This study involves the development of a three-tier diagnostic test to measure high school students' understanding of states of matter concepts. The States of Matter Diagnostic Test (SMDT) is a 19-item three-tier diagnostic test consisting of three-tier items for assessing students' understanding of states of matter concepts. The SMDT was administered to 195 10th grade high school students in the pilot study and 102 10th grade high school students in the main study. Cronbach alpha reliability indexes for the SMDT were estimated to be .78 and .83 for the pilot and main study, respectively. Point-biserial coefficients ranged from .20 to .69 with an average of .44 for the pilot study and with an average of .49 for the main study.
The present study was conducted to investigate the contribution of conceptual change texts accompanied by concept mapping instruction to 10th— grade students' understanding of the human circulatory system. To determine misconceptions concerning the human circulatory system, 10 eleventh‐grade students were interviewed. In the light of the findings obtained from student interviews and related literature, the Human Circulatory System Concepts Test was developed. The data were obtained from 26 students in the experimental group taught with the conceptual change texts accompanied by concept mapping, and 23 students in the control group taught with the traditional instruction. Besides treatment, previous learning in biology and science process skills were other independent variables involved in this study. Multiple Regression Correlation analysis revealed that science process skill, the treatment, and previous learning in biology each made a statistically significant contribution to the variation in students' understanding of the human circulatory system. It was found that the conceptual change texts accompanied by concept mapping instruction produced a positive effect on students' understanding of concepts. The mean scores of experimental and control groups showed that students in the experimental group performed better with respect to the human circulatory system. Item analysis was carried out to determine and compare the proportion of correct responses and misconceptions of students in both groups. The average percent of correct responses of the experimental group was 59.8%, and that of the control group was 51.6% after treatment.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of conceptual change texts accompanied with concept mapping instruction, compared to traditional instruction (TI), on 8th grade students' understanding of solution concepts and their attitudes toward science as a school subject. Solution Concept Test was developed as a result of examination of related literature and interviews with teachers regarding their observations of students' difficulties. The test was administered to a total of 64 eighth grade students from two classes of a general science course, taught by the same teacher. The experimental group received the conceptual change texts accompanied with concept mapping in a lecture by the teacher. This instruction explicitly dealt with students' misconceptions. It was designed to suggest conditions in which misconceptions could be replaced by scientific conceptions and new conceptions could be integrated with existing conceptions. The control group received TI in which the teacher provided instruction through lecture and discussion methods. The results showed that conceptual change text accompanied with concept mapping instruction caused a significantly better acquisition of scientific conceptions related to solution concept and produced significantly higher positive attitudes toward science as a school subject than the TI. In addition, logical thinking ability and prior learning were strong predictors for the concept learning related to solution.
The aim of this study was to delve into the effect of context-based approach (CBA) over traditional instruction (TI) on students’ chemical literacy level related to thermochemical and thermodynamics concepts. Four eleventh-grade classes with 118 students in total taught by two teachers from a public high school in 2012 fall semester were enrolled in this particular study. The treatments were randomly assigned to the already formed classes; experimental groups were treated as CBA, the control groups as TI. Each teacher had one experimental and one control group. Open-ended contextual item sets were developed to assess students’ chemical literacy level in thermochemical and thermodynamics concepts. The test was administered to both groups as a post-test at the end of the implementation. Students’ responses to item sets were analyzed based on the rubric prepared as the answer key. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used for interpreting the data. The results reveal that CBA is superior to TI on improving students’ chemical literacy levels, implying that CBA, as a discussion platform for concepts through real-life experiences, has a significant role in increasing students’ chemical literacy levels in abstract and difficult concepts regardless of the gender difference.
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