Evolution teaching to prospective teachers with the cooperative rabbit hole strategy: Two different evidence-based explanatory interventions
Thesis Type: Doctorate
Institution Of The Thesis: Ataturk University, Eğitim Bilimleri Enstitüsü, Matematik Ve Fen Bilimleri Eğitimi Anabilim Dalı, Turkey
Thesis Supervisor: Fatih Sezek
Approval Date: 2020
Thesis Language: Turkish
Supported Program: Teaching Staff Training Program
Abstract:
In the study, it is aimed to answer the question by meta-inference way "How does the application of two-different evolution teaching strategy as 'Cooperative Rabbit Hole' and 'Flipped Cooperative Rabbit Hole' effects the scores that science teacher candidates obtained from Evolution Academic Achievement Tests, Evolution General Achievement Test and Critical Thinking Dispositions Scale?" Method: The research was conducted within the context of mixed sequential design, which is one of the mixed research approaches. Quantitative data were collected and analysed in the first stage of this design consisting of two stages. Then, findings that seem contradictory and quantitative data are not sufficient to explain were determined, and it was tried to explain how the contradictions in these findings occurred by conducting in-depth qualitative research. For this reason, the first stage of the research was conducted with a quasi-experimental method with pre-test/post-test comparison groups, which is one of the quantitative research approaches; and accordingly, it was studied with two groups as Experiment 1 and Experiment 2. The second stage of the study was carried out by the Phenomenographic Research Method, which is one of the qualitative research approaches. Findings: In the study, it was observed that in the evolution success tests, the Experiment 1 group, in which the lesson was conducted with the Collaborative Rabbit Hole strategy, was more successful than the Experiment 2 group in which the lesson was conducted with the Flipped Cooperative Rabbit Hole Strategy. No statistically significant difference was found between the two groups in the scores obtained from the Evolution General Achievement Test and the Critical Thinking Dispositions Scale. It was also found that there was a decrease in the scores of some pre-service teachers' critical thinking dispositions at the end of the term compared to the pre-test. Result: Pre-service teachers' misconceptions about biological evolution/evolution theory and their negative opinions about the Evolution course were eliminated and it was determined that their critical thinking dispositions developed. However, as the content of evolutionary biology topics could not be concretized, the targeted progress in general academic achievement test scores could not be achieved.