Research Information System
INTERNATIONAL ONLINE JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES, vol.10, pp.130-145, 2018 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)
The purpose of the study was to understand knowledge and opinions of in-service (ISTs) and pre-service science teachers (PSTs) regarding the conceptual integration (CI). The research design of this study is phenomenology. Purposive sampling methodology has been chosen for this study. A sample of the study consists of ten ISTs and 40 PSTs. Two-stage open-ended questions was utilized as the primary data source to evaluate ISTs’ and PSTs’ subject matter knowledge in terms of integrating biology, physics, and chemistry concepts with each other and their views about CI. The themes and codes were used for analysis of the data. Findings indicated that most of the ISTs and PSTs had insufficient subject matter knowledge regarding the CI and most of them responded questions with only biology, physics and chemistry concepts without any integration. Moreover, all participants stated that the CI was crucial and necessary. Also, ISTs and PSTs thought that chemistry, biology and physics concepts are related to each other; however, they had difficulty in applying the CI. Moreover, ISTs did not mention any specific teaching strategy and assessment technique while using the CI. Finally, most of ISTs stated that they were not aware of the presence of the CI in curriculum. Moreover, PSTs mentioned that the CI has some contribution to their learning; however, participants had the difficulties in using the CI in their learning. Implementation of the study was discussed.