Determination of professional competence levels of chemistry pre-service teachers

The purpose of this study is to determine the professional competence levels of secondary chemistry pre-service teachers, and also it was aimed to verify structural equation model suggested relationships among content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, teaching self-efficacy belief, attitudes towards the teaching profession and teaching experience within the framework of the professional competence.In this research, mixed research design included quantitative and qualitative research techniques was used. Firstly, relational scanning model was used as quantitative research methods and then case study method was applied as qualitative methods. At the end of the study, results were combined. Competence levels of content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, attitude toward teaching profession and self efficacy beliefs of chemistry pre-service teachers were determined with data collection tools which were prepared by researcher. Additionally, pedagogical knowledge of chemistry pre-service teachers were determined by looking at their cumulative grade point averages of pedagogical lessons. In the direction of all of these competences and factors affecting competences, the model proposed by the researcher was aimed to verify. In the qualitative section of this study, case study was applied because of promoting the quantitative section.The participants of the study consisted of 202 chemistry pre-service teachers in four different university for quantitative data and six volunteer chemistry pre-service teachers who were in the last year of the chemistry teacher training program for qualitative data.The data were obtained by chemistry content knowledge test, self-efficacy belief scale, teaching profession attitude scale, pedagogical content knowledge scale, personel information form, semi-structured interviews, observation and reflective diaries. While LISREL 8.71 statistical program was utilized to verify structural equation model, SPSS statistical programs were used to determine the professional competence levels of pre-service teachers. In the qualitative data, descriptive statistics, content analysis within the document examination were used.According to the quantitative findings the content knowledges of the pre-service teachers were low, their pedagogical content knowledges were generally enough, but qualitative data showed that pedagogical content knowledge was acquired over time and has been reached sufficient level. Additionally, the relationships occurred in model was consisted with the data considering goodness of fit criteria and proposed model was verified except the pedagogical variable. Similarly, the qualitative study findings indicated that pedagogical knowledge is not beneficial until it transforms the theoretical to practice. For this reason some pre-service teachers stressed that pedagogical knowledge is not permanent. Also this result was supported pedagogical knowledge which was not fit and located in the model.