No abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore Pre-service Elementary Science Teachers" (PSTs) conceptual understanding of Particulate Nature of Matter (PNM) through a three-tier diagnostic test. Participants were 215 PSTs from Turkey. Data consisted of participants" responses to the Particulate Nature of Matter Test (PNMT). The PNMT consists of three-tier items. Students were asked to choose the correct choice in the first tier, and then to justify their choice of the answer provided in the second tier. Finally, they were asked to indicate the confidence level of their responses in the third tier. Results showed that the PSTs were not competent in their understanding of the PNM concepts. Moreover, some had strongly held misconceptions. Finally, the PSTs struggled to provide coherent answers to the items on the PNMT across three tiers.

No abstract

We explored adaptations to an elementary science methods course to determine how varied contexts could improve elementary preservice teachers' conceptions of NOS as well as their ideas for teaching NOS to elementary students. The contexts were (a) NOS Theme in which the course focused on the teaching of science through the consistent teaching and learning about NOS in all course activities, (b) Reflective NOS Teaching in which the course focused on developing explicit and reflective practice regarding NOS during portions of the semester, (c) Problem-Based Learning context in which local problem-based science scenarios were used to teach about NOS in an explicit and reflective manner, and (d) NOS embedded into Authentic Inquiry in which the learning and teaching of NOS occurred in conjunction with completing a long term science investigation suitable for use in elementary classrooms. We found that all preservice teachers improved in their conceptions of NOS in all four contexts, but to varying degrees. Preservice teachers described different strategies for teaching NOS by context. Our results show many contexts can be used to improve conceptions about NOS and the teaching of NOS, but certain contexts may support the learning of particular NOS ideas and the teaching of those ideas better than others.

Abstract:This study aimed to adapt views about scientific inquiry questionnaire in to Turkish, originally developed by Lederman et al (2014), and to explore preservice teachers' views about scientific inquiry. The questionnaire was translated into Turkish by three researchers and the translation of the items from English to Turkish was compared. The final paper was sent to three experts in the field to get expert opinion. After making the necessary corrections, 30 teacher candidates were interviewed to look at the clarity of the questions on the form. The final form was applied to 314 teacher candidates. Expert opinion supports that the translated items have content validity in terms of measuring eight of the targeted scientific inquiry components in the original scale. Data was analyzed by three researchers independently in order to ensure researcher triangulation. Inter-rater agreement was 95%; however, after raters had the opportunity to "calibrate" their coding scheme with one another, consensus was established virtually assuring nearly full agreement. Results of the investigation showed that preservice teachers generally have transformative views few of them have naive views about scientific inquiry.