Unveiling students' mental images of science courses will give an opportunity for teachers to effectively communicate with them and conduct proper problem-solving strategies. Taking their views, perceptions, attitudes, expectations, and prejudices of science courses into consideration will contribute to students’ conceptual understanding and academic achievement levels. The drawing method, which is an open-ended questioning approach, is often preferred for determining students’ mental images due to its efficiency in crowded classes, time-efficient, and easily probing complex concepts. After the drawings, verbal or written explanations will make a contribution to discovering what they meant. In this context, the study aimed to unveil the fifth, sixth and seventh-grade students’ mental images of the science course through drawings and writings. Through a cross-age study, a total of 79 students (45 for grade 5, 19 for grades 6 and 25 for grade 7) participated in the current study. The students were asked to draw their thoughts on the science course and explain their drawings. The findings indicated that the students tended to associate the science course with such aspects as subject areas, scientists, teachers, learning environment, and emotions, and course thoughts. The current study recommends that future studies will guide teachers to elicit and work out students' concerns, expectations, career plans, or needs.
Primary Language | Turkish |
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Journal Section | Articles |
Authors | |
Publication Date | September 1, 2020 |
Submission Date | March 6, 2019 |
Acceptance Date | May 5, 2020 |
Published in Issue | Year 2020 Issue: 50 |