EVALUATION OF PRE-SERVICE SCIENCE TEACHERS' READING MOTIVATION

Abstract

In globalizing world, one of the most important ways of transmission from one person to another is to read other writings. Reading is the nature of the science and an important language competence in order to understand it. Reading is not only a physical process that the words are perceived by the eye and being transferred to the brain but also a biological and psychological process that the understanding and so the learning is realized. In science teaching, the reading; is a skill which is used in every area of science like reading the principles and methods, reading theories, reading the observed experiment, reading the results (and so understanding). So, the more this skill is used effectively, the more the science is learnt effectively. In this study it is aimed to determine pre-service science teachers' motivations towards reading, considering the importance of reading in science education. Moving from this, the problem sentences is determined as "how is the motivation of pre-service science teachers towards reading?". This study is a scanning model for describing the current attitude of students towards reading. Sample group of the study was constituted by 3rd and 4th grade students, of University of Marmara Science Teaching Department. "The Motivation for Reading Scale" which was prepared by Schutte and Malouff (2007) and adapted by Davis-Duerr (2010) was applied to these students. Measuring instrument has 21 expressions and 2 open-ended questions. Likert typed expressions in the measuring instrument were analyzed solved by quantitive data analyzing method. The results show that pre-service science teachers' reading motivation is of middle level. However, it is found that students spend more time on required reading than recreational reading