Opinions of science and technology teacher candidates about physics laboratory and course

Abstract

Laboratories carry a significant place in science education. Since science and technology course includes the coursesphysics, chemistry and biology, science and technology teachers should be competent for all the branches as well as in laboratory practices. Among the topics in science, the ones related to physics are believed to be difficult and scary for both the students and teacher candidates. For this reason, the present study aims to find out the opinions of science and technology teacher candidates about physics laboratory and course via metaphors by adding their views about the laboratory instructor from their own cases. Hence, a qualitative study was conducted by using three research questions: (1) Physics laboratory is like ….…. because …….. (2) Physics course is like …… because …….. (3) If I were the instructor of physics laboratory course, I would…………. Collected data was analyzed in term of content analysis by organizing student answers under proper themes regarding positive, negative and neutral approaches of students’ opinions in addition to analysis of their suggestions related to the laboratory instructor. The study was concluded with recommendations for the improvement of the laboratories and course