Determining the Understandings and Misconceptions of Science Teacher Candidates on the Buoyancy Force of Liquids

Among science educators, it is widely accepted that teachers play a crucial role in the correct understanding and development of scientific concepts. Therefore, the importance of teacher training in enabling students to acquire scientifically accurate concepts cannot be denied. Misconceptions, on the other hand, are mental models or schemas that do not align with scientific facts. At the same time, these are one of the invisible barriers in the meaningful and effective learning process. The aim of this research is to determine the understandings and misconceptions of Science Teacher Candidates regarding the buoyancy of liquids. For this purpose, the Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) technique was used. The research has a qualitative research design and falls into the category of thematic content analysis. The study group consists of 48 science teacher candidates studying at a state university. Data were obtained from the answers given to written open-ended questions. As a result of the research, it was determined that most of the understandings of science teacher (65%) candidates about the buoyancy of liquids do not in accordance with scientific facts. In addition, six different misconceptions about the buoyancy of liquids were identified among the teacher candidates. Finally, the research is concluded with discussions and recommendations within the framework of the findings.