Arzu ÃNEL, Zeynep YÃCE
This study tried to determine the conceptual comprehension of science teacher candidates on evolution. As part of this target, the Word Association Test was applied. This study was conducted with the participation of 146 teacher candidates studying in the Department of Science Education. Of the 146 teacher candidates, 89 mostly wrote the words; “evolution” (f=43), “Darwin” (f=36), and “ape” (f=10) as primary concepts in the word association test. This result illustrated that when the word “evolution” was pronounced, 61% of teacher candidates firstly remembered these three words as primary concepts. This study has demonstrated once more that there are misunderstandings and missing data on the evolutionary theory despite the past 156 years from the emergence of this theory.
