@article {691, title = {PRE-SERVICE SCIENCE TEACHERS{\textquoteright} PREDICTIONS ON STUDENT LEARNING DIFFICULTIES IN THE DOMAIN OF MECHANICS}, journal = {Journal of Baltic Science Education}, volume = {17}, year = {2018}, month = {August/2018}, pages = {Continuous}, type = {Original article}, chapter = {649-661}, abstract = {The ability to predict students{\textquoteright} ideas or performances is commonly recognized as an indicator to measure teachers{\textquoteright} knowledge of student learning difficulties. This research focuses on identifying pre-service science teachers{\textquoteright} knowledge of student learning difficulties on Mechanics, as well as comparing pre-service science teachers{\textquoteright} predictions to student reasoning on the causes of their learning difficulties. The populations consist of 479 pre-service science teachers and 1,020 students taking physics as a separate science course. Two versions of the questionnaires are designed, with teacher- and student- oriented questions separately. From the results, inconsistencies are observed between two groups of populations. Pre-service science teachers either over- or under-predict student learning difficulties in some special domains. The results show that the physics content knowledge factor attracts great attention from both students and pre-service science teachers as the cause of student learning difficulties. The research results are important for pre-service science teachers to realize the gap between their own perspectives and students{\textquoteright} actual learning difficulties.}, keywords = {mechanics domain, pre-service science teachers{\textquoteright} predictions, student learning difficulties, students{\textquoteleft} knowledge}, issn = {1648-3898}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.33225/jbse/18.17.649}, url = {http://oaji.net/articles/2017/987-1533709007.pdf}, author = {Shao-Na Zhou and Hua Xiao} }