Variation in the Representations of Pre service Physics Teachers in Image Formation and Observation Process

2012-07-06
Kaltakçı Gürel, Derya
Eryılmaz, Ali
Show full item record
118
views
0
downloads
Recent studies in science and physics education research have shown that students have difficulties in image formation and observation process in geometric optics. Several studies have been conducted on understanding image formation and observation in several grade levels (Bertamini and Parks, 2002; Galili, Goldberg and Bendall, 1991; Galili, 1996; Goldberg and McDermott, 1986; Jones et al., 1994), but the number of in-depth studies on pre-service teachers is limited. Teachers are considered as one of the most crucial source of student conception, for this reason studying teachers’ representations that they use to describe their conception is important to understand student conceptions. With this aim in this study pre-service physics teachers’ representations in geometric optics is discussed. More specifically, the research question to be investigated here is “what are the representations used by pre-service physics teachers in explaining their conception about image formation and observation in a plane mirror?” The current study was carried out with phenomenographic approach. Phenomenographic studies mainly deals with the variation in the ways certain phenomena are experienced or handled by people of interest (Marton, 1989; Marton and Booth, 1997). The sample of the study comprises 53 pre-service physics teachers who took geometric optics and geometric optics laboratory courses in their program from three state universities in Turkey. The data were collected through an open-ended test developed by the researcher in the topic of geometric optics. Two of the items in the plane mirror context were selected for the detailed analysis for the current study. As a result of thorough analysis of available data, several qualitatively different representation categories were identified for the image formation and observation process in the plane mirror context some of which ends up with a scientifically correct results for the questions of interest; whereas some others resulted with non-scientific results. The primary significance of the results of this study lies in its identification and description of this variety in the representations to the interested researchers in the topic; as well as providing teachers and teacher education faculties with useful information to take into account in their instructions in the topic.
Physics education, Pre-service teacher, Representation, Image formation and observation
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/71894
http://www.wcpe2012.org/WCPE_Book_of_abstracts.pdf
http://www.wcpe2012.org/
WCPE: The World Conference on Physics Education ( 01 - 06 July 2012 )
Department of Mathematics and Science Education, Conference / Seminar

Suggestions

Development and application of a four-tier test to assess pre-service physics teachers' misconceptions about geometrical optics
Kaltakçı, Derya; Eryılmaz, Ali; McDermott, Lillian Christie; Department of Secondary Science and Mathematics Education (2012)
The main purpose of this study was to develop and administer a four-tier test for assessing Turkish pre-service physics teachers’ misconceptions about geometrical optics. Sixteen pre-service physics teachers, who were selected by maximum variation and convenience sampling methods from three state universities in Ankara, were interviewed in the contexts of plane mirrors, spherical mirrors, and lenses. From these interviews and the studies in the literature, the Open-Ended Geometrical Optics Test was develope...
A Content Analysis of Physics Textbooks as a Probable Source of Misconceptions in Geometric Optics
Kaltakci Gurel, Derya; Eryılmaz, Ali (2013-01-01)
Studies on students' conceptions and reasoning in geometric optics have revealed that students have scientifically incorrect knowledge or lack of understanding in basic optical phenomena. For this reason, as well as the identification of these conceptions or reasoning, the factors or sources that may cause the construction of them should be determined. In the literature, textbooks are considered as one of the main sources of students' unscientific or lacking conceptions. In introductory optics, students may...
Adaptation of an epistemological belief instrument towards chemistry and chemistry lessons
Yildiran, Demet; Demirci, Nilgun; Tuysuz, Mustafa; Bektas, Oktay; Geban, Ömer (2011-02-07)
The purpose of this study was adapting an instrument into Turkish which is developed by a research group in California University for identifying pre-service science teachers’ epistemological beliefs toward chemistry. The adapted instrument is a likert type instrument with five scales, includes 18 items and it was applied to 100 pre-service sicence teachers to determine their epistemological beliefs in 2009-2010 spring semester. The reliability of the instrument was found as .59. It was concluded that this ...
Integrating STEM Education: Perceived barriers and facilitators
Taşcı, Duygu; Öztekin, Ceren (null; 2017-05-21)
The purpose of this research is to uncover obstacles science teachers face regarding integrating STEM in their science course. Data were mainly gathered from 4 experienced science teachers through in depth interviews. They were also requested to draw a picture of their visualization of STEM and they were asked explain their drawings, data were then analyzed by categorizing barriers avoiding STEM integration. Three categories were emerged as teacher-oriented barriers, students-oriented barriers and situation...
Variation among schools on classroom practices in science based on TIMSS-1999 in Turkey
Aypay, Ahmet; Erdogan, Mehmet; Soezer, Mehmet A. (Wiley, 2007-12-01)
The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences among schools using student responses in the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study-1999 (TIMSS-99) data. Schools were classified into two groups based on eighth grade students' overall achievement in science. Two different discriminant function analyses were performed to distinguish high- and low-performing schools, based both on classroom practices and factor structures (student-centered activities, teacher-centered activities, attitudes toward...
Citation Formats
D. Kaltakçı Gürel and A. Eryılmaz, “Variation in the Representations of Pre service Physics Teachers in Image Formation and Observation Process,” Bahçeşehir Üniversitesi, istanbul, Türkiye, 2012, p. 254, Accessed: 00, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/71894.
METU IIS - Integrated Information Service open@metu.edu.tr