The purpose of this study was to translate the original version of the Epistemic Belief Inventory developed by Schraw, Bendixen, and Dunkle (2002) for preservice teachers in a Turkish context and validate its construct. Studies on the epistemological beliefs of Turkish students have been heretofore limited in number and have been largely conducted using adapted versions of the Schommer (1990) instrument. First, the original questionnaire was translated from English to Turkish and then was scrutinized by experts in language, content, measurement, and evaluation. Then, the revised questionnaire was administered to 166 Turkish pre-service teachers. The results of exploratory factor analyses suggested 3 epistemological belief dimensions -quick learning, innate ability, and certain knowledge. The results of the study further revealed support for multidimensional theories of epistemological beliefs among pre-service teachers. In order to verify the results of the present study, further examination of pre-service teachers' epistemological belief systems is necessary.

Current atom concept teachings haven’t reached required levels from the points of both teaching methods and learning attainments. With this purpose in this research atom concept is conveyed to the classroom milieu through observations and experiments related to the atom concept during historical development process starting with the masterpiece of, the carrier of the atom thoughts of Antiquity to our age, Roman philosopher Lucretius, namely De Rerum Natura. The study has conducted thoughts regarding the atom in ancient and subsequent history under six headings teaching modules that would span over 11 weeks. The participants in the study were 73 pre-service science teachers. The two-tier multiple-choice diagnostic test was developed. In the analysis of the results of the test, after test hypotheses were proved, the single-factor ANOVA was employed for related samples, while frequency analysis was used for the content of the views of the participants and percentages were calculated to observe the change in alternative conceptions. Key words: concept of the atom in antiquity, experiments and observations, Titus Lucretius Carus, Two-tier Multiple-Choice Diagnostic test.

No abstract

ÖzetBu Benim Eserim [BBE]

Supporting the latest technology for inquiry is among one of the topics that is currently being discussed in the context of science education. The aim of this research is to examine the laboratory practices that use mobile learning to enhance the science process skills of the participants. The research is of qualitative design and has been planned as action research. The practices on determining the quality of water are based on an approach of guided inquiry based learning. The research was conducted with eleven (n=11) volunteering pre-service teachers who were third-year students in department of the science teacher education. Group discussions, classroom camera records and spreadsheet responses were used to determine the scope of the research. The data were analyzed with directed content analysis by two separate researchers who used the Nvivo 8 program. At the end of the research, it was concluded that using mobile learning contributed to the laboratory practices in many ways. Key words: inquiry based laboratory practices, mobile learning, science process skills, and water quality.