The Effect Of Open Inquiry-based Laboratory Activities On Prospective Teachers' Misconceptions About Matter

Author : -Nimet Akben
Number of pages :

Abstract

This research that requires prospective classroom teachers to conduct experiments at open inquiry level investigates prospective classroom teachers’ ability to conduct experiments at open inquiry level, and the effect of these experiments on their misconceptions. To this end, firstly a test on the relationship among “shape of matter, density of matter, and floating” was administered to prospective teachers, and the test results indicated that prospective teachers had misconceptions about this topic. Then prospective teachers were asked to conduct an observation related to this topic, to ask questions based on their observations, to design an experiment to answer their questions, and to conduct this experiment in the classroom. The participants of the research are composed of 28 prospective classroom teachers (20 female and 8 male) attending the Science and Technology Laboratory Practice I course in the academic year 2010-2011. The research results reveal that prospective teachers can design experiments based on their observations, and conduct their experiments successfully. In addition, the results of this quantitative research utilizing single group pretest-posttest design indicate that the practices within the scope of this research are effective in eliminating prospective teachers’ misconceptions.

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