Abstract

This study was prepared to investigate prospective biology teachers' cognitive structures related to "water". As the research design of the study, the case study was applied. The data were collected from 44 prospective biology teachers. The free word-association test, the drawing-writing technique and the semantic differential attitude scale were used as data collection instruments. The data were subject to content analysis and divided into categories through coding. In the analysis, the categories were formed and determined through the results of word-association test and drawing-writing test which were completed by the prospective biology teachers. With the help of these categories, the cognitive structures of prospective biology teachers were explained. These categories were determined as “the place and importance of water in life, the definition and chemical properties of water and water and metabolism”. It was determined that prospective biology teachers' semantic attitudes towards water were at a positive level in terms of mean scores of all adjectives considered; However based on each and every adjective, they mostly perceive water as compulsory, valuable and necessary. Moreover, the data collected through three data collection instruments indicated that prospective biology teachers had misconceptions about water considering the categories determined.

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