Murat Özel

Cross-Cultural Comparison of Student Attitudes toward Snakes

Th ere is an increasing amount of research focusing on the origin of the human fear of animals. However, other dimensions of human views of frightening animals have been largely neglected. Th is study investigated attitudes toward snakes. Th e Snake Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ), which consisted of 58 Likert-type items (Cronbach’s α = 0.91), was administered in a sample of students from two countries (Turkey and Slovakia). Students showed negative attitudes toward snakes, especially within the Negativistic and Naturalistic dimensions. Turkish students showed more positive Scientistic and Naturalistic attitudes than Slovakian students, and females showed more negative attitudes toward snakes than males. Although biology majors had more positive attitudes, compared with nonbiology majors, knowledge of snakes and beliefs about untrue myths were similar between these two subgroups. Our research indicates that fear of snakes negatively infl uences other attitudinal dimensions (especially naturalistic and scientifi c attitudes) although no students had been injured by a snake. Keeping various pets at home was associated with less fear of snakes. Nature protection actions should combine direct contact with these controversial animals with interventions against belief in untrue myths about snakes.

Using action research based on the predict-observe-explain strategy for teaching enzymes

The science laboratory course is one of the important courses that preservice science students take in their science education programs. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of an action research based on the POE (predict-observe-explain) strategy on preservice science teachers’ understanding of enzymes. The participants of the study consisted of 80 s ophomore preservice science teachers who enrolled in a science teaching laboratory course at a public university in Turkey. The data were obtained through the POE forms. The findings showed that the use of POE activities promoted significantly students’ understanding of enzymes. It was also found that although preservice science students indicated that activities based on the POE approach took more time compared to other instructional strategies, they emphasized that the POE activities were enjoyable compared to other instructional strategies. Based on the results obtained from this study, it is suggested that using the POE method in the science laboratory courses will contribute to preservice science teachers’ understanding of science topics.

İlköğretim Öğrencilerinin Bitkilere Yönelik Tutumları

Bu calismanin amaci ilkogretim ogrencilerinin bitkilere yonelik tutumlarini incelemektir. Arastirmada veri toplamak amaciyla arastirmacilar tarafindan Turkceye uyarlanan Bitki Tutum Anketi kullanilmistir. Anket 777 ilkogretim altinci, yedinci ve sekizinci sinif ogrencisine uygulanmistir. Elde edilen analiz sonuclari ogrencilerin bitki tutum anketinin onem boyutuna yuksek tutumlar gosterirlerken, en dusuk tutumlar ise sehir agaclari boyutu icin gosterildigini ortaya cikarmistir. Cinsiyet ile tutumlar arasinda onem ve ilgi boyutlarinda anlamli bir fark bulunurken (p.05) tespit edilmistir. Fark olan boyutlarda kiz ogrencilerin puanlari yuksek bulunmustur. Sonuclar ayni zamanda, yedinci sinif ogrencilerinin tutum puanlarinin altinci ve sekizinci sinif ogrencilerine gore daha yuksek tutum puanlarina sahip olduklari bulunmustur. Sonuclar ayrica kizlarin bitkilere karsi erkeklere oranla daha olumlu tutuma sahip olduklarini gostermistir. Elde edilen bulgular isiginda, bitkilerin fen ogretiminde kullanilmasina yonelik onerilerde bulunulmustur.