A study on the teaching orientations, methods and techniques of science lecturers

The aim of this study is to examine the orientations, a component of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), of science teaching lecturers, and the teaching methods and techniques they use. Orientation is seen as a pivotal component of PCK, which is defined as 'knowledge and beliefs about the goals of science teaching at a certain grade level and general ways of thinking about science teaching'. Participants of the study which is carried out using the case study are 5 lecturers working in the science education department of a state university. Observations, interviews, and teaching and learning beliefs assessment instrument were used as data collection tools, and the data were analysed by deductive content analysis. The findings showed that the participants had orientations of academic rigor, inquiry / guided inquiry, process, conceptual change and didactic, while they did not exhibit discovery, project-based teaching and activity driven orientations. The study revealed that lecturers displayed research-based orientations focusing on student understanding, such as the acquisition of subject matter knowledge and conceptual change, and the development of scientific process skills independent of field knowledge and program-based orientations that consider science as inquiry. In addition to teacher-centered methods such as lecture and demonstration, lecturers also used student-centered methods such as question-answer, discussion, laboratory and problem solving, and rarely case study and demonstration methods used in active learning. It is determined that the teaching techniques used were limited to micro teaching, brainstorming, station and simulation.