Pre-service science teachers’ knowledge and views about several socio-scientific issues after peer-led discussions

The purpose of this study is to examine pre-service science teachers’ views about a number of socio-scientific issues after peer-led discussions. The participants were 21 senior pre-service science teachers attending the Department of Science Education at a state university in Turkey. Pre-service science teachers' written responses about their knowledge and views on a number of socio-scientific issues and video recordings and field notes taken during the course of practice were the data sources of the study. The data were analyzed based on descriptive analysis and content analysis methods, and the Wilcoxon Signed Rank test was conducted to determine the difference in knowledge levels before and after discussions. Findings showed that pre-service science teachers held naive understandings in some socioscientific issues, while they had scientifically acceptable understandings in some others. However, peer-led discussions resulted in a statistically significant increase in the knowledge levels of pre-service science teachers. Reasons underlying the attitudes towards socio-scientific issues were frequently found in the grounds such as health, religion and economy, and the knowledge and approaches related to these topics were mostly shaped by media channels. It is recommended to incorporate socio-scientific issues into teacher education programs and consolidate them with peer-led teaching methods and techniques, like peer-led discussions. © 2018, Ankara University. All rights reserved.