Foundations matter: Pre-service teachers’ understanding of osmosis and diffusion in relation to their formal science education backgrounds

Sasa Ziherl; Gregor Torkar

doi:10.29333/ejmste/12041

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Sasa Ziherl ¹ ^* , Gregor Torkar ¹

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¹ Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, SLOVENIA^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Osmosis and diffusion are fundamental topics in science education because many processes in nature largely depend on these phenomena. However, many students usually hold misconceptions and have a lack of knowledge about these topics. This study explores pre-service teachers’ understanding of osmosis and diffusion in relation to their prior formal education. The main reason for the study was the need to support pre-service teachers so that they can effectively teach these topics. A total of 243 first-year students in bachelor’s programs at the University of Ljubljana participated in the study. The results showed that students that graduated from vocational and technical secondary schools had a weaker understanding of these topics compared to students from general secondary schools. Furthermore, only students that had passed the leaving exam in biology showed a better understanding of osmosis and diffusion.

Keywords

diffusion
leaving exam
pre-service teacher
osmosis
Slovenia

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, 2022, Volume 18, Issue 6, Article No: em2113

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/12041

Publication date: 22 Apr 2022

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Article Downloads: 916

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Declaration of Conflict of Interest: No conflict of interest is declared by author(s).

Data sharing statement: Data supporting the findings and conclusions are available upon request from the corresponding author(s).

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How to cite this article

APA

Ziherl, S., & Torkar, G. (2022). Foundations matter: Pre-service teachers’ understanding of osmosis and diffusion in relation to their formal science education backgrounds. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 18(6), em2113. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/12041

Vancouver

Ziherl S, Torkar G. Foundations matter: Pre-service teachers’ understanding of osmosis and diffusion in relation to their formal science education backgrounds. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2022;18(6):em2113. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/12041

AMA

Ziherl S, Torkar G. Foundations matter: Pre-service teachers’ understanding of osmosis and diffusion in relation to their formal science education backgrounds. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2022;18(6), em2113. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/12041

Chicago

Ziherl, Sasa, and Gregor Torkar. "Foundations matter: Pre-service teachers’ understanding of osmosis and diffusion in relation to their formal science education backgrounds". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2022 18 no. 6 (2022): em2113. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/12041

Harvard

Ziherl, S., and Torkar, G. (2022). Foundations matter: Pre-service teachers’ understanding of osmosis and diffusion in relation to their formal science education backgrounds. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 18(6), em2113. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/12041

MLA

Ziherl, Sasa et al. "Foundations matter: Pre-service teachers’ understanding of osmosis and diffusion in relation to their formal science education backgrounds". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 18, no. 6, 2022, em2113. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/12041