Influence Of Science Laboratory Applications Based On Critical-Creative Thinking On Preservice Elementary Teachers' Self-efficacy Perceptions And Attitudes Towards Science
Author(s):
Canay Pekbay (presenting / submitting) Özlem Koray Hamdi Çağlar Göksel Abdullah Koray
Conference:
ECER 2013
Network:
21. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)
Format:
Paper

Session Information

ERG SES H 05, Conceptions, Perceptions and Beliefs in Education

Paper Session

Time:
2013-09-10
11:00-12:30
Room:
A-105
Chair:
Mustafa Yunus Eryaman

Contribution

At the present time, there is a need for creative individuals who are interrogators and especially for those who put forward new and original ideas and products and who can think in different ways from others. The fact that the solutions used in the past will possibly fail to solve future problems demonstrates the need for creative and critical thinkers (Torrance, 1965). However, with the education given in schools, there are now individuals who do not demonstrate top-level thinking skills but are successful in memorizing great amounts of information yet who do not how to make use of their knowledge (Eriç, 1998). Individuals’ lack of an educational understanding which will help them express themselves freely and which will allow them to put forward creative products and ideas by using their critical perspectives will lead to a negative effect not only on their own development as an individual but on the development of the society as well. The reason is that democracies need individuals who can think flexibly and produce solutions. In addition, culture demonstrates permanence depending on the creativity of societies. In order to put forward a solution on intellectual basis, it is important to help individuals not only acquire the habit of methodological thinking but also try to find different ways of transferring information. One way to achieve this is to provide education on participatory top-level thinking (Koray, 2003).

It is well known in education that there are a number of special factors influential on learning. Some of these factors are interest, motivation, attitude, self-confidence and self-efficacy (Alsop, 2003; Randel, Stevenson and Witruk, 2000). Studies show that teachers who have self-confidence regarding their teaching skills and who have high levels of expectations of success from their students spend more time preparing for their lessons, demonstrate more positive attitudes towards teaching and have a higher tendency to use technology and other renovations in their lessons (Albion, 1999; Ginns, Tulip, Waters and Lucas, 1995; Tosun, 2000). In this respect, self-efficacy belief is one of the important points that should draw special attention (Pajares, 1996).

From this point of view, the purpose of the present study was to examine the influence of science and technology laboratory applications based on critical and creative thinking on elementary school teachers’ self-efficacy perceptions and their attitudes towards science.

Method

In the study, the pretest-posttest single-group experimental design was used. The study group was made up of 60 preservice elementary teachers attending at Bulent Ecevit University academic year of 2011-2012. The study lasted 12 weeks and was conducted in the course of Science and Technology Laboratory Applications-I. While students conducted their experiments, they analyzed experiments and identified the inefficient points. For this purpose, students were asked to write down questions starting with “why, how” for the analysis of the experiments and to find the answers. Depending on these questions, students criticized the inefficient points of the experiments and suggested renovations to overcome the inefficiencies. Moreover, students designed totally original experiments and applied the experiments they designed. In the study, to test the research hypotheses, data were collected using the quantitative and qualitative research methods together. To collect the quantitative data, the “Self-Efficacy Perception Scale for Preservice Teachers” and the “Science Course Attitude Scale” were used. For the pretest-posttest comparisons, paired sample t-test analysis was conducted. In the study, the qualitative data were collected via an open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interviews to determine their views about the method applied. The qualitative data collected were analyzed with the descriptive analysis method.

Expected Outcomes

The research results demonstrated that the laboratory applications based on critical and creative thinking influenced the preservice teachers’ self-efficacy perceptions positively. As a result of the application, it was not only found out that the preservice teachers’ self-efficacy perceptions were developed but also revealed that the application had positive influence on their attitudes towards science. The results obtained via the interviews and the questionnaire demonstrated that the method was effective because the preservice teachers carried out such activities requiring critical and creative processes as producing hypotheses based on the problem during the application, designing and conducting the experiment on their own and preparing reports at the end of the experiment. According to the results obtained, various suggestions were put forward for the changes to be made in learning environments and for future studies.

References

Albion, P. R. (1999). Self-efficacy beliefs as an indicator of teachers' preparedness for teaching with technology. In J. D. Price & J. Willis & D. A. Willis & M. Jost & S. Boger-Mehall (Eds.). Technology and teacher education annual 1999 (s. 1602-1608). Charlottesville, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. Alsop, S. (2003). Science education and affect. International Journal of Science Education, 25(9), 1043-1047 Eriç, M. (1998). Kültür ve Yaratıcılık. İstanbul: Kazancı Publications Ginns, I. S., Tulip, D.F., Watters, J.J., & Lucas, K. B. (1995). Changes in preservice elementary teachers' sense of efficacy in teaching science. School Science and Mathematics. 95 (8), 394-400. Koray, Ö (2003). “Fen Eğitiminde Yaratıcı Düşünmeye Dayalı Öğrenmenin Öğrenme Ürünlerine Etkisi.” Unpublished Doctorate Thesis, Institute of Educational Sciences, Gazi University, Ankara Pajares, F. (1996). Self-efficacy beliefs in academic settings. Review of Educational Research, 66(4), 543-578. Randel, B., Stevenson, H.W. & Witruk, E. (2000). Attitudes, beliefs, and mathematics achievement of German and Japanese high school students. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 24(2), 190-198. Torrance, P.E. (1965). Rewarding Creative Behaviour. USA: Prentice-Hall Inc. Tosun, T. (2000). The beliefs of preservice elementary teachers toward science and science teaching. School Science and Mathematics, 100 (7), 374-379.

Author Information

Canay Pekbay (presenting / submitting)
Hacettepe University
Elemantary education
Zonguldak
Özlem Koray
Bülent Ecevit University, Turkey
Hamdi Çağlar Göksel
Bülent Ecevit University, Turkey
Abdullah Koray
Bülent Ecevit University, Turkey

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