The determination of the anxiety level of science teacher candidates towards physics lesson and their approaches coping with physics anxiety

In this research, it was examine whether there is a significant relationship between anxiety levels of the pre-service science teacher and various variables (gender, graduated high school type, university where they are educated, educational status of the family and academic achievement score). In addition, it was aimed to investigate the opinions of pre-service science teachers in order to determine the causes of anxiety in physics lesson and to reduce their anxiety towards physics lesson. For this purpose, quantitative and qualitative data were collected in the research, a mixed pattern was used to find answers to research problems. The guantitative part of the research was carried out with 349 pre-service science teachers studying at Education Faculty of Fırat and Inönü University during the spring semester of the 2018-2019 academic year. "The Physics Anxiety Scale" developed by Şahin, Çalışkan and Dilek (2015) was used to obtain the research data. Standard deviation, arithmetic average, percentage, independent t-test and one-way variance analysis (ANOVA) were used to analyze the relationship between variables and anxiety score in the analysis of the data. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS Version 22.0 statistic software package. From obtained results of the research, the physics anxiety scores of the science teacher candidates depending on the gender variable are statistically significant. Furthermore, there was a statistically significant difference between the physics anxiety score and the academic achievement score of physics course in favor of successful pre-service science teacher candidates. It was found that there was no significant difference between the physics anxiety scores of the pre-service science teacher depending on the variable of the university, the type of high school and the educational status of their parents. In addition, pre-service science teachers attributed the causes of physics anxiety to their teachers, physics formulas, physics subjects, personal perceptions, their own anxiety levels and their lack of basic knowledge. In the qualitative part of the research, a semi-structured interview was conducted with 19 pre-service science teachers studying at Fırat University in order to obtain the opinions of pre-service teachers on their approach to coping with their anxiety towards physics lesson. According to the results of the research, it can be said that the methods used (studying regularly, avoid negative speaking friends, getting support from the teacher) by pre-service science teachers to coping with anxiety towards physics lesson are effective in reducing their anxiety. Key Words: Education, Physics, Anxiety, Physics Anxiety