Future Teachers’ Views on Their Science Teachers: A Case of Turkey

Here future elementary and middle school teachers reflect on their experiences with science teachers encountered throughout their education and highlight their characteristics. The aim of the study was to create a program where teachers were given the explicit opportunity to reflect on their experiences through journaling that promoted reflective thought. Participants were 173 non-science and 120 science major prospective teachers enrolled in a small university in northeastern Turkey. Data were collected using document analysis. Findings show that effective science teachers do experiments, use teaching materials, and show special interest in students; also, their positive personality affected students’ positive attitude towards science. Ineffective teachers were “boring” and using lecturing and didn’t take their students to laboratories, neither had they done some activity or use visual materials. Furthermore, ineffective science teachers were “angry, fear imposing, authoritarian, and discriminating between students.”