PRE-SERVICE PHYSICS TEACHER'S KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE: AN INVESTIGATION ON NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY TOPICS

The purpose of this study was to investigate pre-service physics teachers' knowledge and attitudes toward nuclear science and technology. This research used a survey method. The subjects of this study were 184 pre-service physics teachers at one of the universities in South Kalimantan province in Indonesia that consist of 39 men and 145 women. The instrument used was a questionnaire and the data were analysed descriptively quantitatively. The result showed that: (1) pre-service physics teachers have knowledge discrepancy between content and contextual knowledge, where the contextual knowledge of pre-service physics teachers on nuclear science and technology is still low; (2) pre-service physics teachers have negative attitudes on nuclear science and technology; (3) pre-service physics teachers' knowledge correlated to the attitude on nuclear science and technology. This research is expected to be taken into consideration in improving pre-service physics teachers' curriculum about nuclear science and technology, so they can play a role to improve public acceptance of nuclear energy.