Students' different background knowledge determines their quality of conceptions towards a specific subject in college. This research sought to uncover the profile of misconceptions experienced by 48 students of Primary School Teaching Major, studying Science in University of Muhammadiyah Gresik. The educational background of the students in high school were different. They came from natural science, social science and culinary departments and were divided into three groups accordingly. The identification method used was CRI (Certainty of Response Index) which is a model of correct and incorrect statements accompanied by reasons and level of confidence in answering questions. The research instrument was also supported by interviews. The findings of the study were: (1) The misconception of natural science was experienced by all the three students; (2) of the three groups, natural science students had the lowest misconception compared with the social science and culinary students; (3) the causes of misconceptions of natural sciences were related to improper answers due to certain terms and expressions; the relationship between the concept and meaning of the sentence which is too general or too narrow; not understanding the concept completely, lack of curiosity in doing exam items, never studying the concept before, and the incomplete delivery concept of high school teachers; and finally (4) psychological factors that accompany the occurrence of misconceptions included the feeling of tense and embarrassment in the interview of this research. The researcher suggests that there should be a matriculation program of five major subjects in the department of Primary School Teaching Major especially in the first year of courses supported by the reasonable ratio of students in one class that meets its capacity.

The aim of the research is to determine the perceptions of the preservice science teachers about the photosynthesis and to reveal the relation between these perceptions and the misconceptions of the existing concepts. In the research, field scanning method was used as a descriptive research method. The sample of the research is composed of 355 preservice science teachers trained in different universities. For the selection of the sample, purposeful sample selection was used and attention was paid to the fact that the preservice science teachers had taken the General Biology-I and General Biology-II courses at the undergraduate level in the determination of the class level to be included in the study. The "Photosynthesis Concept Achievement Test" (PCAT) developed by the researcher and composed of 4 questions was used as a data collection tool. Quantitative data obtained from the study were analyzed using SPSS.20 package program while content analysis was performed in the an...

• Photosynthesis is the most important biochemical process on Earth. Most living beings depend on it directly or indirectly. Knowledge about photo-synthesis enables us to understand how the world functions as an ecosystem and how photosynthesis acts as a bridge between the non-living and living worlds. It is, therefore, understandable that photosynthesis is included in national curricula around the world. The practice unfortunately shows that students at all school levels mostly learn about photosynthesis by rote. Consequently, they have difficulties understanding this vital process. Research also shows many misconceptions in relation to photosyn-thesis among students of different ages. Based on these, the main aim of our study was to explore the scientific conceptions about photosynthesis held by primary school pupils and student teachers of biology. Data were collected using a questionnaire containing seven biology content questions. The sample consisted of 634 participants, 427 primary school pupils (aged 11–14), and 207 student teachers of biology (aged 20–23). We found that the populations of primary school pupils and student teachers of biology differ greatly concerning scientific conceptions of photosynthesis. The student teachers showed good and complex understanding of photosyn-thesis, while pupils showed some misconceptions (location of chlorophyll and photosynthesis in a plant, transformation of energy in photosynthe-sis). Analysis of the development of scientific conceptions about photo-synthesis with age showed that there is very little progress among primary school pupils and none among biology student teachers. More involvement of student teachers of biology in practical work at primary schools during their study was suggested to make student teachers aware of, and better understand pupils' misconceptions.

The aim of this study is to find out the misconceptions about the photosynthesis and respiration processes and their causes among elementary levels of Science students. When students come into the classrooms they have a lot of misconceptions/ alternative ideas based on their previous understanding, learning experiences, and observation of their surroundings. It started from the initial level where children construct their knowledge by observing the world. These ideas, beliefs, observations, and make their preconceptions. This research had been conducted to find out the misconceptions about respiration and photosynthesis and their causes. The nature of this research study is an exploratory case study from the private school of Sukkur, Sindh. Semi-structured interviews and unstructured observations were done to conduct the data for this research study to investigate the misconceptions in Science. One private school was selected for this research in Sukkur. The sample size for this re...

Science is the systematic study of the nature. The systematic refers to rational & logical sequences. Science as a discipline consists of terms, concepts principles etc. The theory building is based on terms, concepts and postulates. Knowledge is conducted by an individual through various experiences, interactions. The mode of information which is assimilated and accommodated creates conceptions, misconceptions and alternative conceptions in students. Teacher as a facilitator and leader of the classroom need to identify the sources of misconceptions along with should have a strong theoretical base and knowledge of misconceptions identification tools, techniques, strategies, skills etc. In the present paper researcher had made an attempt to provide a overarching view of misconceptions in science and its sources, tools and techniques. The present paper is heavily rely on secondary source of data.

Educators agree that everyday activities enable children to learn some science even before entering preschool education and that children’s ideas are part of the classroom. Some of these ideas will not be completely correct; misconceptions refer to children’s incorrect or incomplete ideas. This paper refers to research investigating teachers’ response to early year’s children’s misconceptions in Cyprus. The results indicate that often teachers do not acknowledge the existence of these misconceptions and this is likely to be an obstacle for children’s learning. The aim is that with the completion of this research more details will surface misconceptions and Cypriot education and hopefully future research will enlighten this new area of investigation for the Cypriot datum.

The present study aims to compare the knowledge levels of prospective science and technology teachers and 6 th , 7 th , and 8 th-grade students about respiration-photosynthesis in plants. To this end, it used the survey model as a quantitative research method. The study was carried out in two elementary schools in Demirci during the first semester of academic year 2009–2010 and with the prospective science and technology teachers studying in the Faculty of Education at Celal Bayar University during the second semester of the same academic year. The study sample consists of 192 prospective science and technology teachers and 191 elementary students. The concept cartoon tests were used to collect data in the study. SPSS 17 software was used to analyze concept cartoons. The results of the study demonstrate that the knowledge levels of pre-service teachers and elementary students about respiration-photosynthesis in plants differed in favor of the pre-service teachers. Furthermore, the participants exhibited the highest knowledge levels about the subject in the 5th concept cartoon question, which is 'respiration and photosynthesis phenomena in plants'. Nevertheless, the knowledge levels were low for pre-service teachers about 'the relationship between respiration-photosynthesis in plants', and for elementary students about living things that can carry out photosynthesis. In the light of these results, some suggestions are made about respiration-photosynthesis in plants.

This study aimed to determine the results of analyzing students' misconceptions of photosynthesis and plant respiration using a two-tier diagnostic test instrument in science class XII. Photosynthetic and respiration are considered abstract concepts and difficult for students to understand, allowing misconceptions to occur. A two-tier diagnostic test is one of the diagnostic tests that can be used to identify students' misconceptions. This study used a descriptive qualitative method, using a two-tier diagnostic test and interviews instrument. The sample of the research was 75 students. The result showed that the students' misconceptions of photosynthetic and respiration concepts scored 27.9% in the low category. In comparison, the cause of students' misconception can be the need for students' ability to understand the detail of the teacher's explanation.