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Biyoloji Öğretmen Adaylarının Evrim…
Misconceptions of Prospective Biology…
NEF-EFMED Cilt 11, Sayı 2, Aralık 2017/
NFE-EJMSE Vol. 11, No. 2, December 2017
reasons driving the answers were specified. Responses
were read through several times to
obtain a sense of the whole. S
imilar answers were combined and the final categorization was
made and frequency were calculated for each item (Table.3).
Also, data were categorized by two
researchers in order to test the reliability of the obtained results.
Results
Frequency and percentage data relating to answers to the misconception identification
test on what the theory of evolution is are provided in Table 2.
Table 2
Results of the first tier of the misconceptions about evolution questionnaire
Items
True
False
Blank
f
%
ffo
%
f
%
1
64
54.70
50
42.74
3
2.56
2
75
64.10
39
33.33
3
2.56
3
92
78.63
22
18.80
3
2.56
4
45
38.46
68
58.12
4
3.42
5
14
11.97
101
86.32
2
1.71
6
58
49.57
56
47.86
3
2.56
7
82
70.09
25
21.37
10
8.55
8
31
26.50
82
70.09
4
3.42
9
94
80.34
18
15.38
5
4.27
10
95
81.20
13
11.11
9
7.69
11
57
48.72
50
42.74
10
8.55
12
75
64.10
36
30.77
6
5.13
13
65
55.56
51
43.59
1
0.85
14
80
68.38
21
17.95
16
13.68
n=117
Table 2 reveals that almost 80% of the prospective biology teachers picked wrong
answer choices for 2 out of 14 questions (question 5 and 9). In addition, almost 70% of the
teachers picked wrong answer choices for 3 out of 14 questions (question 3, 7 and 8). And
almost 50% of the teachers picked wrong answer choices for 1 out of 14 questions (question
1). In other words, more than half of the prospective biology teachers picked wrong answer
KESKİN, B. & ÖZAY KÖSE, E.
223
Necatibey Eğitim Fakültesi Elektronik Fen ve Matematik Eğitimi Dergisi
Necatibey Faculty of Education, Electronic Journal of Science and Mathematics Education
choices for 6 questions. For the remaining 8 questions, prospective biology teachers picked
wrong answer choices by less than 50%. For 1 question out of 14, almost 81% prospective
biology teachers picked the right answer choice (question 10).
Reason of true-false answers given to the misconception identification test on what the
theory of evolution is has individually been read to classify misconceived statements into
following categories (Table 3).
Table 3
Misconceptions about evolution
Item
Misconceptions
Frequency
1
Evolution delivers information on the genesis of mankind.
2
Evolution delivers information about how the world has formed.
15
Evolution has tried to explain how the first creature occurred.
28
2
Fish has randomly transformed into frog and gone ashore.
2
The theory of evolution occurs by chance.
19
3
Evolution is a progressively advancing complex progress.
4
Thanks to evolution, unicellular organisms appear first followed
by the emergence of complex creatures.
8
Since life switches to land life from the marine life, the goal of the
theory of evolution is switch to perfection.
13
Human is the most perfect creature emerging through evolution.
14
Through evolution, creatures have progressed from simple to the
complex.
26
4
The theory of evolution can be tested in today's conditions, but
has no validity.
2
Events in the past are unobservable and left behind.
10
The theory of evolution cannot be observed because it is
necessary to know about the characteristics and structure of old
creatures, and this is not possible.
24
5
The theory of evolution lacks a scientific nature.
8
Evolution has not sufficiently been supported by evidence and has
not been accepted
40