INVESTIGATING PRE-SERVICE SCIENCE TEACHERS’ ANXIETIES AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS PHYSICS LABORATORY

Abstract

In this study, it is aimed to investigate teacher candidates' anxiety and attitude scores whether it differs by gender. It is important to reveal attitudes and anxiety situations towards the physics laboratory in order to reduce concerns of students in the applications of physics laboratories. In this sense, it is thought that this study will help to keep the use of physics laboratory more efficient by considering these points. Survey data was collected in this quantitative research. The sample of the study consisted of 44 (29 female, 15 male) preservice science teachers enrolling teacher education programs in an Education Faculty in Turkey. The university is located in southeast of Turkey. The "Physics Laboratory Anxiety Scale" developed by Tanrıverdi ve Demirbaş (2012) and the "Physics Laboratory Anxiety Scale" developed by Berber (2013) were used to investigate preservice science teachers’ perceptions related to physics laboratory. The results of the research show that the teacher candidates generally display a positive attitude towards the physics laboratory. However, it has been found that teacher candidates are concerned about the physics laboratory. Such as the teacher candidates have anxiety about constructing the experimental setup easily and properly (easily set up an experiment), using the laboratory equipments and interpreting the graphics. The results of the research showed that the gender variable had no significant effect on the attitude and anxiety scores of the teacher candidates towards the physics laboratory. Interpretations were made on attitudes and anxiety levels of physics teacher candidates to the physics laboratory in the obtained findings and some suggestions were presented in this regard.