Preservice science teachers' intolerance to the uncertainty, perceptions of uncertainties regarding risks and benefits of nuclear plants and teaching efficacies regarding electricity generation from nuclear plants

Since socioscientific issues are controversial and dilemma issues, teachers have difficulties in teaching these subjects. Studies have shown that teachers either go through socioscientific issues or discuss them in a classroom environment in an unplanned way. On the other hand, socioscientific issues contain some uncertainties and it is known that teachers who are faced with uncertainty situations generally have less self-efficacy in teaching these subjects. In the studies conducted, it was observed that people with a low level of tolerance to uncertainty often experience difficulties in managing the discussion in the classroom and their self-efficacy related to the teaching of the subjects decreased. At this point, the purpose of this study is to reveal science teacher candidates' intolerance of uncertainty, perceptions of uncertainty about the risks and benefits of nuclear energy, and their self-efficacy regarding the teaching of nuclear energy, and to examine the relationships between these factors. The relational (correlational) model, one of the quantitative research designs, was used in the study. The research was conducted with 308 pre-service science teachers studying in the third and fourth grades of four different state universities in the spring semester of the 2018-2019 academic year. Three different questionnaires were applied to these teacher candidates. These are "Uncertainty Intolerance Scale", "Nuclear Energy Risks and Benefits Scale" and "Nuclear Power Plant Electric Production Self-Efficacy Scale". The data obtained from the applied questionnaires were coded and these encodings were interpreted with statistical analysis in the next stage. According to the research results; It has been determined that pre-service science teachers are individuals who think that the more uncertainty they have about the risks and benefits of nuclear energy, the more difficult they will have in teaching these subjects. At the same time, it was observed that those who believe in the effect of uncertainty preventing action are individuals who think they will have difficulty in managing the discussion and will show a lower self-efficacy in the management of the discussion about nuclear power plants. According to the research results; It has been determined that pre-service science teachers are individuals who think that the more uncertainty they have about the risks and benefits of nuclear energy, the more difficult they will have in teaching these subjects. At the same time, it was observed that those who believe in the effect of uncertainty preventing action are individuals who think they will have difficulty in managing the discussion and will show a lower self-efficacy in the management of the discussion about nuclear power plants. In addition, it has been concluded that uncertainties have decreased in pre-service teachers regarding factors such as intolerance to uncertainty and negative self-perception, which are parts of uncertainty, and they have clearer evaluations of the risks of nuclear energy.