Exploring Pre-Service Teachers’ Conceptual Understanding and Confidence in Geometrical Optics: A Focus on Gender and Prior Course Achievement

Abstract

This study investigated pre-service science teachers’ conceptual understanding and confidence in geometrical optics with respect to gender and their previous achievement in geometrical optics course. A total of 189 (60% female and 40% male) pre-service science teachers who had completed geometrical optics course in state universities in Turkey participated in this study. The conceptual test instrument consisted of 20 items taken from the first tier of the Four-Tier Geometrical Optics Test (FTGOT) developed by the researcher, followed by a self-reported measure of teachers’ confidence in the accuracy of their responses. The interest and experience scores were obtained through scales previously developed by the researcher, and these two variables were used as covariates in the analysis. The two-way between-groups ANCOVA tests were conducted to answer the research questions. The results showed that male pre-service teachers tend to have slightly higher conceptual understanding and confidence scores in geometrical optics than females with medium effect sizes while controlling for geometrical optics experience and interest scores. The findings were discussed, and implications for research in geometrical optics were provided.

Mental Representations and Cognitive Schemata of Ninth Grade Students for the Refraction of Light

“…Given the fact that the students in the sample had already been taught the refraction phenomenon, these data clearly highlight the issue of the ineffectiveness of traditional instruction for teaching light propagation. However, we have to take into account that the approach to this teaching was model-based [40][41][42]. In recent years, the emergence of a phenomenological perspective might perhaps give new dimensions to the teaching and learning of refraction [32,33].…”