Prospective Early Childhood Teachers' Understandings on the Nature of Science in Terms of Scientific Knowledge and Scientific Method

The purpose of this study was to explore the understandings of prospective early childhood teachers on scientific knowledge and scientific method. The study was interpretive in nature. The data were collected through various open-ended questions with subsequent auxiliary ones directed towards ten participants during a combination of in-depth focus group interviews and getting peer feedbacks in this process. Conversations and discussions among the participants were tracked on a tape recorder during the sessions and translated verbatim. The study focused on convenience and criterion sampling. As a criterion, academic achievement (accumulated GDA's) was considered, and the participants were assigned to the final sample this way. The data were analyzed in accordance with the conceptual framework of Marshall and Rossman [1] using an analytical task of qualitative approach. All data that were described, categorized and related to each other in the analysis are given in categories as well as emergent codes. Views of the participants were related to each other in an interpretive manner. Based on the results, the implications and the directions for further study are discussed.