Prospective Chemistry Teachers’ Awareness of Students’ Alternative Conceptions

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate prospective chemistry teachers‘ awareness of students‘ alternative conceptions, one of the components of pedagogical content knowledge, regarding the particulate nature of matter. An open-ended questionnaire was distributed to a class of 22 prospective teachers. In addition, semi-structured interviews were carried out with five students chosen according to their responses in the questionnaire. The questionnaire and interview results suggested that the majority of prospective teachers could reason about students‘ possible difficulties about the particulate theory in the context of phase changes. Their general pedagogical knowledge and learning experiences were influential for this awareness. This study has some implications for teacher education programs.