Investiigation of the misconceptions of the biology pre-service teachers related to terrestrial ecosystem

The goal of this study is to determine the misconceptions of the biology pre-service teachers related to terrestrial ecosystem and prepare proposals to eliminate them.The universe of the research was constituted by the students studying Department of Biology Education, Faculty of Education of Gazi University. The sample of the study was 89 students studying in the 2nd, 3rd and 5th years of the Department of Biology Education in 2006-2007 academic years. The study was performed out in the spring semester off the same year.The study was carried by the use of 20 question Conceptual Achievement test related to terrestrial ecosystem and a survey form containing 20 open ended questions. The resulting data were analyzed by the use of SPPS statistical software. Based on the data obtained the following conclusions were drawn:-The gender of the students was not seen to be an effective variable upon the achievement rates of the pre-service students related to terrestrial ecosystem.-The students were observed to have some misconceptions related to the terrestrial ecosystem.-It was observed that the conceptual achievements of the students related to terrestrial ecosystem showed a significant change according to the year they study.Key words: Terrestrial ecosystem, misconceptions, concept learning