Pre-Service Teachers' Levels of Understanding the Light-Related Concepts

Abstract

The aim of the study is to investigate the level of understanding of light-related concepts of teacher candidates who took the “Basic Science in Primary School” course in the classroom teaching undergraduate program. This research is a descriptive study. The study group consists of 65 teacher candidates, 51 female, and 14 male studying in the first year of the classroom teaching undergraduate program at a state university. In the study, an opinion form containing five open-ended questions prepared by the researcher was used as the data collection tool. The grouped answers of the teacher candidates, and their background knowledge were calculated and separately transferred to the relevant tables for each question. For each table, the inferences, and comments about the grouped expressions of the participant teacher candidates have been provided. In addition, interviews were conducted with six randomly selected participants. It has been revealed that the pre-service teachers' scientific knowledge about the concepts related to the light is not at the desired level. Based on the findings of the study, some suggestions were made.