International Association of Educators   |  ISSN: 1308-951X

Original article | International Journal of Research in Teacher Education 2013, Vol. 4(2) 14-24

Pre-Service Science Teachers’ Views About A Two-Column-Writing Activity

Canan CENGİZ & Faik Özgür KARATAŞ

pp. 14 - 24   |  Manu. Number: ijrte.2013.007

Published online: July 01, 2013  |   Number of Views: 142  |  Number of Download: 628


Abstract

In the age of science and technology one of the aims of higher education is developing individuals’ lifelong learning abilities. To achieve this aim it is important to develop individuals’ higher order thinking skills. One of the higher order thinking skills is reflective thinking, and two-column writing is one of the ways of developing reflective thinking. The purpose of this study is to determine 10 first grade pre-service science teachers’ views about twocolumn writing process. A semi-structured interview protocol was developed and employed to collect data. Findings of the study showed that most of the pre-service science teachers are positive regarding to two-column writing process. However, a few pre-service teachers indicated that they could not benefit from either the summary or the reflective journal part of the two-column writings. The pre-service teachers stated that keeping reflective journals help them gain information about their learning styles and determine their learning deficiencies and find solutions for them. In addition, the results showed that the pre-service science teachers, who earned lower reflection level scores from their journals, do not see and appreciate benefits of keeping reflective journals. In further research it is suggested that a combination of teaching methods should be employed to develop reflection skills of pre-service science teachers whose reflection level is low and the assignments should be scored to encourage pre-service science teachers to prepare the assignments properly.

Keywords: Two-column writing, reflection, reflective thinking, reflection level, pre-service science teachers


How to Cite this Article?

APA 6th edition
CENGIZ, C. & KARATAS, F.O. (2013). Pre-Service Science Teachers’ Views About A Two-Column-Writing Activity. International Journal of Research in Teacher Education, 4(2), 14-24.

Harvard
CENGIZ, C. and KARATAS, F. (2013). Pre-Service Science Teachers’ Views About A Two-Column-Writing Activity. International Journal of Research in Teacher Education, 4(2), pp. 14-24.

Chicago 16th edition
CENGIZ, Canan and Faik Ozgur KARATAS (2013). "Pre-Service Science Teachers’ Views About A Two-Column-Writing Activity". International Journal of Research in Teacher Education 4 (2):14-24.