Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
International Conference on Education in Mathematics, Science & Technology (ICEMST), Muğla, Türkiye, 19 - 22 Mayıs 2016, ss.21
Not only in Turkey but on an international scale there has been a dramatic increase in the
negative attitude of students towards science and technology (OECD, 2006). Since early 2000’s, there has
been a growing interest in the scientific researches on out-of-school learning environments such as science
centers in order to improve both science-society interaction and the quality of education at schools. School
field trip to such learning environments have positive influence on students’ attitude, self-awareness, selfconfidence, self-efficacy, and personal efficiency; and help them develop their personal and social skills
such as communication and creativity. Students’ participation in the classroom activities and their positive
attitude towards science increase when teachers associate curriculum achievements with the activities
presented in the out-of-school learning environments such as science museums and science centers. In this
study, conducted as part of the “BİLMER Project” with code number 114K646 and funded by TUBITAK 1001
program, it was aimed to examine prospective Biology teachers’ cognitive schemata about science centers
as informal learning environments. The Word Association Test was used as the data collection tool. The
study group comprised students from 1st to 5th class in the Biology Teaching Department of a university in
Ankara. These prospective teachers were invited to write down, in a certain period of time, the words
which were reminded by the key terms, Informal Learning Environments, Science Center, Science Museum,
and Science Communication. The data obtained were classified in a frequency table in accordance with the
responses of the prospective teachers about the key terms. Concept maps were created out of the data
collected in order to illustrate their cognitive schemata. In this way their cognitive schemata was
determined through examining whether they wrote Science Center under Informal Learning Environment;
Learning-Teaching-Edutainment, Science Show, Science Exhibition, and Science Workshop under Science
Center; History of Science and Nature of Science under Science Museum and Scientist, Society, Media,
Popular Science, and Science-Technology Policy under Science Communication.
Keywords: Informal learning environments, Science center, Prospective biology teachers, Word
association, Cognitive schemata