EVALUATION OF SCIENCE TEACHERS' VISUAL AND COGNITIVE CONSTRUCTIONS OF A LINE GRAPH

Abstract

In this study, the visual and cognitive configurations of pre-service science teachers in drawing line graphs were evaluated. In this context, the research was conducted with a total of 180 science teacher candidates, 55 in the 2013-2014 fall semester, 66 in the 2015-2016 fall semester, and 59 in the 2016-2017 fall semester, who was studying in the second year of a state university in Bursa. The research was carried out within the framework of document analysis. The data source is the end-of-term exam papers of the general biology laboratory course collected for three years. In the open-ended problems evaluated, pre-service teachers were expected to draw line graphs for a problem and make logical inferences by interpreting this graph. As a result, it was understood that pre-service teachers' visual structuring skills and cognitive structuring skills were different, and their ability to make logical inferences from a graph was inefficient compared to graph drawing and interpretation skills.