Examination of science education teachers candidates' reasoning on some chemistry subjects

The aim of this study is to examine some of the science teachers candidates' in Chemistry Issues Reasoning (CIR). However, the CIR of the science candidates were examined in terms of gender, class, and high school type of graduates. For this reason, research is a cross-sectional survey study. 210 students (180 females, 30 male) enrolled in the program of Fırat University Faculty of Education Science Teacher Training participated in the study. The "Chemistry Issues Reasoning Test" (CIRT) developed by Cloonan and Hutchinson (2011) was used as a data collection tool in the study. CIRT consists of 38 items. CIRT atomic molecule theory, atomic structure, chemical bonds, chemical equilibrium, chemical kinetics, chemical reactions, kinetic molecular theory, phase equilibrium, thermochemistry and thermodynamics. It was examined by the t-test and ANOVA methods that the participants showed a significant difference according to the sex, class and graduated high school type levels of CIR. As a result of the study, it has been determined that most science teacher candidates have inaccurate reasoning about the chemistry concepts studied in this study. When the research data were analyzed according to the gender variable, it was seen that the teacher candidates did not show any significant difference in the CIR. Moreover, it was determined that there was no significant difference between the science teachers' candidates and the grade level of CIR. In addition, it was observed that the science teachers showed significant difference according to the high school type variable in which the CIR graduated. However, when this difference is examined one by one in high school type, it is determined that there is a meaningful difference between only high school and anatolia high school types and there is no significant difference between other high school types. It was found that participants in the study had a lower CIR and that CIRT was difficult for this study group.