Abstract:

The concept of energy, which is one of the concepts directly related to vital activities, increases importance day by day with the increasing technology, industrialization and population. For this reason, the concept of energy learned in primary, secondary and higher education programs has a privileged place in science education since it is both an abstract and interdisciplinary concept.The aim of this study is to reveal the cognitive structures and to determine misconceptions of pre-service teachers related to the concept of energy. Qualitative research method was used in the study.The research was carried out with 95 pre-service teachers studying in the 3th and 4th grade of the faculty of education, science education program of a public university in 2018-2019. Word association test and drawing-writing technique were used to collect data.The data are categorized according to content analysis. The model of the pre-service teachers' cognitive structures on the concept of energy was prepared with the Vue program. Results shows that 7 categories were created from the word association test in the conceptual structures of pre-service science teachers regarding the concept of energy. In this context, it has been determined that the cognitive structures of pre-service science teachers are concentrated in the "Energy types", “Scientific terms that evoke the concept of energy” and "Energy sources" categories. In addition, with the data obtained in the study, it was determined that pre-service teachers had misconceptions about the concept of energy. Some of the misconceptions detected in pre-service science teachers are; There are three types of energy: potential, kinetic and mechanical, Only living things have energy.

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