integrate SSI into the science curricula since they were seniors in the science education program who had to take the field experience courses.Design and method: The participants’ SSI teaching practices were characterized in light of qualitative research approach. SSI-based teaching practices were analyzed, and the transcripts of all videotape recordings were coded by two researchers.Results: The current data analysis describes Turkish PSTs’ SSI-based teaching practices under five main categories: media, argumentation, SSI selection and presentation, risk analysis, and moral perspective. Most of PSTs did not use media resources in their lesson and none of them considered moral perspective in their teaching. While the risk analyses were very simple and superficial, the arguments developed in the classrooms generally remained at a simple level. PSTs did not think SSI as a central topic and discussed these issues in a very limited time and at the end of the class period.Conclusions: The findings of this study manifest the need of the reforms in science education programs. The present study provides evidence that moral, media, argumentation, risk analysis, and pedagogical aspects of SSI-based instruction should be incorporated into educational courses designed for the Turkish teacher education programs such as the science teaching methods course. When we find ways to improve PSTs or science teachers’ SSI teaching practices in terms of these components, we can provide useful information for curriculum developers, policy-makers, and science educators in Turkey and other countries, that are facing similar problems. We believe that this study would initiate more investigative and exploratory studies toward this goal.

Analysis of Turkish Prospective Science Teachers’ Perceptions on Technology in Education

Purpose of this study was to determine and analyze Turkish pre-service science teachers' perceptions on technology in terms of learning style, computer competency level, possession of a computer, and gender. The study involved 264 Turkish pre-service science teachers. Analyses were conducted through four-way ANOVA, t-tests, Mann Whitney U test and one-way ANOVAs and the results showed there were one main effect for gender and one interaction effect between gender and computer competency level. The interaction effect pointed out that the male pre-service science teachers who were weak in computer competency held more positive perceptions toward instructional technology than their counterparts.

Pre-service Science Teachers’ Perceptions About Relationship Between Religion And Science İn The Context Of Their Worldviews

Article History: Received 16.01.2016 Received in revised form 01.03.2016 Accepted 16.03.2016 Available online 10.07.2016 The academic and public interest in perceptions with regard to the relationship between science and religion had been steadily grown in recent years. That interest caused the possible rise of related issues for teachers in their science classes such as compatibility/incompatibility of religious and scientific worldviews and the impact of religious worldviews on perceptions of science. For Islam, those issues are seen to be responded positively and the relationship between science and Islam is thought within the perspectives of harmony or dialog. However, the issue of the relationship between Islam and science is not adequately held in Turkish literature, especially the perceptions of science teachers and candidates, and the need for empirical data is seen obvious. In this study, in order to overcome that lack of empirical data, the perspectives of 32 Turkish pre-service science teachers with regard to the relationship between Islam and science in the context of their worldviews were questioned. The data source of the study was a questionnaire that comprised of nine open ended questions which were analyzed qualitatively. In the analysis process, the perceptions of the participants about the relationship between Islam and science were categorized with the help of Barbour’s model. The results of study revealed that the participants mainly have religious worldviews, define science as inquiry, researching answers and Islam as providing meaning for life, guiding society. Their perspectives with regard to the relationship between Islam and science were seen as either being in harmony or integration. © 2016 IOJES. All rights reserved