THE COMPREHENSION OF NATURE OF SCIENCE BY SCIENCE TEACHER CANDIDATES AND THE DETERMINATON OF THEIR ACCEPTATION LEVELS OF EVOLUTIONARY THEORY

FEN ÖĞRETMEN ADAYLARININ BİLİMİN DOĞASINI ANLAMALARI VE EVRİM TEORİSİNİ KABUL DÜZEYLERİNİN BELİRLENMESİ

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the vantage points of the science teacher candidates to the evolutionary the oryand the nature of science. Additionally, which scientific theories area proved by teacher candidates is another point. Totally 132 students who study in the Department of Science Teaching in Faculty of Education at Kafkas University have participated in the study. It has been surveyed whether they get evolutionary course and course of the nature of science as well as it is different according to native factors like gender or not at the same time. There is no difference according to gender in the teacher candidates’ understanding and science and the nature of science as well as accepting evolutionary theory. It has been identified that the ones who take the science and the nature of science lessons from the teacher candidates have understood the science and the nature of science much more than the ones who don’t take these lessons; on the contrary, they have accepted evolutionary theory less. Nearly 89 percent of teacher candidates have accepted gene theory as a scientific theory. This rate has been determined 84 percent in atom theory, 80 percent in cell theory, 61 percent in germ theory, and 54 percent in evolution theory. This result has shown that evolutionary theory is not accepted by nearly the half of teacher candidates beside the other theories. When the lesson of science and the nature of science don’t have any influence on the acceptance of atom, cell and germ theories as scientifically, it causes a decline in the acceptance of evolutionary theory. It has been stated that the ones who understand the science and the nature of science beter from the teacher candidates have accepted evolutionary theory less The physical sciences which try to explain the reasons that tie the events of the universe to each other via the laws, theories, principles, canons, generalizations, scientific phenomena deal with both lively and lifeless nature. Among the most important theories of science field, there are cell, evolution, gene, atom, and germ theories. The subject of evolution has taken part in many education schedules including Turkey. Yet, although the subject is thoroughly handled out in the course, it is not comprehended within all its aspects. In the surveys of this study, besides many misunderstandings about evolution theory; it has been stated that this theory is an important factor in understanding the science and the nature of science in the comprehension of the evolution. In addition to this, the surveys have indicated that the teacher candidates have limited comprehension about the nature of science and knowledge in the concepts of evolution. In this study, the target is to determine how much the evolution theory is approved in comparison with the other scientific theories and the vantage points of the science teacher candidates to the evolution, cell, gene, atom and germ theories are. Additionally, it has been thought that this study would contribute to the solution process of the problems in the education of the evolution theory. Method The survey has been performed within 132 science teacher candidates, studying at third and fourth grade in 2012-2013 Education Year at Faculty of Education, Kafkas University. In this survey, three different data collection tools have been used. In the first part, a questionnaire related to the acceptation of five various biological/scientific theories by teacher candidates about cell, gene, evolutionary, germ and atom which are developed by Rutledge and Sadler (2011) has been used. Secondly, a scale to comprehend the nature of science that consists of 10 items, developed by the researchers has been used. The single factoral scale which has ten items and has value more than one, explains %41 of variance. The item head values of 10 itemed scale changes between 47 and 73. The reliability coefficient of Cronbach Alpha has been calculated as 83. Thirdly, the scale of Measure of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution (MATE) used by Rutledge and Warden (1999) as well as developed by Johnson(1985), consisting of 20 questions related to the determination of perceptions of students over revolutionary theory has been used in order to evaluate the approaches of teacher candidates towards evolutionary theory. The original scale, including 20 items has been reduced to 10 items when translated into Turkish. The single factoral scale which has ten items and has value more than one, explains %39 of variance. The item head values of 10 itemed scale changes between 50 and 75. The reliability coefficient of Cronbach Alpha has been calculated as 82. Results and Discussion In this study, there is no difference according to their genders of the science teacher candidates in their comprehension of the evolution theory and in the science and the nature of the science. It has been determined that the ones who get the course of science and the nature of science understand the nature of the science much more than the ones who do not get the course. Yet, they accept the evolution theory less. In this sense, it has been stated that the one who get the course of evolution theory approve the theory less that the ones who do not get the course. Yet, contrary to this result from the study, it has been determined that the ones who get the evolution course have much positive attitudes than the ones who do not get the course according to the studies of Apaydın and Surmeli (2009). The evolution theory has been accepted by nearly half of the teacher candidates contrary to the other theories. This result has been supported by other surveys in Turkey (Özdemir, 2008; Annaç ve Bahçekapılı, 2012) This rate has been determined as 84 percent in atom theory, 80 percent in cell theory, 61 percent in germ theory, and 54 percent in evolution theory.Although the course of science and the nature of science do not have an effect on the acceptance of gene, cell, atom and germ theories

Özet

Bu çalışmanın amacı, fen bilgisi öğretmen adaylarının evrim teorisine ve bilimin doğasına bakış açılarını belirlemektir. Ayrıca öğretmen adayları tarafından bazı bilimsel teorilerden hangilerinin kabul gördüğü de belirlenmeye çalışılmıştır. Çalışmaya Kafkas Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi İlköğretim Bölümü Fen Bilgisi Öğretmenliği'nde öğrenim gören toplam 132 öğrenci katılmıştır. Aynı zamanda evrim dersi ve bilimin doğası derslerini alıp almamaları ve cinsiyet gibi bağımsız değişkenlere göre bir farklılık olup olmadığına bakılmıştır. Öğretmen adaylarının bilim ve bilimin doğasını anlamalarında ve evrim teorisini kabul etmelerinde cinsiyetlerine göre bir farklılık belirlenmemiştir. Öğretmen adaylarından bilim ve bilimin doğası dersini alanların bu dersi almayanlara oranla bilim ve bilimin doğasını daha fazla anladıkları buna karşılık evrim teorisini daha az kabul ettikleri belirlenmiştir. Öğretmen adaylarının yaklaşık %89'u gen teorisini bilimsel bir teori olarak kabul etmiştir. Bu oran, atom teorisinde %84, hücre teorisinde %80, germ teorisinde %61 ve evrim teorisinde %54 olarak belirlenmiştir. Bu sonuç bize göstermektedir ki, evrim teorisi diğer teorilere oranla öğretmen adaylarının yaklaşık olarak yarısı tarafınan kabul görmemektedir. Bilim ve bilimin doğası dersinin, gen, atom, hücre ve germ teorilerinin bilimsel bir teori olarak kabulünde bir etkisi belirlenmemişken, evrim teorisinin kabulünde düşüşe yol açtığı görülmüştür. Fen bilgisi öğretmen adaylarından bilim ve bilimin doğasını daha iyi anlayanların evrim teorisini daha az kabul ettikleri belirlenmiştir