Determination of science teacher candidates' misconceptions about global warming

The aim of this study is to determine the misconceptions of science teacher candidates about global warming. Within the scope of the study, scientific knowledge, lack of knowledge, false positive and false negative percentages of science teacher candidates about global warming were also calculated. The research was designed using the survey model, one of the quantitative research methods. As a measurement tool in the research, the global warming four-tier misconception diagnostic test developed by the researcher within the scope of the study was used. The validity and reliability studies of the global warming four-tier misconception diagnosis test were conducted with 401 science teacher candidates. The KR-20 reliability coefficient for the scientific knowledge score of the test was calculated as .896, and the KR-20 reliability coefficient for the misconception score was calculated as .705. The validity and reliability analyzes confirmed that the developed test is a valid and reliable measurement tool to be used in determining the misconceptions of science teacher candidates about global warming. The developed test was applied to 835 science teacher candidates who continue their education in the science education department of universities in Turkey. It was determined that the pre-service teachers had more than 10% misconceptions for each question and their scientific knowledge was not sufficient. As a result of the study, 42 misconceptions of science teacher candidates about global warming were determined, and it was determined that 14 of these misconceptions had an incidence rate of over 10%.