Preservice Teachers’ Thoughts about Designing Science Activities in Informal Environments

Purpose: The main purpose of this research is to determine the perspectives of preservice science teachers who have taken and have not taken course on science teaching in informal environments, on the process of designing activities within the scope of science teaching in informal environments. Design & Methodology: This study used explanatory design, one of the mixed-method design types. The sample of the study consisted of 76 senior preservice science teachers at Science Teaching Department from two different universities in Turkey. While choosing the study group, stratified purposive sampling, one of the purposive sampling methods, was used. Outdoor Science Activities Performing Scale was used as a quantitative data collection tool and interviews were used as qualitative data collection tools. Findings: According to quantitative findings, when the dimensions of the Outdoor Learning Performing Scale were compared between the groups, no statistically significant difference was found in all dimensions. However, when the qualitative findings were examined preservice science teachers who have taken the course had enough knowledge about designing and performing science activities in informal learning environments. Implications & Suggestions: To sum up, preservice science teachers who have taken the course had enough knowledge about designing and performing science activities in informal learning environments. This directly emphasizes the importance of receiving instruction in this subject. In this study, the instruction received by the preservice teachers who have taken courses was one of the main reasons for them wanting to have their students experience this process by overcoming all the difficulties they might encounter. However, preservice science teachers who have not taken the course about informal science education did not have enough knowledge about designing and performing science activities in informal learning environments.