The Evaluation of Teachers’ Science Concept Teaching and Their Action to Diagnose and Eliminate Misconceptions

Abstract

It could be possible for students to relate their new knowledge with the old knowledge through meaningful learning. Therefore, in concept teaching, it is significant that the students’ preliminary information be identified and their misconceptions be determined. In this study, it is aimed to determine methods teachers use for concept teaching, how they determine misconceptions, and how they try to eliminate these. The study group consists of 5 science teachers and 5 primary teachers working in Central Anatolia region of Turkey located in the center during 2013-2014 academic year. The study is qualitative in nature, a descriptive study and structured interview, observation and document analysis methods were used as the data collection tool. The data obtained were analyzed by means of content analysis method. According to the obtained data, it has been observed that the teachers utilize some of the special teaching methods but also continue to use concept teaching through presentations. Misconceptions that teachers encounter are related to the subjects of heat-temperature, mass-weight, force-motion, electricity, light-sound, substance, cell, respiration-photosynthesis, heredity. A great majority of the teachers have stated that they try to eliminate misconceptions through learning method by doing.