Effect of conceptual change texts accompanied with analogies on promoting conceptual change in acid and base concepts


Tezin Türü: Doktora

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Eğitim Fakültesi, Matematik ve Fen Bilimleri Eğitimi Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2006

Öğrenci: PÜREN İPEK TAMER

Danışman: ÖMER GEBAN

Özet:

This study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of conceptual change text oriented instruction accompanied with analogies over traditional instruction on tenth grade students’ understanding of the acid and base concepts and attitude toward science as a school subject. In addition, effect of the gender difference and science process skills on students’ understanding of acid and base concepts and effect of gender difference on students’ attitudes toward chemistry as a school subject were also investigated. Subjects of the study were fifty tenth grade students from the two chemistry classes of the same teacher from a public school at the center of Ankara. There were one experimental group and one control group. Two teaching methods used were randomly assigned to the already formed groups of the teacher. Experimental group received conceptual change oriented instruction by using conceptual change text accompanied with analogies and control group received traditional instruction over a period of four weeks. Acid and Base Conception Test and Attitude Scale Toward Chemistry were given to all groups as a pre-test and post-test. Science Process Skill Test was given to all groups at the beginning of the study to determine students' level of science process skills. At the end of the study, interviews were hold with randomly selected experimental and control group students from the medium achievement level to get an in-dept idea about the nature of the misconceptions related with the topic. ANOVA and ANCOVA were used to test the hypotheses of the study. The results showed that establishing an analogical thinking during the course of instruction together with a conceptual change text caused a better acquisition of scientific conceptions and elimination of misconceptions related with acid and base concepts as compared to the traditional instruction. Because, the students in the experimental group taking conceptual change oriented instruction performed much better in the post-test than the students in the control group taking the traditional instruction. However, the two modes of the instruction and gender difference did not indicate a significant contribution to students’ attitude toward chemistry as a school subject. Besides, results showed that science process skills of the students' could be a strong predictor for their achievement in acid and base concepts whereas there was no significant effect of gender difference on students’ understanding of acid and base concepts.