Investigation of the biology teacher candidates? proficiency in physics topics in biology

This study investigated the proficiency in physics topics in biology of 86 teacher candidates studying at the 2nd and 4th grades of the Faculties of Education at Gazi and Hacettepe Universities. Three data collection instruments were used: attitude questionnaire, biology knowledge test, and physics knowledge test. When the attitudes of candidate teachers toward physics topics in biology were analysed, 87 % expressed that they were eager to learn most of the biology topics. The results obtained through the other data collection instruments showed that the responses of the teacher candidates to physics only test were higher than the average of the responses they gave to the biology test that also included physics topics. In conclusion, it was found that the teacher candidates have enough conceptual knowledge about diffusion, pressure, light, heat-temperature, energy and electricity, but that they were unable to transform the above-mentioned topics into highly meaningful and functional knowledge.Key Words: Biology teacher candidates, physics topics in biology, proficiency