What can stories on history of science give to students? Thoughts of science teachers candidates

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine history of science related stories known by candidate science teachers and their opinions about educational values of those stories. The research is a descriptive study. Data was collected by open ended questions. In the study, 63 teacher candidates from 3th grade which were in the department of science education in X university took part. Content analysis was used. It was seen that the candidate teachers' stories related to the history of science consisted of the main examples and the stories that were told most frequently were "Newton's apple" and "Archimedes' bath story". Although the level of knowledge about the stories related to the history of science was not sufficient, their awareness of educational value of stories were adequate. Candidate teachers indicated that they would use stories for encouragement, to tell scientific process and scientists' live as well as to take attention and to provide motivation at lessons.