The subject of this thesis is the scientific knowledge of current kindergarten teachers and preliminary kindergarten teachers.
The research questions were as follows:
1. What are the degrees of understanding of the scientific knowledge of current ki...
The subject of this thesis is the scientific knowledge of current kindergarten teachers and preliminary kindergarten teachers.
The research questions were as follows:
1. What are the degrees of understanding of the scientific knowledge of current kindergarten teachers and preliminary kindergarten teachers?
2. Are the degrees of understanding of scientific knowledge of kindergarten teachers related to their educational background in science and personal interests?
3. Are there some differences in the degree of understanding between current kindergarten teachers and preliminary kindergarten teachers?
In order to investigate the teachers knowledge of science, 64 questions were formulated based on subjects which are frequently covered in kindergarten. 140 current kindergarten teachers and 114 preliminary teachers now juniors or seniors at university, were subject to this research.
The conclusions of this thesis are as follows:
First, the subjects which gained high points in the scientific knowledge of teachers were: light and shadow, air, sound, my body and water; and the subjects which scored low points were plants, machines and electricity. The reason why the subjects of machines and electricity received low points could be that the teachers are mostly female. Even though the subject of plants frequently dealt with, it received the lower points. This was mainly only because classes of the subjects on-spot and preliminary teachers were mainly focused on the sprouting of seeds and studies but also they had a lack of experience on that subject.
Second, it showed that there was no correlation between the scientific knowledge that the teachers had and their individual interests. The reason was that when scientific activities were undertaken, the focus was mainly on the scientific process and outcomes, rather than on scientific knowledge. In addition, the most common scientific hobby was computer related, which does not directly broaden a teachers scientific knowledge.
Third, out of a possible total of 64 points in the degree of scientific knowledge, current teachers received 40.42 points and preliminary teachers received 45.39 points.
The result contradicts the research done by Hyo-Nam Kim in 1994 where current teachers received higher points than preliminary teachers. The results of this thesis indicate that the reason that preliminary teachers have more knowledge is because they have recently graduated from junior and senior high school in wherein they learn most of the scientific knowledge they have as a kindergarten teacher.