Preservice science teachers' attitudes towards chemistry and misconceptions about chemical kinetics

Abstract

The present study investigates preservice science teachers' attitudes towards chemistry; their misconceptions about chemical kinetics; and relationships between pre-service science teachers' attitudes toward chemistry and misconceptions about chemical kinetics were examined. The sample of this study consisted of 81 freshman pre-service science teachers (female 42, male 39) at a public university in the southwest part of Turkey. The result of the study demonstrated that preservice science teachers' attitudes towards chemistry were at medium level and preservice science teachers had some misconceptions about chemical kinetics. There is not a statistically significant relationship between pre-service science teachers' attitudes towards chemistry and their misconceptions about chemical kinetics. Also, the result of this study revealed that there is not a statistically significant difference in understanding of the chemical kinetics concepts between pre-service science teachers having high and low attitudes. © 2015 HKIEd APFSLT.