Investigating pre-service science teachers' capability of transition between types of representation concerning the states of matter and heat subject

The primary purpose of this thesis is to investigate pre-service science teachers' capability of transition between types of representation such as table, text, picture, and graph concerning states of the matter and heat subject. In addition, the study intended to determine pre-service teachers' self-evaluations about using the types of representation. In this way, whether the pre-service teachers' self-evaluations about transition between the types of representation were consistent with their success in this matter was questioned. A survey research methodology was employed in the current study. The study group consists of 238 pre-service teachers attending the faculty of education of a state university in Turkey in the 2015-2016 academic year. A measurement tool concerning the matter and heat subject was developed to determine the pre-service teachers' capability of transition between the types of representation. The study employed the document review method. Codes were created for the responses given in accordance with the pre-determined criteria. The correctness/incorrectness of the questions was assessed under five dimensions. In the end, the pre-service teachers were found to have imperfect or incorrect knowledge in transition from one type of representation to another. Also, their self-evaluations about transition between the types of representation were seen to be inconsistent with their success. Based on the findings obtained, it is recommended to give a wide coverage, in teacher training, to teaching practices that feature transition between types of representation in teaching states of the matter and heat subject and to create learning environments rich in types of representation within teaching processes. Moreover, it is recommended to carry out studies that investigate pre-service teachers' capability of transition between types of representation in different disciplines and learning domains.