Effect of Case Study Method on Preservice Teachers' Anxieties toward Chemistry Laboratory


Seckin M., YILMAZ S.

HACETTEPE UNIVERSITESI EGITIM FAKULTESI DERGISI-HACETTEPE UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, cilt.29, sa.2, ss.215-227, 2014 (SSCI) identifier identifier

Özet

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of using case study method in chemistry laboratory course on preservice teachers' anxieties who were studying in science education department. Matched pretest-posttest control group experimental design was used in the research. This study was conducted in state university located in Eskisehir during spring semester of 2010-2011 academic years. 53 preservice science teachers who were taking chemistry laboratory course participated in the study. Four dimensional "Chemistry Laboratory Anxiety Scale" was used as a data collection tool. In the analysis of research data, frequency, mean, standard deviation, and ANCOVA after verifying its assumptions were used. According to the anxiety scale data of preservice teachers in experimental and control groups, only one statistical significant difference was found in the sub dimension of "use of laboratory equipment's and chemical substances". This finding showed that case study and traditional methods might have different effects on decreasing the anxieties of students toward chemistry laboratory course. In line with the research results, it was proposed that not only quantitative studies including larger samples and examining students' anxieties on different classes, departments, and courses, but also experimental studies considering each sub-dimension of the anxiety scale should be conducted.