Prospective teachers views about video enhanced general biology instruction

Abstract

The aim of the study is to determine the views of the prospective physics and chemistry teachers about the video-enhanced General Biology instruction. The participants included 19 second-year prospective teachers (10 in Physics and 9 in Chemistry Education) at Necatibey Faculty of Education, Balikesir University, Turkey in the 2011-2012 academic years. Data were collected using semi-structured interview technique and analyzed by descriptive and content analysis techniques. The results of the study showed that the video-enhanced General Biology instruction increased the participants’ interest in biology and made learning more permanent. However, a few participants complained about problems such as language that the videos showed in the courses was mostly in English, Internet connections, opening video links and downloading videos. There is a need for more video clips related to biology concepts on a university level in the Turkish language or it may be useful to translate videos from English to Turkish. Teachers should be more competent in the more effective use of educational tools such as websites and videos in biology courses.