PROBING HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ COGNITIVE STRUCTURE ABOUT PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL CHANGES THROUGH WORD ASSOCIATION TEST

Year 2016, Volume: 4 , 486 - 489, 01.09.2016

Canan Nakiboğlu

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate high school
students’ cognitive structures and to
identify their learning difficulties in physical and chemical changes
through word association test (WAT) and to compare at different students
grades. The study was comprised of 167 students who are attending
at ninth (88 students) and tenth grades (79 students). The WAT was used as data
a collection instrument developed by
the researcher. Before WAT is developed, the physical and chemical change topic
placed in high school chemistry curriculum was examined to select the stimulus
words of WAT. The WAT comprised of eight total stimulus words, among them chemical reaction, energy, chemical
property, and   physical property, is used to probe students’ cognitive structures.
At the end of the study, it was found that differences in the students’
cognitive structures at ninth and tenth grades make it clear that instruction
affects the cognitive structure. On the other hand, it was also concluded that
students from both grades cannot associate with the concept of energy with
other concepts of the subject.

Keywords

High school students, cognitive structures, physical and chemical changes, WAT

References

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