Determination of Factors Affecting Preschool Teacher Candidates' Attitudes towards Science Teaching

The purpose of this study was to determine preschool teacher candidates' attitudes towards science teaching and to examine the reasons behind their attitudes in depth. In this study, mixed methods were used including quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data gained by attitudes towards science teaching scale, qualitative data gained by focus group interview with 10 preschool senior teacher candidates. Data were analyzed by content analysis methods. At the end of the analysis four themes were attained. These four themes are; science content knowledge, experience of science teaching, opinions of the science education course in their undergraduate program, knowledge of science teaching methods. Preshool teacher candidates' attitudes towards science teaching were obtained good level. However, comfort-discomfort sub-dimension was identified as having medium attitude score. In addition, as a result of focus group interview data, science content knowledge and positive science teaching experience have been found to be most effective positive attitudes towards science teaching. In light of results obtained from the study, educational suggestions for preschool teacher candidates' attitudes towards science teaching are made.