Pre-service Teachers’ Opinions and Visual Images About Science Laboratory

Abstract

The study aims to examine the opinions of pre-service classroom teachers about science laboratories. The research was conducted with 66 third-year students (50 female, 16 male) studying in the classroom teaching undergraduate program of a university in the fall semester of the 2019-2020 academic year. In selecting the participants, taking the “Science Laboratory Applications” course before their volunteerism was taken as a basis. The Drawing-writing technique was used as a data collection tool, and the data were analyzed by content analysis. According to the findings obtained, it was seen that the pre-service teachers mostly used laboratory tables and volumetric flasks in their laboratory drawings. Participants stated that there are mostly chemicals, microscopes and test tubes in the laboratory environment. Almost all pre-service classroom teachers thought that the greatest advantage of using laboratories in science is to embody scientific phenomena. In addition, some pre-service teachers thought that there is no disadvantage in using the laboratory, while some thought that there might be various accidents. According to the findings, it was concluded that the pre-service classroom teachers had a general knowledge of science laboratories and thought that using laboratories in science education would provide an advantage rather than a disadvantage.