No abstract

In recent years, the importance of examining the opinions of preservice science teachers who will educate future science literate individuals towards scientific research has been frequently mentioned. In this research, in order to contribute to the field, 88 preservice science teachers in Turkey and 80 preservice science teachers in Taiwan participated in the study. The data was collected via Views about Scientific Inquiry -VASI Questionnaires. Also, semi-structured interviews with volunteered preservice science teachers. Results showed that there is a significant difference on behalf of preservice science teachers in Taiwan in terms of "the way that the scientific inquiries are done", "the place of experiment and observation in scientific inquiries" as for the first dimension, and "there is no single set or sequence of steps followed in all inquiries" as for the second dimension. Besides, the preservice science teachers from both countries stated their views in "scientific" level on the dimension of "The result of an inquiry should be in accordance with the collected data". Moreover, it was revealed that preservice science teachers in Turkey have difficulty in defining that scientific research always starts with a question; and preservice science teachers in Taiwan have difficulty in defining the scientific data and scientific evidence. Considering all the findings, preservice science teachers' views of scientific inquiry in Taiwan are better than them in Turkey.

Beliefs influence teacher decision in the classroom. Because of this reason, understanding teachers' beliefs is important. It is also critical to study teachers' beliefs who integrate science in the classroom. In this study, the effects of microteaching with lesson study approach on preservice science teachers' beliefs about learning and teaching have been analyzed. Teachers' Beliefs Interview (TBI) has been used for determining the development of preservice science teachers' beliefs about learning and teaching. At the end of the study, it was determined that through microteaching with lesson study approach, preservice science teachers' beliefs improved in a positive way that their beliefs significantly changed toward more student-centered. The findings from this study support the notion that application micro teaching with lesson study in Science Teaching Method Course has postitive impact on preservice teachers' beliefs.

The aim of this study is to evaluate science teacher candidates based on bioethical values, scientific literacy level and empathy skills and to determine their associations. Therefore, descriptive model was used for the study. The sample of the study consists total of 286 teacher candidates from first, second, third and fourth grade of Faculty of Education Science Teaching department. Results of the study revealed that bioethical values for “Benefits of Biotechnology Applications”, “Science and Ethics”, “Reproductive Technologies and Cloning”, “Controlling the Genetic Interventions” subscales were increased with school year in science teacher candidates. In addition, science literacy of science teacher candidates for “Nature of Science” and “Science-Technology-Society Relation” subscales were also increased with school year. The study also found a positive relation between bioethical values for two subscales of bioethical values, “Benefits of Biotechnology Applications” and “Controlling the Genetic Interventions”, and science literacy for “Nature of Science” subscales in science teacher candidates. Similarly, a positive relation was found between bioethical values for two subscales, “Benefits of Biotechnology Applications” and “Controlling the Genetic Interventions”, and science literacy for “Science-Technology-Society Relation” subscale in science teacher candidates. Analysis results showed a positive relation between bioethical values and empathy skills of science teacher candidates. In other words, the higher the teacher’s empathy skills, the higher their bioethical values.

Over the past three or more decades, many studies have been written about teacher education and the preparation of science teachers. Presented study is one of which investigated the effectiveness of scientific process skills on pre-service science teachers of Pamukkale University Primary Science Teacher Education Program for four years. This study uses a simple descriptive survey approach which is one-shot survey for the purpose of describing the effectiveness of science teacher education program on scientific process skills of pre-service science teachers. The participants of the study consist of 186 primary science pre-service teachers in total from four different semesters of their teacher preparation program. Test of Integrated Process Skills II (TIPS II) was utilized to collect data. The data were analyzed using primarily multivariate statistical methods. One way ANOVA was used to identify patterns within cohorts regarding pre-service teachers' scientific process skills. Major findings indicated that Pamukkale University-Science Teacher Education Program helps to develop pre-service science teachers' scientific process skills effectively. Especially, science teacher education program affected pre-service science teachers' scientific process skills positively in the third and fourth grade.