An Aspect of Science and Non-science Specialist Teachers’ Perceptions of Chemistry Diagrams

In the present study, what attracts the attention of science and non-science specialist teachers think in chemistry diagrams are explored. The data were gathered from 50 (25 female, 25 male) teachers of primary and secondary schools in Turkey. Twenty-seven (27) 27 of the participants are science spe...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ünsal Umdu Topsakal, John Oversby
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Sakarya University 2017-08-01
Series:Sakarya University Journal of Education
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Online Access:https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/341351
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Summary:In the present study, what attracts the attention of science and non-science specialist teachers think in chemistry diagrams are explored. The data were gathered from 50 (25 female, 25 male) teachers of primary and secondary schools in Turkey. Twenty-seven (27) 27 of the participants are science specialists and 23 are non-science specialists. The data were collected in 2012. A qualitative approach was adopted. The data were collected in three steps. Firstly, chemistry diagrams from internet were collected and some chemistry diagrams (12) were chosen by the researchers. In second step, selected diagrams were shown to the teachers. In this step, the participants were asked to think aloud about what they noticed when they looked at these diagrams. In the third step, semi-structured interviews were carried out in order to examine further the thoughts of the teachers on these diagrams. In our study, we found there were no significant differences in responses between the science and non-science specialist teachers. We conclude that it may be helpful to train teachers in the processes of constructing and reading diagrams.
ISSN:2146-7455