Modeling the Activities of Scientists: Prospective Science Teachers' Poster Presentations in An STS Course

In this study, prospective science teachers' (PSTs) views about their poster presentations were investigated. These posters were developed through PSTs' online and library research and scientific mini-symposiums in chemistry related topics in the framework of science, technology and society course (STS). During the first four weeks of STS course, PSTs (N=50) were taught about some important issues such as the goals for teaching science through STS, the topics to be taught, how the science and STS content be integrated, how to design STS instruction and how to prepare and present a poster. Fifty PSTs were grouped in small groups of four or five and freely selected their research projects in chemistry topics involving STS content. After their on-line and library research and scientific mini-symposiums, PSTs presented the poster presentations of their studies to all of students and educators in the faculty of education as a group of scientists in a manner of a scientific meeting and responded the questions of the visitors related to their posters toward the end of the STS course. Then, semi-structured interviews developed by the researchers were carried out with PSTs in small groups to identify PSTs' views about their poster presentations. The results of small-group interviews showed that PSTs described their poster presentations as a funny way of learning and they stated that they understood how the scientific developments are achieved by cooperative working which enabled them to feel as scientists. They also stated that this improved their self-confidence. They expressed that their poster presentations made the knowledge they gained in STS course more permanent and increased their curiosity and interest toward STS issues. Appended are: (1) Some photographs of PSTs' posters and poster presentations.