Investigation of Secondary School Students' Perceptions on the Concept of Health Through the Word Association Test
Abstract
The aim of this study is to examine the cognitive structures of the secondary school students towards the concept of health. The study was carried out using the descriptive survey model, which is a research approach that intends to describe a past or present situation as it is. The study group of the research was determined by maximum diversity sampling and consisted of 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th grade secondary school students studying in Bursa and Malatya in the 2021-2022 academic year. In this study, which attempts to examine the perceptions of secondary school students regarding the concept of health, WAT (Word Association Test) was used as a data collection tool. The word association test consists of two dimensions. While there are explanations about WAT (Word Association Test) and sample WAT (Word Association Test) study in the first dimension, there is the WAT worksheet for the concept of health in the second dimension. In the analysis of the data, the words obtained regarding the answers given by the students to the key concept of health were examined in detail in a table, the threshold point was determined by considering the repeated words, and concept networks were created in this direction. In the study, secondary school students produced different words for the concept of health. Those with four or fewer frequencies of these words were not included in the analysis. The most repeated word among the words included in the analysis was "doctor". Those which followed this word were "hospital", "vaccine" and "Covid-19". As a result of the research, no difference was observed in terms of the cities in which the study was conducted or regarding class level, and similar answers were obtained in all classes.
Keywords
health, school, word association test, misconception, cognitive
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