Abstract

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Science anxiety, which is one of the affective dimensions in science learning, is one of the factors affecting success in Science and has been studied for 35 years. The existence of considerable negative attitudes towards Physics courses, which is one of the basic branches of Science, is a fact. This research has been designed to identify the anxiety of Physics pre-service teachers related to the physics laboratory, the difficulties experienced by them in physics laboratory environment, their expectations from the environment, their preferences and opinions about physics laboratory. Thus triangulation approach, where quantitative and qualitative methods are used together, was preferred. Scanning method was employed in order to research the anxiety of pre-service teachers about physics laboratory. In accordance with this purpose, “Physics Laboratory Anxiety Scale” was developed and conducted on 245 pre-service teachers. Moreover, 20 pre-service teachers randomly selected from the sample in which the scanning model was employed were interviewed. The research results show that most of pre-service teachers are concerned about physics laboratory applications in terms of drawing graphs and using materials. Besides, they have constant anxiety concerning physics laboratory. They have difficulty in understanding the purpose of an experiment and converting units. Pre-service teachers prefer to practise physics laboratory applications in groups, as they do not feel confident while studying in the physics laboratory individually. They reported that they would rather theoretical physics courses than physics laboratory applications. It is also found that males were more anxious than females.