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.
The current research is to give an example to the inquiry-based science teaching implementations for facilitating knowledge acquisition and retention in a short period of time. Thus, the aim of the research is to transfer of acquired knowledge into different situations using sequential inquiry activities, which have challenging questions for inquiry about what the magnetic pole is and how to discover it. The research was designed as a pre-experimental, one-group pre-test/post-test (N=65) with a retention-test. Sequential inquiry-based science activities were applied to provide a series of developmentally appropriate experiences and discussions, which concretely scaffold participant's ideas of magnetism. According to the results, the participants interpreted the magnets and magnetic poles regarding their functions. The common view of the participants was that a magnetic pole should be at the ends. This view is associated with upper-lower or internal-external surfaces for a ring magnet. Finally, with a sphere magnet, both upper-lower or internal-external surfaces have lost their functions and the inquiry begins with the question "How to find the poles of a magnet?" In that process, students get to engage and feel that they do not know something that they should know.
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.
Professional development programs (PDs) for in-service teachers are usually structured to deliver standardized content. However, considering the differences in the teaching practices utilized by teachers of different subjects, their needs and expectations may vary. Thus, this study develops an instrument to determine in-service teachers’ expectations regarding PDs. Themes regarding the PD expectations of teachers were created based on a detailed literature review and authors’ field experiences. In line with these themes, an item pool comprising 51 items was created. The developed instrument was applied online to 322 teachers from different provinces of Turkey and teaching different subjects. Exploratory factor analysis was performed on the dataset to ascertain the construct validity of the instrument. As a result of the analyses, the finalized instrument comprised 49 items and 6 dimensions; support, practice, learning, student success, organization, and career. The Cronbach’s alpha internal reliability coefficient of all items in the finalized instrument was .94. These findings show that the instrument is a valid and reliable data collection tool for determining teacher expectations of PDs for identified themes. This instrument will be particularly useful in exploring the expectations of teachers while designing PDs and determining the extent to which current PDs meet teachers’ expectations.
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