Evaluation of Science Teacher Candidates’ Level of Knowledge Regarding the Use of Microscopes

Abstract

This evaluation was conducted with 43 second-year students, or teacher candidates, attending the science education program of an education faculty in a Turkish university. In this study, students were asked to complete a single open-ended and gap-filling questionnaire, and their answers were evaluated according to a five-point Likert-type rubric. The manuscript provides several examples of the students’ answers. In this context, the aim of this study was to determine science teacher candidates’ level of knowledge regarding the use of microscopes. Based on the study results, we determined that in general the science teacher candidates had a partially adequate or inadequate level of knowledge regarding the use of microscopes.

Keywords: knowledge of microscope use, science education, teacher candidate