Prospective science teachers views about how plants gain their dry mass and how the mass leaves human body during weight loss

The aim of this study was to investigate prospective science teachers? thinking about I) dry mass increase occurring in plants, ii) weight decrease occurring in human beings, and iii) in which ways the body mass leave human body in case of weight loss. During the study I determined prospective science teachers? knowledge and misconceptions about concepts and facts related to the above mentioned situations.In this study, I used content analysis (as a qualitative research method) and utilized the Nvivo9 software for handling the data. Sixty three senior prospective science teachers participated in study in spring semester 2012 at two large state universities in Turkey. In this study, a two-stage diagnostic test was used as the data collection instrument. Additionally, semi-structured, audio taped interviews were conducted with five randomly selected participants.The findings indicate that the participants have several misconceptions about process of photosynthesis and cellular respiration, and that they tend to think informally, rather than scientifically in their reasonings.The results and their implications are discussed in detail. However, it should be stressed that although the core concepts of photosynthesis and respiration/cellular respiration, are included in Turkish science curricula since middle school grades, the university students who are expected to teach these concepts when they become teachers still lack an understanding of their essence. In that regard, the current study has served as a litmus paper for biology educators and curriculum developers for diagnosing understandings and showing the way for improvement in teaching and learning photosynthesis and cellular respiration. Keywords: misconceptions, plants? dry mass gain, human weight loss, mass reduction in human beings, conceptual learning, science concepts, photosynthesis, cellular respiration,