Indonesia Conference Directory

The aim of the study was to obtain an overview of the profile of the mental model (MM) of prospective primary school teachers related to concepts in the subject matter of phase transition of substance. The mental model (MM) category reviewed in this study includes: scientific MM, synthetic MM and initial MM. This study uses the descriptive quantitative method. This study was conducted on 30 prospective primary school teachers at one university in Riau Province who had attended the basic concepts of science course with their lecturers. Lectures on basic concept of science are carried out by lecturers using traditional methods whose activities are lecturers centered. The instrument used to collect data is a conceptual understanding test consisting of three parts of the questions that ask for explanatory and depictions responses. The results showed that the profile of the mental model of primary school teachers related to the concept of evaporation are: Scientific MM (0%), Synthetic MM (23%) and Initial MM (77%); related to the concepts of condense are: Scientific MM (0%), Synthetic MM (17%) and initial MM (83%); related to the concepts of melting are: scientific MM (0%), Synthetic MM (27%) and Initial MM (73%); and related to the concept of freezing are: Scientific MM (0%), Synthetic MM (20%), and Initial MM (80%). The results indicated that lectures on basic concept of science carried out by lecturers had not facilitated the achievement of a scientific mental model for prospective primary school teachers.