Enhancing the Quality of Future Teaching Practice by Increasing Scientific Attitudes and Reducing Misconceptions of Pre-service Elementary School Teachers through Conceptual Change Model
Restu Waras Toto (a), Wahyu Kurniawati (b), Ali Mustadi (c)

a) c) Primary Education Programme, Graduate School, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Indonesia
b) Primary Education Programme, Faculty of Teacher Training and Educational Science, Universitas PGRI Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Abstract

This study was aimed at increasing scientific attitudes and reducing misconceptions of 39 pre-service elementary school teachers (PSESTs) at PGRI University of Yogyakarta by implementing the conceptual change model (CCM). Scientific attitudes scales (SAS) and misconception tests (MT) were administered to PSESTs. Observations and documentations were conducted to record the implementation of CCM as well as the attitudes and behaviour of the PSESTs. Data analysis techniques were the descriptive statistic as a quantitative analysis and interactive model as a qualitative analysis. The research results showed CCM increased scientific attitudes and reduced misconceptions of the PSESTs. The average scores of scientific attitudes increased from 72.8 in the initial condition to 77.1 in the cycle I, whilst the average scores of scientific attitudes increased from 77.1 in the cycle I to 81.4 in the cycle II. CCM reduced the misconceptions incidence in the topic of the characteristics of living things (54.3% to 5.6%), the levels of organisation of living things (69.6% to 7.7%), the human movement system (29% to 7.7%), the human respiratory system (70.5% to 3.2%), the human blood circulatory system (65.6% to 19.4%), and the human digestive system (61.6% to 1%). The overall misconception incidence reduced from 22.7 PSESTs (57.2%) to 2.3 PSESTs (6.1%).

Keywords: Attitudes; Conceptual; Change; Misconceptions; Scientific

Topic: Biology Education