Determining the Level of Understanding and Misconceptions of Science Teacher Candidates about the Concepts Related to Material and Its Properties

Abstract

This study was carried out to determine the level of understanding and misconceptions of science teacher candidates about some concepts related to material and its properties. This research was carried out with 260 science teacher candidates in Science Teaching Education Program of Education Faculty of Necmettin Erbakan University in 2015-2016 academic year. There are 17 scientifically and logically true and false sentences in the questionnaire in order to determine the level of understanding of science teacher candidates about some concepts related to material and its properties. In addition, in order to measure the participation degree of candidate teachers, three options were offered; “I agree”, “I do not agree” and “I have no idea”. The data obtained from this 3-point Likert scale questionnaire were analyzed statistically. When the obtained data were evaluated, it was determined that teacher candidates had misconceptions about some concepts related to material and its properties, and some suggestions were made to eliminate these misconceptions.

Keywords: Chemistry education, Misconception, Material and its properties, Level of understanding