| Summary: | This study aimed to determine the opinions of science teacher candidates about their experiences in the process by examining the effect of using Instagram in online learning environments on the sense of community. The study involved 41 teacher candidates, 21 in the experimental group and 20 in the control group. Convergent parallel design, one of the mixed-method designs that quantitative and qualitative research methods, was used in the study. The "Community Feeling Scale in Online Environments", "Structured interview form" and "Teacher candidates' diaries" were used for the data collection. Descriptive statistics and independent groups t-test methods were used for the analysis of the quantitative data and content analysis technique was used for the qualitative data. The quantitative findings revealed a significant difference in favour of the experimental group in the post-test scores of the teacher candidates between the experimental and control groups. It has been concluded that the use of Instagram in the learning environment has a positive effect on the sense of community in online learning so that teacher candidates can communicate with each other and with the instructor. According to the qualitative findings, the teacher candidates stated that the quality of these posts is guiding, clear, and precise. They stated that the posts enhanced the intelligibility, made the learning easier, and guided the process. In conclusion, it has been revealed with quantitative and qualitative findings that the posts related to various approaches used in science teaching using Instagram support the sense of community in online learning environments of science teacher candidates.
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