Perceived and Actual Knowledge of Pre-Service Chemistry Teachers in the Energy Topic

The subject of chemical energy consists of abstract concepts and a variety of graphical data representation. Pre-service chemistry teachers who are on the verge of starting to teach this complex subject might face challenges while planning the teaching of this material. Consequently, it is important to expose the knowledge of the pre-service teachers in chemical energy, to verify its level of understanding, and to develop the content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge of these teachers.

The research goal is to examine the perceived and actual knowledge of pre-service teachers in chemical energy.

Research objectives include:

1. Evaluating perceived knowledge of the pre-service chemistry teachers with respect to chemical energy concepts.
2. Determining the characteristics of pre-service teachers’ chemical understanding with respect to concepts chosen by them and questions they raised.
3. Analyzing the gap, if any, between the perceived and the actual knowledge of the pre-service chemistry teachers in the concepts of chemical energy.

Research participants include a group of 25 pre-service chemistry teachers undertaking the course ‘Advance Topics in Chemistry Teaching’.

In this research, a questionnaire is used to expose pre-service chemistry teachers perceived vs. actual knowledge. Using a Lykert type questions (1-5 scale), we ask the pre-service teachers to indicate their perceived knowledge level of chemistry by referring to several chemical-energy related concepts, before and after studying the course, and to actually explain one of these concept. The pre-service teachers also posed questions after reading a short text on this topic

Preliminary results will be presented and discussed. This research will provide recommendations for chemical educators who teach prospective teachers to focus on the concepts which are more difficult to grasp and how to analyze question complexity level.