The purpose of this study was to explore the understandings of prospective early childhood teachers on scientific knowledge and scientific method. The study was interpretive in nature. The data were collected through various open-ended questions with subsequent auxiliary ones directed towards ten participants during a combination of in-depth focus group interviews and getting peer feedbacks in this process. Conversations and discussions among the participants were tracked on a tape recorder during the sessions and translated verbatim. The study focused on convenience and criterion sampling. As a criterion, academic achievement (accumulated GDA's) was considered, and the participants were assigned to the final sample this way. The data were analyzed in accordance with the conceptual framework of Marshall and Rossman [1] using an analytical task of qualitative approach. All data that were described, categorized and related to each other in the analysis are given in categories as well as emergent codes. Views of the participants were related to each other in an interpretive manner. Based on the results, the implications and the directions for further study are discussed.

The fulfillment of meaningful learning in the course of teaching process depends upon students' achievement in associating scientific conceptions with the facts they encounter in their daily lives. In science courses, students are generally unable to understand the meanings of the concepts accurately due to the unavailability of using practical examples from daily life in the school settings. In science education, particularly in conceptual learning, the association of the conceptions with daily lives needs to be paid more attention by both teachers and students. Research provides evidence on students' tendency to memorize rather learning meaningfully. The purpose of this study is to investigate to what extent students associate the conceptions included in the unit of "Water Chemistry and Water Treatment" with the facts encountered in the daily basis. The study was conducted in accordance with survey method. To collect more interpretive data, students were exposed to open-ended questions located in a standard form. These questions were designed in accordance with certain facts and circumstances related to water chemistry and water treatment and students were expected to give scientific explanations of the conceptions appropriate for the prevailing content of science teaching curriculum. The responses collected by the forms were categorized considering categorizations already exist in the related literature. According to the results, it is concluded that students are not fully capable of associating the conceptions with their daily lives.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of POE (Predict-Observe-Explain) activities on misconceptions in the context of Plants. Quantitative research methodology was used to design the study. The study was conducted with eighty preservice science teachers taking the course of General Biology Laboratory at Adıyaman University in the fall semester of 2010-2011. With the aim of identifying, replacing and remedying the misconceptions existed at that time in preservice science teachers' cognitive structures, they were asked to complete a two-tier Conceptual Achievement Test (CAT) on "Growing and Development Process of Flowery Plants" unit. Preservice teachers's misconceptions detected by this tool were identified and categorized as percentage and frequencies according to their subjects. Findings were investigated in the sub-categories of "Germination of the Seed", "Flowery Plants' Lifecycle", "Feeding in the Plants" and "The Mechanism of Plants' Growing and Developing Process" respectively. According to post t-test results, there is a significant difference between experimental and control group in favour of the first group in terms of CAT mean scores. This finding make us more relief and support overally that the science courses enriched with POE activities performed in the classroom increase the conceptual achievement and remove some misconceptions at the cognitive level. At the end of the study, it can be suggested to be studied whether these POE activities have effects on the construction of students' critical thinking abilities and dispositions.