Measuring language ability of students with compensatory multidimensional CAT: A post-hoc simulation study

Education and Information Technologies - The computerized adaptive tests (CAT) apply an adaptive process in which the items are tailored to individuals' ability scores. The multidimensional CAT...     

A Study on Student Teachers’ Misconceptions and Scientifically Acceptable Conceptions About Mass and Gravity

The aims of this study were considered under three headings. The first was to elicit misconception that science and physics student teachers (pre-service teachers) had about the terms, ‘‘inertial mass’’, ‘‘gravitational mass’’, ‘‘gravity’’, ‘‘gravitational force’’ and “weight”. The second was to understand how prior learning affected their misconceptions, and whether teachers’ misconceptions affected their students’ learning. The third was to determine the differences between science and physics student teachers’ understanding levels related to mass and gravity, and between their logical thinking ability levels and their attitudes toward physics lessons. A total of 267 science and physics student teachers participated in the study. Data collection instruments included the physics concept test, the logical thinking ability test and physics attitude scale. All instruments were administered to the participants at the end of the 3rd semester of their university years. The physics test consisting of paper and pencil test involving 16 questions was designed, but only four questions were related to mass and gravity; the second test consisted of 10 questions with two stages. The third test however, consisted of 15 likert type items. As a result of the analysis undertaken, it was found that student teachers had serious misconceptions about inertia, gravity, gravitational acceleration, gravitational force and weight concepts. The results also revealed that student teachers generally had positive attitudes toward physics lessons, and their logical thinking level was fairly good.     

Prospective teachers＇ skills in planning and applying learning-teaching process

With the reconstruction of the curricula in Turkey, important changes have existed in the activities of education and teaching. That is why it has become an important case of research to determine how much student teachers know about the process of learning-teaching. This study aims to show how are student teachers capable are of planning and applying the process of learning-teaching effectively. Thus, eighteen senior student teachers from the Department of the Primary School Mathematics Teaching at the Education Faculty of a university in Turkey were interviewed in a semi-constructed way. At the end of the study, it was determined that the student teachers knew the activities in the new primary school mathematics curricula, most of them found themselves competent enough to prepare materials and apply them, but they were not competent enough to use mathematics software although they knew them and they were insufficient in the approaches which the new primary school curricula are based on. In light of the results acquired from the study, it is suggested that the student teachers should be taught to use worksheets at the different stages of the lessons through exercises and also they should be informed of how to use the computer programs and the approaches on which the new primary school curricula are based in the environment of learning-teaching.