Scientific Explanation Skills of Prospective Biology Teachers

Abstract

This article investigated prospective biology teachers’ skills in compiling science explanations through writing and pictures to support their science explanations. This study involved 15 prospective biology teachers as the research sample. A test was constructed to measure their skills in writing science explanations. In this test, prospective biology teachers were asked to explain the concept of static electricity in living things. To analyze the data, we used the structure of a scientific explanation, which comprises three primary components: premise – accepted knowledge that provides the basis of the explanation, reasoning – logical sequences that follow from the premise, and outcome – the phenomenon to be explained. The reasoning component of the prospective biology teachers’ skills in presenting visual representations was poor. This finding supports the necessity of developing the skills of future biology teachers in writing science explanations. Keywords: scientific, explanation skills, prospective teachers, biology