Nimet AKBEN
Ankara University, Faculty of Educational Sciences, TURKEY.
DOI: 10.14689/ejer.2019.83.11

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The most important element in Problem-Based Learning (PBL) that has a significant place in science education is the structure of the problem. Even though it seems easy to formulate the problem that is suitable for this approach at first glance, it is rather difficult to find the problem that will meet the purposes of education. When hardship in developing problem scenarios suitable to the approach and the significance of approach in science education are taken into consideration, the quality of scenarios that teachers will use gain importance. For this purpose, studies were conducted during this study with pre-service teacher candidates in order to develop problem scenarios that are suitable with PBL approach, and the extent to which these scenarios reflect the characteristics expected from the approach were examined.

Method: In the study conducted with 24 pre-service teacher candidates who took Science and Technology Teaching course in the 2018-2019 academic year, “characteristics that a problem should contain” scale was used for the problem situations developed in PBL.

Findings: The findings put forward that the pre-service teacher candidates were successful in preparing daily life scenarios that were appropriate to their course achievements, but they should have included more expressions in these scenarios that would allow students to think, synthesize their knowledge and develop their creativity skills.

Implications for Research and Practice: Based on the findings, it can be suggested that pre-service teacher candidates’ understanding of PBL approach through experience can make a significant contribution to reflecting this approach more accurately in their professional lives; and therefore, such practices should be applied more.

Keywords: Problem based learning, characteristics of problem, pre-service teacher candidates, science education.