Abstract
INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT OF POE ACTIVITIES ON REMEDYING PRESERVICE SCIENCE TEACHERS’ MISCONCEPTIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF GROWING AND DEVELOPING IN FLOWERY PLANTS UNIT
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of POE (Predict-Observe-Explain) activities on misconceptions in the context of Plants. Quantitative research methodology was used to design the study. The study was conducted with eighty preservice science teachers taking the course of General Biology Laboratory at Adıyaman University in the fall semester of 2010-2011. With the aim of identifying, replacing and remedying the misconceptions existed at that time in preservice science teachers’ cognitive structures, they were asked to complete a two-tier Conceptual Achievement Test (CAT) on “Growing and Development Process of Flowery Plants” unit. Preservice teachers’s misconceptions detected by this tool were identified and categorized as percentage and frequencies according to their subjects. Findings were investigated in the sub-categories of “Germination of the Seed”, “Flowery Plants’ Lifecycle”, “Feeding in the Plants” and “The Mechanism of Plants’ Growing and Developing Process” respectively. According to post t-test results, there is a significant difference between experimental and control group in favour of the first group in terms of CAT mean scores. This finding make us more relief and support overally that the science courses enriched with POE activities performed in the classroom increase the conceptual achievement and remove some misconceptions at the cognitive level. At the end of the study, it can be suggested to be studied whether these POE activities have effects on the construction of students’ critical thinking abilities and dispositions.
Keywords
Science Education, POE Strategy, Misconceptions, Flowery Plants
