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While the epistemic beliefs are defined as beliefs about knowledge and knowing, the nature of science (NOS) is about the epistemological and ontological foundations of science, how scientists work, how scientific knowledge is produced, how it is tested and validated and how society affects or reacts to science. In this study, the link between pre-service science teachers’ general epistemic beliefs (GEB) and their understanding of NOS was examined qualitatively. Hermeneutic phenomenological design was used in the study and the data were obtained from semi-structured interviews with five pre-service science teachers who participated voluntarily. In the analysis, the links of two different phenomena were reached from a single data set. As a result of the research, specific links were found between different types of general epistemic belief dimensions, which are mostly sophisticated, and NOS dimensions. These links were found to confirm many of the divergent relationships quantitatively identified in the literature. In addition, as an original result, it was seen that the relationships previously identified with quantitative methods could be qualitatively differentiated and some relationships not found in the literature could be possible. As a result of the study, it was determined that pre-service science teachers justified their beliefs with their understanding of science and scientific knowledge. When this case is analyses in the light of the literature, it can be explained by the possible influence of science which constitutes the context of the participants. It can be said that the participants approximated their general epistemic beliefs to scientific epistemology in the manner of domain-specific epistemic beliefs (DEB) and finally concretized them with statements emphasizing their understanding of NOS. Moreover, the results imply that participants can justify their developed epistemic beliefs through authorities, both personal and with reference to science, according to the epistemological nature of the knowledge implied. In this respect, the research proposes a testable scheme that reveals holistic connections between GEB and NOS. It also encourages further research into the possible direction of causality underlying the transitivity between GEB–DEB–NOS and scientific epistemological beliefs in its context.

Permaculture is a concept that can greatly contribute to sustainable living. It refers to a design-oriented system that aims to organize human settlements in a sustainable manner. Science teachers can contribute to the dissemination of permaculture through education by playing a critical role in conveying environmental awareness and sustainability issues to students. Considering the role of science teachers in creating awareness towards permaculture, this study aims to investigate the attitudes of prospective science teachers towards permaculture. To determine the permaculture attitudes of prospective science teachers, the 40-question 5-point Likert-type Permaculture Attitude Scale developed by Ozcalik and Yorubulut (2022) has been used as a data collection tool. The scale has been applied to 164 prospective teachers studying at the Science Teaching Department of the Faculty of Education of a state university. According to the data obtained from the scale applied to prospective science teachers, the average general attitude score is 3.83. This value indicates that prospective science teachers have a positive attitude towards permaculture. Also, a significant difference has been found between the permaculture attitudes of prospective science teachers according to their gender, and this difference is in favor of female prospective teachers. Additionally, a significant difference has been observed based on their place of upbringing, with those who grew up in districts exhibiting more positive attitudes than those who grew up in villages. Permaculture attitudes of prospective science teachers do not show any significant difference according to the family income level and residence type. Based on these findings, it is recommended that further studies be conducted on different sample groups to explore prospective teachers’ attitudes towards permaculture and the variables affecting their awareness of sustainable living.

This study’s goal was to examine the attitudes of prospective science teachers towards nanobiotechnology according to different variables (their gender, grade level, family educational status, family income status, the region of their university, the frequency of teaching nanotechnology topics in their courses, and the status of following scientific publications). The survey method was used in the current study. The study data were obtained from a nanobiotechnology attitude scale and a personal information form and applied to 1318 prospective science teachers. The collected data were analyzed by the Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis H tests. It was determined that the attitudes of prospective science teachers towards nanobiotechnology differed according to grade level, the region of their university, the frequency of teaching nanotechnology topics in their courses, and the status of following scientific publications. However, they did not differ according to gender, family educational status, and income status. The results obtained from the study reflecting a profile of Turkey can guide educational policymakers, program developers, lecturers, and researchers working on nanobiotechnology.

The spiritual (S) aspect needs to be integrated with the environmental literacy instrument (ELI) so that it becomes ELIS. This study was designed to develop and validate an instrument for prospective science teacher in the form of environmental literacy instrument based on literacy (ELIS). The instrument was developed based on previous research findings and focus group discussions involving eleven experts. The factors and internal consistency were examined by involving 634 students/prospective science teachers from various universities in Indonesia. Validity and reliability were tested using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. This study proposes a 26-item ELIS with acceptable internal validity and consistency. It is composed of four dimensions: ecological knowledge (five items), environmental hope (seven items), cognitive skills (eight items), and behavior (six items). The ELIS is recommended as a measure of the development of environmental literacy based on spirituality for prospective science teachers.

This study focused on determining the elements of mental models of atomic structure and views on visual representations of models of atomic structure in two sub-cohorts of student teachers studying at a university in Turkey. In total, 141 student teachers participated in this study. In the first cohort, the focus was on 73 freshman science student teachers’ drawings of mental models of atomic structure. The analysis showed a wide variety of individual aspects in the students’ minds when asked to sketch the structure of atoms. The majority of students preferred to draw two-dimensional structures, neglecting the atom’s space-filling character. Concerning the details of atomic structure, the majority of students emphasized only the most essential components of atoms, namely protons, neutrons, and electrons. It was quickly recognizable that these elements were arranged according to different analogies or representations of historical models, particularly related to Bohr’s atomic theory and different representations thereof. Overall, the different visual representations of atomic models the students see in school, almost exclusively serve as the basis for their ideas about atomic structure. Current atomic theory, like quantum mechanical models, are generally not used when students are asked for a “contemporary” model of atoms. Rather it seems that concreteness and functionality are the primary factors leading to the selection of an atomic model when requested. This study is supplemented by data collected from the second cohort of 68 prospective teachers consisting of a diverse group of students ranging from freshman to senior level. The students in this cohort were asked for their preferred illustrations of atoms in textbooks. Open-ended questions about atoms led to further insights. The analysis of the prospective teachers’ drawings indicated that a more careful approach to teaching is necessary to clarify the relationships between different models of atomic structure and to allow students to understand what an appropriate and contemporary understanding of atomic structure should encompass.

1799 prospective elementary and prospective science teachers from six countries (Croatia, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey) participate in the study about the level of motivation toward science courses, pedagogy courses and self-efficacy. The most important findings were that choosing educational career as the first choice of prospective teachers depends on country and study track. The highest percentage of prospective teachers who choose teaching career and will probably stay teachers is in participating institutions from Slovenia and Croatia and the lowest in Slovakia and Turkey with Czech Republic and Lithuania in between. The percentages are higher for prospective elementary teachers than for prospective science teachers. Motivation of prospective teachers’ regarding to the science courses and pedagogy courses vary. Differences between countries are small but as a rule future science teachers are more motivated for science courses than for pedagogy/didactics courses and the opposite is true for elementary teachers. Differences on general self-efficacy beliefs vary within and between countries? On average values falls in the upper third range what can be predictor of good teaching. Correlation between students’ motivation toward science courses, pedagogy courses and their self-efficacy beliefs is statistically significant but low, showing that good students are generally motivated for all courses but differences between motivation toward science and pedagogy exists and depends on study track. Conclusion of our study is that science teachers are better equipped to cope with problems than elementary teachers, but elementary teachers will most probably work at the working place they choose as their first will.

Prospective science teachers must themselves first generate rather than simply using knowledge and they must be science literate must be science literate and abreas of the changes in industry if we want future generations to be and do the same. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine lifelong learning tendencies and scientific creativity levels of prospective science teachers and examine the correlation between these variables. In the study, correlational survey, one of the quantitative research methods, was used. The sample of the study was composed of 201 prospective science teachers studying at the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years in a public university in Eastern Anatolia Region within the academic year 2019/2020. “Lifelong Learning Scale” and “Scientific Creativity Test” were used as data collection tools in the study. Independent samples t-test was used to compare the scale scores of the participants in terms of gender and age and ANOVA was used to compare them in terms of class level. In addition, Pearson’s Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient (r) analysis technique was used in order to examine whether or not there was a significant correlation between lifelong learning tendencies and scientific creativity levels of prospective science teachers. The results of the study indicated that the prospective science teachers had high lifelong learning tendencies. No statistically significant difference was found between the Lifelong Learning Scale (LLS) total scores of female and male prospective science teachers. However, a statistically significant difference was found between the Scientific Creativity Test (SCT) total scores of male and female prospective science teachers and this difference was observed in favor of male teachers. Additionally, there was a positive and moderate correlation between the lifelong learning tendencies and scientific creative levels of the participants. As a result of the study, it was observed that there was a moderate and positive correlation between lifelong learning tendencies and scientific creativity levels of the participants. High levels of lifelong learning were correlated with high levels of scientific creativity. Lifelong learning requires individuals to have some atypical knowledge, skills and competencies to cope with current life problems. In addition, it is recommended in the literature that individuals should have some competencies, such as searching information, accessing information and knowing the ways of reaching information in order to have lifelong learning skills. Therefore, it can be interpreted that scientific creativity skills of individuals, who integrate learning processes throughout their lives and have the mentioned competences, will also improve. The limitations of the study are that the study included 201 prospective science teachers studying in a public university located in Eastern Anatolia Region and the number of male participants was less than the number of female participants. It is important for prospective teachers to do practices, which will improve their lifelong learning skills during their undergraduate education, in terms of scientific creativities. This is because scientific creativity and lifelong learning skills should be included in the science course in order for students to acquire sense of task, scientific perspective, and skills for controlling and regulating their learning.

The aim of this study is to examine the reflections of the prospective science teachers on their expectations, opinions, and suggestions towards science fairs. The study was conducted with 34 prospective science teachers. All participants had education in junior class of Science Teaching Program of a university located in western part of Turkey in the spring term in 2013-2014 academic year. The prospective science teachers were taking a Community Service course during the study. The study was qualitative in nature. More specifically, it was a phenomenological study. The data included pre-written and post-written interviews with all participants as well as face-to-face interviews with 12 selected prospective science teachers. The content analysis results revealed the expectations of the prospective science teachers towards science fair, difficulties and outcomes of the science fair practice, and suggestions related to instructional plans and improvement of the implementation. At the end of the study, it is believed that providing prospective teachers opportunities to develop their instructional skills in a community of practice situated in authentic activities may help them learn to teach more effectively and gain broader perspectives. Moreover, creating such opportunities for students in schools through cooperation with universities might be fruitful both for prospective teachers and students in terms of supporting science education.

Understanding science concepts and being able to explain them is important for science teachers. The perception of students about the concepts of science is related to teachers who use these concepts. In this study, it was aimed to determine prospective science teachers’ (n=152) levels of conceptual understanding and ability to explain animal and plant cells by drawing and written explanations. In the study, descriptive survey design has been used. As for the outcome of the research, the conceptual understanding of prospective science teachers regarding plant and animal cells was not adequate. In addition, prospective science teachers’ level understanding and explanation the animal cells and plant cells was found out to be associated with each other. Prospective teachers’ writing and drawing scores are remarkably in favor of writing and significantly differ. The majority of prospective teachers had difficulty over drawing concepts. Recommendations are presented on the basis of these results.

The aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes of prospective science teachers at Sultan Qaboos University towards and their views about using journal writing in the Methods of Teaching Science course. Twenty-six prospective science teachers were asked to write about each topic in the course in their journal to show their understanding of it. In addition, they were asked to reflect on that topic. Two research instruments were used to collect the data; a scale of attitudes towards using the journal in the course and a focus group discussion. The attitude scale consisted of 29 items and its reliability coefficient was calculated by internal consistency using Cronbach's Alpha, which gave a value of 0.91. The focus group discussion was conducted with eight prospective science teachers. Both instruments were applied at the end of the course.The results of the study showed that prospective science teachers have a positive attitude towards using journal writing in the \"Methods of Teaching Science\" course. They cited several advantages and benefits they gained from using the journal. They are also willing to use the tool when they become teachers of science in schools after graduation. However, they highlighted some points for improving the tool in future, such as giving them examples from previous works and more feedback from the instructor. Several recommendations are proposed to enhance the use of journal writing in \"Methods of Teaching Science\" courses.