Science Teacher Candidates’ Portraits of Science Teaching as a Profession by using the Characters in the Movie “3 Idiots”

Abstract

This study aimed to collect the opinions of science teacher candidates on scientists, the teaching profession, and the keys to success in the profession by having them watch a movie called "3 Idiots," which is recommended by the Ministry of Education. This study was designed as phenomenological research. Participants were selected by purposeful sampling and were divided into two groups. The first group comprised 83 teacher candidates who were studying third-grade science education at the Gazi Faculty of Education in the academic year 2012-2013. The other group consisted of 41 teacher candidates who were studying at the Gazi Faculty of Education in the academic year 2013-2014. To collect the data, the study used three semi-structured interview questions. Content analysis, a qualitative data analysis method, was chosen to analyze the data. One of the results of the study was that the teacher candidates emphasized the personal traits of the characters Rancho and Chatur in describing the qualifications that a scientist needs to have, and many candidates stated that they had realized that Rancho's character effectively represented scientists. Another finding was that the candidates described the qualifications of a good science teacher using two themes: personal traits and vocational adequacies. As they gave their opinions about the question, the teacher candidates took from Rancho's personal and vocational sufficiency. Lastly, the teacher candidates responded to one question by considering the characters in the movie; many of them felt that the key to success in any profession is to love it.