Serkan Buldur

A longitudinal investigation of the preservice science teachers’ beliefs about science teaching during a science teacher training programme

ABSTRACT The aim of this longitudinal study was to investigate the changes in preservice science teachers’ beliefs about science teaching during a science teacher training programme. The study was designed as a panel study, and the data were collected from the same participants at the end of each academic year during a four-year period. The participants were composed of 76 preservice teachers, and the DASTT-C was used as the data collection tool. As a result of the study, it was determined that the students had conventional teaching beliefs after the first years of the teacher training programme. Moreover, the mental teaching styles of preservice teachers about the science teaching were found to undergo changes throughout their undergraduate education. Participants’ beliefs about conventional teaching started to change, especially after they first took a science method course in their third year and their beliefs shifted towards student-centred teaching. Implications for science teacher training programmes were also addressed.

Alt Sosyo-Ekonomik Düzeyli İlköğretim Öğrencilerinin 4-8. Sınıflar Fen ve Matematik Ders Başarıları: Cinsiyet Perspektifi

This study has investigated the change of the 4th-8th grades science and mathematics course success of 2142 elementary students in low socio-economic status by their grade level and gender via cross-sectional and longitudinal research approaches. Based on the findings of the study, consistent with the recent national and international studies, girls were found to have higher academic success than boys both in science and mathematics. When the changes in the annual science and mathematics course scores are investigated by the grade level, the mean scores of boys were found to decrease with the increasing grade level, whereas no significant change in any direction was observed for the mean scores of girls. Due to this difference, it has been observed that the achievement gap between girls and boys increases as the grade level increases, in favor of girls. Based on the related literature and the results of this study, it has been concluded that the traditional expectations about the gender gap, suggesting the male superiority in elementary science and mathematics courses, are no longer valid in today’s classrooms, even in a sample of students in low socioeconomic level.