A study on the prospective science teacher's misconceptions about the nature of evaporation, evaporation rate, and vapor pressure

The aim of the present study was to investigate the prospective science teacher's misconceptions about the nature of evaporation, evaporation rate, and vapor pressure. These are concepts that are important not only in school science curricula, but also in daily life. A sample including 84 prospective science teachers who studied at two campuses of Farhangian College of Education in Tehran was selected and participated in the study in the 1393/94 academic year. To collect the data, a test comprising five open-ended diagnostic questions and semi-structured interviews were used. In addition, 10 students from the sample were interviewed to clarify their written responses and to further probe their understanding of the questions which were asked in the test. Findings showed that students have various and different conceptions about the nature of evaporation; evaporation rate, and vapor pressure and many of which have not been previously documented. In the light of the study, it can be suggested that when revising the college and undergraduate science education curricula and the instructional materials, further emphasis should be given to the terms evaporation, evaporation rate, and vapor pressure and its modeling in related course books.