Perceptions and competence of turkish pre-service science teachers with regard to entrepreneurship

Abstract

The aim of this study is both to determine the perceptions of pre-service science teachers towards the concepts of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial characteristics and to investigate the perceptions of pre-service science teachers regarding transferring the entrepreneurial characteristics to students. This study is designed as a qualitative study and a phenomenological research approach is used. A total of 12 preservice science teachers from grades 5 to 8 participated in the study. Data were gathered through the use of semistructured interviews. The data were evaluated through both descriptive and content analysis. The results show that the perceptions of the 12 pre-service science teachers indicated a limited and inadequate understanding of the concept of entrepreneurship, based on their interviews. From these results, it can be said that there is a need to develop educational content in such a way as to increase pre-service science teachers' knowledge and experience with regard to entrepreneurship in science teacher training.