Analysis of Prospective Primary School Teachers’ Knowledge Regarding Chemical Representations on Crystallization Experiment

The study aims to determine the subject matter knowledge of Prospective Primary School Teachers (PPSTs) and analyze their chemical representation levels on crystallization. The study was carried out with descriptive research with a qualitative approach based on this purpose. The study participants were eighty freshman students studying at the Department of Primary Education in a state university in the Aegean Region of Turkey. The data were collected using a worksheet containing seven open-ended questions regarding the crystallization experiment. The questions were about the solubility of salt in water, the formation of the salt water and its solubility-temperature graph, the formation of the saturated salt water, and the appearance of particles formed during crystallization. A worksheet was prepared to determine the chemical representation levels of the PPSTs, and the data were subjected to document analysis. The researchers conducted a demonstration experiment and an animated video on the extraction of table salt by crystallization as an activity during the study process. The results indicated that PPSTs' responses related to crystallization were mainly at the macroscopic level. At the same time, they had great difficulty explaining at the levels of sub-microscopic and symbolic representations.Moreover, they could not explain the concept of dissolution with scientific expressions and distinguish the mixtures from each other. Additionally, most prospective teachers could not draw the correct solubility-temperature graph, so they had difficulty in symbolic representations. The study results imply that to raise the quality of science education in Turkey, PPSTs must attend a quality teaching of science, so primary school students acquire scientifically accurate knowledge of the basic science subjects and concepts such as dissolution, solubility, and crystallization

EVALUATION OF THE SENIOR STUDENTS' CHEMISTRY SUBJECT MATTER KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS TEACHING PROFESSION IN FACULTY OF SCIENCE CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT AND FACULTY OF EDUCATION CHEMISTRY EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

Bu araştırmada; fen fakültesi kimya bölümü ve eğitim fakültesi kimya öğretmenliği son sınıf öğrencilerinin kimya alan bilgileri ve öğretmenlik mesleğine yönelik tutumlarının değerlendirilmesi amaçlanmıştır. Bu amaçla Türkiye'deki eğitim fakülteleri üniversite giriş sınav sistemi puanlarına göre alt-orta ve üst şeklinde 3 grupta toplanmıştır. Bu gruplardan birer eğitim fakültesi seçilmiş ve aynı zamanda seçilen üniversitelerin fen fakülteleri de çalışma kapsamına alınmıştır. Bu fakültelerin son sınıf öğrencilerinin (N=163) alan bilgileri ile öğretmenlik mesleğine yönelik tutumları grup içinde ve gruplar arasında değerlendirilmiştir. Araştırma tarama modeline göre tasarlanmıştır. Veriler kimya alan bilgisi başarı testi, laboratuar yeterlilikleri testi ve öğretmenlik mesleğine yönelik tutum ölçeği ile toplanarak aralarındaki ilişkiler t testi, ANOVA ve korelasyon teknikleriyle analiz edilmiştir. Araştırma bulgularına göre eğitim ve fen fakültesi öğrencilerinin kimya alan bilgilerinin birbirine çok yakın ve ortalamanın altında (% 43), öğretmenlik mesleğine yönelik tutumlarının ise eğitim fakülteleri lehine olduğu belirlenmiştir. In this study it is aimed to evaluate of the senior students' chemistry subject matter knowledge and attitudes towards teaching profession in faculty of science chemistry department and faculty of education chemistry education department. For this purpose the faculties of education in Turkey were collected from 3 groups in the form of lower-middle and upper according to university entrance exam scores. From each of these groups' faculties were selected and at the same time the selected university's science faculties were studied. The senior students' subject matter knowledge and attitudes towards teaching profession were evaluated within groups and between groups. In addition, It is also analyzed the relationship between students' subject matter knowledge, laboratory competencies and attitudes towards the teaching profession. According to the findings of the study, students' subject matter knowledge in education and science faculties are very close to each other, but attitudes towards the teaching profession were significantly different. It is concluded that the comparisons between the groups of selected universities' faculties of education in the top group students' subject matter knowledge are better than the other group students as expected

A STUDY ON THE EFFECT OF CASE BASED LEARNING FOR PRE-SERVICE SCIENCE TEACHERS' ATTITUDES TOWARDS AN ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY LABORATORY EXPERIMENT

It is aimed to analyze the change of the pre-service science teachers‘ attitudes towards chemistry laboratories using case-based learning, an active learning method, in this research. This research is an semi-experimental study with a control group. The sample of this research was originated by the second-year students (N=61) of the department of science education in Dokuz Eylul University, Faculty of Buca Education. In the first stage of the research, a case about the experiment of determining the ionization constant of weak acid (Ka) was created and the case was discussed among the student groups in the experimental group as a workshop. In the second stage, the experiment was performed in the laboratory. And in the control group, the experiment was performed using conventional teaching methods. In conclusion, the effectiveness of case-based learning method in the attitudes of students towards chemistry laboratories was analyzed