The Effect of Science Education through Modeling on Pre-service Teachers' Views on Model and Modeling

The present study investigated the effects of models developed within the framework of science and technology laboratory applications course on pre-service teachers' opinions about model and modeling. Thirty one (20 females; 11 males) pre-service teachers from the faculty of education of Aksaray University participated in the study. For a 14-week period, the pre-service teachers working in groups prepared various models within the framework of science and technology laboratory applications course. "Opinions about Model and Modeling Questionnaire" developed by Giines et al. (2004) was administered to elicit the pre-service teachers' opinions about model and modeling as pre-test and post-test. Moreover, at the end of the study, the classroom pre-service teachers were asked four open-ended questions to solicit their opinions about model and modeling. The findings of the present study revealed that the erroneous information possessed by the pre-service teachers about model and modeling before the application changed in the positive direction. In the responses given to the open-ended questions, the pre-service teachers reported that they realized more meaningful and permanent learning through models they created, they observed increases in their learning speed and they believe in the usefulness of drawing on model and modeling in lessons.