EXAMINATION 8TH GRADE STUDENTS’ COGNITIVE STRUCTURES ABOUT PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL CHANGES THROUGH WORD ASSOCIATION TEST

Year 2017, Volume: 7 , 49 - 51, 04.08.2017

Canan Nakiboglu

Abstract

In
this study it is aimed to investigate middle school
students’ cognitive structures of physical and chemical changes through word
association test (WAT). The data were collected from 126 eight grade students.
The WAT was used as data a data collection instrument developed by the
researcher in her previous study. At the beginning of the study, the physical
and chemical change topic placed in the middle school science curriculum was
examined and also the opinions of the two science teachers were asked to
establish the content validity of the stimulus words of WAT. The same WAT
comprised of eight total stimulus words was decided to use without
modification. The response frequency mapping method was used to examine
students’ cognitive structure which was developed by the researcher. At the end
of the study, it was found that all stimulus words appeared and were added to the
map at the frequency range 16≤f≤20 as five separate islands. Besides, it was
concluded that the eight grade students, like
ninth and tenth grade students, could not associate with the concept of energy
with other concepts of the subject.

Keywords

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

References

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