THE MASTERY LEVEL OF THE STUDENT-TEACHERS OF SCIENCE AT KING KHALID UNIVERSITY FOR THE SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS IN THE ELEMENTARY STAGE SCIENCE CURRICULUM CONTENT

Abstract

This study aimed at revealing the mastery level of student- teachers of science at the college of education at King Khalid University for the scientific concepts in the elementary stage content of science curriculum. To achieve this goal; the descriptive analytical method was ustilized. The content analysis of science curricula at the elementary stage was prepared, and a list of the scientific concepts was extracted. Accordingly, a scientific concepts test to the elementary stage students was devised. The test was administered to a sample of (16) students of the elementary education Bachelor “Science” in the College of Education at King Khalid University, at the seventh and eighth academic levels, during the first semester of the academic year 1441/1442 AH. Students' scores were processed using the One-Sample t-test, One-way ANOVA, the LSD test, and Mann-Whitney Test. The results revealed the weakness of the mastery level of the student teachers of science for the scientific concepts in the elementary stage content of science curriculum. The results revealed statistically significant differences between score means of the study sample in the four fields of scientific concepts (biology, environment, earth and space, physics and chemistry), while there were no statistically significant differences in the scores of the study sample in terms of the academic level. Accordingly, some recommendations and suggestions for further research are presented.