Examining science teacher candidates'abilities on reading, interpreting and preparing of graphs

In this study, it has been aimed to examine science teacher candidates' abilities on reading, interpreting and preparing graphs related to subjects of general physic-I course. In this study, it has been used the descriptive-scanning model. The study consists of total 244 science teacher candidates who attend courses at Kastamonu University Faculty of Education Department of Elementary School Division of Science Teaching at the first, second, third and fourth grades of 2013-2014 Academic Year's fall semester. For data collection, a test that has three sections, which are multiple-choice, open-ended and true-false questions, has been developed by the researcher and applied to the subjects. Science teacher candidates' answers to multiple-choice questions are divided into three main categories which are primarily "true", "false" and "not available" and these categories are stated by frequency and percentage. For graphing questions within the multiple-choice test, the graphics drawn by science teachers candidates are grouped as "complete and persuasive", "insufficient", "no action" and "incorrectly drawn graphic" and graded basing on specific criteria. Additionally, conceptual, graphical and computational types of questions that they found themselves more successful in which to reveal two open-ended questions were asked to science teacher candidates. In order to understand whether science teachers candidates are lacking in conceptual information about graphic, questions with true-false propositions are addressed to them At the end of this study, it has been concluded that science teachers candidates experience difficulties in drawing graphics, specifying starting point of the graphic, scaling the lines, matching the values, understanding and interpreting the graphics. The third section of test that consists of true-false propositions is completed by the majority of prospective teachers, and it has been understood that they do not experience much trouble at the level of conceptual information. Furthermore, it has been found out that graph abilities of science teachers candidates decrease as the class level increases in graphing questions and the female teacher candidates were more successful than the male teacher candidates in abilities on reading, interpreting and preparing of graphs.