The Evaluation of class teacher candidates' achievement in general chemistry and the level of their understanding of some concepts

The Evaluation of Class Teacher Candidates' Achievement in General Chemistry and the Level of Their Understanding of Some Concepts Recent studies on Chemistry Education, focus on concepts which have abstract meanings and students' level of understanding of such concepts, their misconceptions and the reasons for these. The aim of this study; is to measure students' level of achievement in Generral Chemistry at Primary Teacher Training Program in Education Faculty. And also, it aims to measure students' level of understanding of basic chemistry terms. In this research, case study research methodology was employed. A multiple choice test, consisting of 40 items, was developed through a piloting process. The reliability coefficient was found 0,91 based on the Kuder-Richardson formula The sample was selected from first year students of the Primary Education Program of the Rize Education Faculty, Karadeniz Technical Universtiy. The test was implemented to the sample both at the beginning and at the and of the term before and after teaching General Chemistry course to compare the changes in the achievement levels of the students. Also in the study, samples were asked to give the reasons for their responses in the first 14 questions of the test. Later, the first 14 questions were further analyzed and the level of understanding of some basic chemistry concepts were tested. The answers for the 14 questions were categorized into four as sound understanding, partial understanding, no understanding and no answer. Morover, 15 students were interviewed to get further data for a deeper investigation. As a result, it has been understood that the students have lack of understanding of concepts such as mass, weight, element, molecule, boiling point, acid, base, chemical and physical events, compound names and mathematical calculations. On the other hand, they have better understanding on concepts such as compound, mixtures, metal, a-metal, solid, liquid and gas substances, the solubility of solids and gases, pH calculations and cells. In this study, it can be suggested that to overcome the identified misconceptions new strategies and guided materials should be devised and used to in teaching chemistry. Key words: Chemistry Education, The Level of Understanding, Misconceptions, Basic Chemistry Concepts VI