Abstract:
The concept of "Energy", which is one of the concepts directly related to vital activities increases in importance day by day with the increasing technology and industrialization. For this reason, the concept of "Energy" learned in primary, secondary and higher education programs has a privileged place in science education as being an interdisciplinary concept. The aim of this study is to reveal the cognitive structures of pre-service science teachers about the concept of "Energy" and to determine their misconceptions. In the study, a survey model was used. The research was carried out with 95 pre-service teachers studying in the 3rd and 4th grade of the faculty of education, science education program of a public university in 2018-2019. The data were collected using the word association test (KIT) and the drawing-writing technique. The data were categorized with the content analysis method. The model explaining the cognitive structures of pre-service science teachers about the concept of "Energy" was prepared with the Vue program. As a result of the word association test about the concept of “Energy”, the cognitive structures of the teacher candidates; It has been determined that it focuses on the categories of "Energy types", "Scientific terms evoking the concept of energy" and "Energy sources". In the study, it was determined that pre-service teachers had various misconceptions about the concept of “Energy” in the data obtained from both the word association test and the drawings. It is recommended to create learning environments that will ensure correct and meaningful learning by emphasizing conceptual learning
