Sınıf öğretmeni adaylarının bazı fizik konularındaki kavram yanılgıları ve araştırmada uygulanan tekniğin araştırma sonucuna etkisi

A study on misconceptions of senior class students in some physics topics and the effect of the technique used in misconception studies

Özet

Bu çalışma sınıf öğretmeni adaylarının bazı temel fizik kavramları hakkında sahip oldukları kavram yanılgılarını tespit etmeyi amaçlamanın yanında kavram yanılgısı araştırmalarında uygulanan tekniğin araştırma sonucuna etkisini belirlemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bu amaç doğrultusunda, ilköğretim programlarındaki konularda yer alan ve literatürde çok sık karşılaşılan kavram yanılgılarından yararlanılarak 4 soruluk üç aşamalı açıklamalı-çoktan seçmeli bir kavram testi hazırlanmıştır. Kavram testi, yedi eğitim fakültesinin sınıf öğretmenliği programında okuyan 301 son sınıf öğrencisine uygulanmıştır. Bu araştırma sınıf öğretmenliği programlarında okuyan öğrencilerin temel fizik konularında sahip oldukları kavram yanılgılarını göstermenin yanında kavram yanılgısı araştırmalarında uygulanan tekniğin ve soruların analizinin araştırma sonucunu büyük oranda etkilediğini de göstermiştir.

Abstract

INTRODUCTION All children come to school with conceptual frameworks obtaining from their past experiences. But most of these conceptual frameworks are filled with non-scientific mistakes. Misconceptions might also be referred to as preconceived notions, non-scientific beliefs, naive theories, mixed conceptions, or conceptual misunderstandings (Driver & Easley, 1978; Viennot, 1979; Caramazza, Closkey & Green, 1981; Eryılmaz & Tatlı, 1999; Gülçiçek & Yağbasan, 2004; Demirci & Çirkinoğlu, 2004). People try to understand, interpret and explain the evolving nature events around them from the moment they are born. A person is affected by many non-scientific sources such as environment, written and visual media in addition to family. All of these activities constitute the pre-experience in the brain of students. Researchers have suggested that the misconceptions are due to the following reasons:  From Students' daily experiences and observations (Vienot,1979; Strauss, 1981).  From diagrams or statements in textbooks (Cho, Kahle & Nordland, 1985).  From Teachers and student teachers (Osborne & Cosgrove, 1983).  From the use of perceptual thinking, which is related to the previous source, and is seen in a number of studies where students' explanations of scientific phenomena are dominated by what is immediately perceptible (BouJaoude, 1991). Altough they are of main branches class teachers have negative attitudes towards science courses ,especially physics and chemistry (Ahtee & Johnston, 2006). Researches show that class teachers and student teachers themselves do not feel adequate in science, do not make adequate laboratory applications, have significant misconceptions and teach these misconceptions to the students (Kruger, Palacio & Summers, 1992; Sökmen, Bayram & Gürdal, 2000; Kaptan & Korkmaz, 2001). Besides, many class teachers attach less importance to science lessons than the other lessons and don’t feel well in science lessons (Smith & Neale, 1989; Schibeci & Hickey, 2000; Papageorgiou, Kogianni & Makris, 2006; Küçüközer, 2010; Anıl & Küçüközer, 2010). Various measurement techniques have been used to determine the misconceptions of people in national and international researches. The most widespread ones of these techniques are multiple-choice tests, tests consisting of open-ended questions (Hewson & Hewson, 2003), clinical interviews (Boeha, 1990), annotated multiple choice tests (Atasoy & Akdeniz, 2007), concept cartoons (Bilgili, Duran & Ballıel, 2011), concept maps (Şen & Aykutlu, 2008), two and three-tiered tests (Eryılmaz & Tatlı, 1999; Eryılmaz & Sürmeli, 2002). But, the validity of these tests is the subject of debate. A misconception should not be confused with scientific error. If a person explains a concept as unscientific, we can’t say that he has certain misconceptions. People could have made the definition of concept as a result of scientific error, contradiction in terms or misconception. If a person realizes his unscientific definition and defines correctly, person then he makes a scientific mistake (Yağbasan, 2004; Güneş, 2011). Similarly, each incorrect answer of the students in the tests is not misconception. If students give a wrong description for a wrong answer and if they are sure of their description then it can be said that they have misconceptions (Eryılmaz & Sürmeli, 2002). So misconception tests show significant differences in other tests. Some researchers prefer to use two or three-tiered tests with multiple-choice questions to make an easy application and to analyse the results easily. In this study, a test which consists of threetiered annotated multiple-choice questions was used (Eryılmaz & Sürmeli, 2002). PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The purpose of this study is to determine the misconceptions of senior class students on basic physics conceptions with three-tiered annotated multiple choice questions. This study also reveals the effects of the technique used in misconception studies to the results of the study.