Pre-service Science Teachers’ Views on Conceptual Change Strategies and Practices Carried out

Abstract

This research was conducted to determine pre-service science teachers’ views related to misconceptions and conceptual change strategies at an urban university in Aegean Region, Turkey. It was a 5-week study with 28 students. Before the implementation, students were given a test which consisted of open-ended questions aiming to determine the pre-service science teachers’ ideas about misconceptions and conceptual change strategies. On the first week of the study, students were given information on how to identify and remove the misconceptions by using conceptual change strategies. Different kinds of activities based on conceptual change strategies were also presented to them. Seven groups were formed with 28 people and they were asked to prepare activities based on conceptual change strategies related to a unit in middle school science curriculum. They chose a unit and prepared activities for two weeks. Secondly, they presented their activities in the classrom during two weeks. After presentations, a test which had the same questions with the 1st test was given to the pre-service science teachers. Also the 2nd test had three different questions, which was related to their opinions about the applications from the 1st test. The results of tests were analyzed qualitatively. Before the study, pre-service science teachers didn’t know how to identify and remove misconceptions exactly. Thanks to this study, they learned conceptual change strategies and their applications. After the study, they said that they liked the activities based on conceptual change strategies.