Abstract:

Abstract enRenewed primary and elementary schools science curriculum has been implemented in Turkey for three years. In this curriculum students are required to learn school science subjects by various inquiry-based learning activities or experiments. However, whether pre-service elementary science teachers (PSTs) are completely ready to implement this curriculum by considering some levels of inquiry is still not known. This study aims to explore PSTs’ difficulties in performing guided inquiry-based physic experiments and their perceptions about physics laboratory. A total of 80 PSTs participated in the study and they performed guided inquiry-based electricity experiments. Data were collected through an open-ended questionnaire, the interview and field note. Qualitative content analysis was performed to analyze the data obtained. The results of this study showed that some PSTs faced difficulty in performing the experiments due to their teacher-centered previous learning experiences, insufficient content knowledge about physics, insufficient inquiry skills, poor adaptation to inquiry activities and low-level collaboration. In addition, the majority of PSTs perceived physics laboratory as a place where the physics knowledge was confirmed. As a conclusion, this study showed that most PSTs had some difficulties in performing the guided inquiry-based electricity experiments. How researchers and instructors can decrease the number of the difficulties that PSTs face in the inquiry activities or experiments by taking some precautions is also discussed in this study.

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