The investigation of elementary teachers? science and technology literacy and their competence in science teaching

The purpose of this research was to examine elementary teachers? scientific literacy levels and their competence in science teaching. The research was based on a survey model where quantitative and qualitative methods were used togetherThe population of the study consisted of elementary teachers enrolled at state schools in İzmir. In order to select samples for collecting quantative data, cluster sampling was used and totally 461 elementary teachers were participated this research. The sample of the qualitative research consisted of ten primary teachers selected divergent case sampling. In the quantative part of the research, Science and Technology Literacy (STL) and Science and Technology Teaching Competence (STTC) scales were used. In the quantative part, semi-structured interviews were conduct to determine primary teachers? opinions about scientific literacy and science teaching competences.The quantative data were analyzed by using SPSS 13.0 statistical program. The analysis of the data were done by using descriptive statistics including frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, competency index, factor analysis, t-test and variance analysis. Also descriptive methods were conducted to analyze qualitative data.Research findings related to analysis of quantitative data showed that elementary teachers have no satisfactory level of science and technology literacy. On the other hand, elementary teachers feel themselves competent in all sub-dimensions of teaching in science and technology and even some dimensions, they were found very competent. Findings of the qualitative data analysis show that the elementary teachers (a) define science and technology literacy generally consistent with the literature, (b) do not find themselves very competent in terms of training scientific literate individuals, (c) think that many schools still suffer from the lack of the technique equipments and (d) are not very competent in terms of new teaching methods and measurement and evaluation methods and techniques.In line with these results, some suggestions for science educators and teachers are presented.