The Investigation of Pre-service Science Teachers’ Opinions on Some of the Biology and Biotechnology Concepts

Abstract

Today, it is seen rapid progress in some areas such as biotechnology. Since determination of the DNA structure, advances in biology, biotechnology and genetic engineering have emerged very fast and on such a great scale that teachers should be able to adapt to new developments. Teacher education has an important task to prepare students for their coming professions. The objective of this study was to find out pre-service science teachers’ conceptions on biology, biotechnology, genetically modified (GM) food and their ideas on teaching and assessment strategies to help their students’ understanding of these technologies. The participants were 150 pre-service science teacher in Turkey. A questionnaire contains eight closed-ended and four open-ended items were used to determine pre-service science teachers’ perceptions of biology and biotechnology issues. Quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used to analyze data. As a result of this research, it was observed that pre-service science teachers does not have sufficient knowledge or their information that is contradictory.

DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2016.v6n1p9