European Journal of Education Studies
ISSN: 2501 - 1111
ISSN-L: 2501 - 1111
Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu
10.5281/zenodo.58247
Volume 1│Issue 4│2016
INVESTIGATION OF CLASSROOM TEACHER CANDIDATES’
COGNITIVE STRUCTURES ON SOME BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS
Elif Atabek-Yigit1i, Mustafa Yilmazlar2, Esat Cetin3
1,2,3
Sakarya University, Education Faculty,
Science Education Department, Sakarya, Turkey
Abstract:
In this study, it was aimed to investigate the cognitive structures of classroom teacher
candidates on some basic science concepts. Word association test (WAT) technique was
used to gather data. Twelve keywords related to basic physics, chemistry, and biology
concepts were determined and used in the formation of W“T’s. Forty-three classroom
teacher candidates studying at 2nd classes at an education faculty were the participants
of this study. Data obtained by WAT were examined by using number of different
responses given to each keyword, and by drawing concept maps according to both
frequencies and relatedness coefficients. A cut-off point technique was used when
drawing the concept maps. Because of this study, it can be said that participants have
moderate cognitive structures on the investigated science concepts and their cognitive
structure was strongest on chemistry concepts and weakest on biology concepts.
Keywords: cognitive structure; classroom teacher candidates; science concepts; word
association tests
1.
Introduction
Most of the students describe science as a difficult and boring course to learn mostly
because they think it is an abstract knowledge needs to be memorized. However,
science is even in the center of everyday life. Many everyday situations and problems
can be solved by knowing some basic scientific phenomenon. If someone knew the
scientific fact that peppery is solved in oil , for instance, then he/she would eat butter
spread bread instead of drinking water.
i
Corresponding author, e-mail: eatabek@sakarya.edu.tr
Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved
Published by Open Access Publishing Group ©2015.
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Elif Atabek-Yigit, Mustafa Yilmazlar, Esat Cetin INVESTIGATION OF CLASSROOM TEACHER CANDIDATES’ COGNITIVE STRUCTURES ON SOME
BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS
Science can be defined as systematic exploration of nature and phenomena and effort to
predict events before they happen. Since every phenomenon is the subject of science, it
is a vital component of life (“ydoğdu and Kesercioğlu
. Science teaching is an
important issue for the future of societies and it is remarkable that developed countries
show great interest to science teaching in their education system. New techniques and
improvements have been planned to improve the quality of the education.
In Turkey, science courses have become a part of 3rd grade of elementary school
curriculum with the amendment in
. The main goal of this course is given as to
inform students about the main concepts in biology, physics, chemistry, astronomy,
environment, health and act of God
ME”
. Therefore, it can be understood that
students face to science concepts for the first time in their educational lives in this
course. It is very important for students to learn the true basis of the scientific concepts
in order them to build their expanding knowledge and interpret the real world’s
phenomenon. Science course in elementary 3rd grade is thought by classroom teachers.
Hence, the sophistication of classroom teachers about basic scientific concepts is crucial.
If the teacher had misconceptions, about the subject, this would probably transfer to
his/her students and they would learn incorrectly (Ginns and Watters 1995). The main
aim of this study is to explore the cognitive structures of classroom teacher candidates
about some basic scientific concepts.
In literature, there are studies about the misconceptions about science concepts of
classroom teachers and classroom teacher candidates. Bayram et al (1997) has
investigated the misconception of classroom teacher candidates about some science
concepts by using multiple choice and fill-in-the-blanks tests. According to the results
of their study teacher candidates, have difficulties in differentiating the concepts such
as element-compound, matter-substance, melting-solubility, physical and chemical
change, heat-temperature, evaporation-boiling and mass-weight. In another study,
Demircioğlu et al
have examined the understandings of classroom teacher
candidates on some chemistry concepts. They conducted clinical interviews with the
participants on the nature of matter, dissolving, physical and chemical change, boiling,
evaporation, and condensation concepts. According to the researchers, participants
have many misconceptions on the studied concepts and especially they have difficulties
for the abstract concepts. In other studies misconceptions of primary school teachers
about heat and temperature (Kaptan and Korkmaz 2001), acids and bases (Brodley and
Mosimege 1998), greenhouse effect (Cin 2005), global warming (Kahraman et al. 2008),
diffusion and osmosis (Artun and Costu 2011) have been investigated.
Cognitive structure or structural knowledge can be defined as how someone
organizes and relates terms and concepts in his mind (Selvi and Yakışan
European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 1 │ Issue 4 │ 2016
Tsai and
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Elif Atabek-Yigit, Mustafa Yilmazlar, Esat Cetin INVESTIGATION OF CLASSROOM TEACHER CANDIDATES’ COGNITIVE STRUCTURES ON SOME
BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS
Huang 2002; Tsai 2001). It has been an important topic for educators to study on in
recent years. In literature, there are many techniques like word association tests (Bahar
et al. 1999; Ercan et al. 2010; Hovardas and Korfiatis 2006; Ozata-Yucel and Ozkan
2015), tree construction (Tsai and Huang 2002), concept maps (Assaraf et al. 2013; Cildir
and Sen 2006; Jonassen et al. 1997), and flow maps (Author 2015; Tsai 1998) in order to
investigate the cognitive structure of individuals. Word association test, which is the
most common used and oldest technique, has been used by many researchers (Bahar et
al. 1999; Kostova 2008; Nakiboglu 2008). The basis of this technique depends on the
assumption that order of response retrieval from long-term memory reflects at least a
significant part of the structure within and between the concepts (Bahar et al. 1999).
In a word, association test respondent is given a keyword and asked to respond
that keyword with the first word that come into his/her mind in a given period. The
degree of overlap of response hierarchies is a measure of semantic proximity of the
keywords in a word association test. Thus by examining the response words,
individuals’ cognitive structure about the keyword can be drawn into concept maps
and visualized. In this study, word association tests were used to gather data.
2.
Method
Since it was aimed to explore the cognitive structures of classroom teacher candidates
on some basic science concepts, survey method was used. Survey methods aim to
depict any situation as its own existence in the past or current (Karasar 2004).
2.1.
Participants
Participants of this study were forty-three classroom teacher candidates (33 female and
10 male) studying at a university located in northwest of Turkey. The participants of the
study were chosen as sophomores since there is a course named
”asic Science
Concepts in the second year curriculum of classroom teacher education. In this course,
students were taught the basic physics, chemistry and biology concepts. After this
course there is no other courses related to science concepts in the curriculum. Data of
the study were collected at the end of the course since it was aimed to explore how the
classroom teacher candidates formed their cognitive structures about basic science
concepts.
Students of Basic Science Concepts course were informed about the study i.e.,
aim, design and procedure of the study, and were asked if they would be participated
to it. Forty-three out of sixty-five students accepted to be in this study voluntarily and
the data were collected from them.
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Elif Atabek-Yigit, Mustafa Yilmazlar, Esat Cetin INVESTIGATION OF CLASSROOM TEACHER CANDIDATES’ COGNITIVE STRUCTURES ON SOME
BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS
2.2
Data Collection Instrument
Word association tests were used as data collection instrument in this study. A list of
basic physics, chemistry and biology terms was formed by science professors and the
elementary school curriculum was examined with regard to the existence and the
importance of those terms in the curriculum. Therefore twelve keywords (motion,
inertia, unit of constant, velocity, glucose, vitamin, respiratory, flower, compound,
matter, atom, and element) were determined. Each keyword was written ten times
down to a page and blanks were left for the responses to those keywords. Participants
were told to write down the first word that comes into their minds for the keyword.
Each keyword was written ten times down to the page in order to prevent the chain
effect in which a response might be seen as a keyword for the next response (Bahar et al.
1999; Özata-Yücel and Özkan 2015). For instance if a participant responded to the
keyword reflection with the words light-mirror-beauty-cosmetics , then it can be
said that there would be chain effect. Another blank area at the end of the page was left
for a related sentence for each keyword and the participants were told to write a
sentence related to that keyword.
2.3
Data Collection and Procedure
Firstly, all the participants were informed about word association test technique. They
were said to respond to the keywords with the first word that come into their minds for
that keyword. They were warned about the chain effect and said to think about the
keyword every time they respond. In order the participants to understand the data
collection procedure and technique; a sample word association test (with a keyword
tree
was used as pre-administration. After completing this period and all the
participants were done, actual administration was accomplished. There were 12
keywords and every keyword was written ten times down on a separate page. There
was also related sentence row at the end of each page. Participants were told to
respond every separate page in 1 min. time period and the administrator did the timing.
Each page was given to the participants separately. A total of 12 min. has spent for the
administration of the instrument.
2.4
Data Analysis
Following procedure was accomplished in order to analyze the data obtained through
word association tests.
Responses for each keyword were examined and a response list for each
keyword was formed. In this list all the different responses to that keyword were
written with the repetition numbers.
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Elif Atabek-Yigit, Mustafa Yilmazlar, Esat Cetin INVESTIGATION OF CLASSROOM TEACHER CANDIDATES’ COGNITIVE STRUCTURES ON SOME
BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS
Then a frequency table was formed.
Keywords were grouped as physics related keywords, chemistry related
keywords, and biology related keywords since it would be more meaningful to
interpret the findings.
The indicator of the commonality of two keywords is known as relatedness
coefficient and it is very instructive in the examination of cognitive structure
(Naiboglu, 2008). Therefore, relatedness coefficients for each participant and each
pair of keywords were calculated. The formula for calculation of relatedness
coefficient by Garskoff and Houston (Bahar et al. 1999) is given below:
where,
A is the rank order of occurrence of words under A which are in common with B.
B is the rank order of words in B, which are shared in A.
n is the number of responses under A or B which has more responses.
An example for the calculation of relatedness coefficient was given below. The response
words for the keywords element and atom for a participant were given in Table I.
Table I: Response words and rank orders for the keywords element and compound for a
participant
Stimulus word: Element
Response
Stimulus word: Compound
Rank order Response
Rank order
Magnesium
9 Matter*
7
Matter*
8 Element
6
Electron**
7 Atom****
5
Proton
6 Electron**
4
Chemistry***
5 Water
3
Periodic table
4 Salt
2
Compound
3 Chemistry***
1
Atom****
2
Potassium
1
*/**/***/**** Overlapping responses for two keywords
Calculation of relatedness coefficients was done as follows: Firstly, the rank orders of
the response words were determined and the lower one was considered as 1. The
maximum value of the rank order can be 10 since participants were asked to write
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Elif Atabek-Yigit, Mustafa Yilmazlar, Esat Cetin INVESTIGATION OF CLASSROOM TEACHER CANDIDATES’ COGNITIVE STRUCTURES ON SOME
BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS
down ten responses to each keyword. Then overlapping responses (i.e., matter,
electron, chemistry, and atom for this example) were determined for these keywords.
After that, they were multiplied and summed. The result was divided by the maximum
number of responses under these keywords. Therefore, the relatedness coefficient for
element and compound keywords that were given in Table I, was given below:
Then overall relatedness coefficients were determined by taking the averages for
each pair of keywords of each participant’s.
Cognitive structures of the participants were visualized by drawing concept
maps. These maps were drawn according to the frequencies of the response
words as well as the relatedness coefficients that were calculated for each pair of
keywords. A cut off point technique as suggested by Bahar et al (1999) was used
to draw the concept maps. According to this technique a number that is 3-5 less
than the most frequent response to any keyword is chosen as cut off point and
then the frequencies bigger than that number are drawn in the map. Then cut off
point is lowered step by step until all the keywords show up in the map.
The related sentences were analyzed by categorizing them into three categories
as correct scientific knowledge (CSS), i.e., correct definition or use of the term,
misconception (MC), i.e., incorrect scientific explanation; and irrelevant (IR), i.e.,
sentences that are off-topic. For instance for the keyword respiratory a
participant’s sentence
respiratory is the common feature of livings
was
categorized into CSS. A participant replied for the keyword inertia, as Inertia is
the conservation of mass and this sentence was categorized into MC while
another sentence for the keyword atom as
2.5
I’m as fast as an atom
was
categorized into IR.
Sentences in each category were counted and a frequency table was formed.
Validity and Reliability
When determining the keywords to be used in the study three instructors, one of them
hold PhD degree in physics, other in chemistry and another in biology, discussed and
also the elementary science course curriculum was examined and the keywords
checked for the content validity. For the calculation of relatedness coefficients, another
researcher, other than the authors, was asked to calculate RC’s for twenty-five
participant’s keywords. A 98% inter-coder agreement, which is substantially high, was
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Elif Atabek-Yigit, Mustafa Yilmazlar, Esat Cetin INVESTIGATION OF CLASSROOM TEACHER CANDIDATES’ COGNITIVE STRUCTURES ON SOME
BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS
calculated in between his and author’s calculations. “nother researcher was asked to
categorize participants’ related sentences and
. % inter-coder agreement was
calculated between his categorization and authors’. According to Miles and
Hubermans’ criterion Miles et al.
a consistency value above
% is acceptable.
Therefore the reliability of the calculations can be acceptable.
3.
Findings
After examining the responses to each keyword, a list of responses to the keywords
with repetition numbers was formed. Number of different responses to each keyword
was given in Table II.
Table II: Number of different responses to each keyword
Keyword
Physics
Velocity
Number of different responses
105
Unit of constant
Chemistry
65
Inertia
106
Motion
110
Element
83
Matter
118
Atom
114
Compound
94
Number of different responses for a given word would give a clue or sign that the
meaning of that word understood by a person (Bahar et al. 1999). For the keywords in
this study, a total of
different responses were determined. The keyword matter
has the highest number of different responses (118 different response) while the
keyword unit of constant has the lower number of different responses (65 different
response). From this result, it can be said that participants structured matter better.
In the determination of cognitive structures of the participants, besides the
number of different responses to the keywords, it is also important to enlighten the
relations between keywords. Therefore the relatedness coefficients i.e., the semantic
proximity of keywords, were calculated for all the participants for each pair of
keywords and then overall relatedness coefficients were obtained by averages. The
results were given in Table III, IV, and V for physics, chemistry, and biology related
keywords, respectively.
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Elif Atabek-Yigit, Mustafa Yilmazlar, Esat Cetin INVESTIGATION OF CLASSROOM TEACHER CANDIDATES’ COGNITIVE STRUCTURES ON SOME
BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS
Table III: Relatedness coefficients of physics keywords
Unit of constant
Velocity
Inertia
Motion
0.076
0.033
0.195
Unit of constant
-
0.055
0.142
Inertia
-
-
0.088
Table IV: Relatedness coefficients of chemistry keywords
Matter
Element
Atom
Compound
0.102
0.173
0.229
Matter
-
0.097
0.087
Atom
-
-
0.131
Table V: Relatedness coefficients of biology keywords
Respiratory
Flower
Glucose
0.035
0.034
0.035
Respiratory
-
0.092
0.059
Flower
-
-
0.063
Vitamin
In order to better understand and interpret these findings concept maps were drawn
according to cut-off point technique as supposed by Bahar et al. (1999). The first cut-off
point was chosen as RC>0.225 since the highest RC was 0.229. The last cut-off point was
.
>RC> .
since it covers all the RC’s. Table VI shows the concept maps drawn by
using RC’s.
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Elif Atabek-Yigit, Mustafa Yilmazlar, Esat Cetin INVESTIGATION OF CLASSROOM TEACHER CANDIDATES’ COGNITIVE STRUCTURES ON SOME
BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS
Table VI: Concept maps for the keywords drawn by using relatedness coefficients
Physıcs
Chemıstry
Bıology
0.225>RC>0.175
RC>0.225
Element
Compound
Velocity
Motion
Compound
Motion
0.175>RC>0.125
Velocity
Unit of
Constant
Motion
Velocity
Inertia
Unit of
Constant
Element
Atom
Compound
Element
Atom
Compound
0.075>RC>0.025
0.125>RC>0.075
Element
Respiratory
Flower
Matter
Respiratory
Glucose
Flower
Vitamin
“ccording to Table VI, participants structured the element-compound relation better
in all the chemistry related keywords given. “fter that, atom joins to the structure
and matter comes last in all the chemistry related keywords given. For the given
physics related keywords, participants cognitive structure was better in
velocity-
motion relation, and the keyword inertia joins to the structure last. Participants’
structured respiratory-flower relation better for the keywords related to biology, and
glucose and vitamin join to the structure together. From these graphs, it can be said
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Elif Atabek-Yigit, Mustafa Yilmazlar, Esat Cetin INVESTIGATION OF CLASSROOM TEACHER CANDIDATES’ COGNITIVE STRUCTURES ON SOME
BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS
that participant’s cognitive structures were strongest for chemistry keywords and
weakest for biology keywords.
Although an investigation to the cognitive structures of the participants can be
made by using concept maps drawn by using RC’s, a better understanding and
interpretation can be made by drawing concept maps by using frequencies (f) of the
response words that were given for the keywords. Table VII, VIII, and IX show the
concept maps drawn by using frequencies of the response words for physics, chemistry,
and biology related keywords, respectively.
Table VII: Concept map drawn by using the frequencies of the response words for physics
related keywords
Cut-off point
Graph
30
Vehicle
Speed
Inertia
Velocity
Immovability
Time
Motion
Displacement
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Elif Atabek-Yigit, Mustafa Yilmazlar, Esat Cetin INVESTIGATION OF CLASSROOM TEACHER CANDIDATES’ COGNITIVE STRUCTURES ON SOME
BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS
25
Matter
Vehicle
Speed
Inertia
Velocity
Immovability
Time
Motion
Displacement
20
Can be
Can not be
Unit of
Constant
Matter
Vehicle
Speed
Inertia
Physics
Velocity
Immovability
Time
Acceleration
Motion
Displacement
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Elif Atabek-Yigit, Mustafa Yilmazlar, Esat Cetin INVESTIGATION OF CLASSROOM TEACHER CANDIDATES’ COGNITIVE STRUCTURES ON SOME
BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS
15
Can be
Can not be
Unit of
Constant
Matter
Speed
Vehicle
Inertia
Physics
Velocity
Way
Immovability
Time
Acceleration
Vectorial
Motion
Displacement
10
Can be
Can not be
Unit of
Constant
Vehicle
Mass
Matter
Speed
Inertia
Physics
Velocity
Way
Chemistry
Immovability
Time
Acceleration
Vectorial
Motion
Energy
Displacement
Constant
Force
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Elif Atabek-Yigit, Mustafa Yilmazlar, Esat Cetin INVESTIGATION OF CLASSROOM TEACHER CANDIDATES’ COGNITIVE STRUCTURES ON SOME
BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS
“ccording to Table VII, for f>
, i.e., the strongest part of participants’ cognitive
structure, they structured velocity with relation to speed , vehicle , and time .
Their understanding of motion was related to displacement , and inertia was
related to immovability . While they structured velocity-motion relation for this cutoff point, inertia appeared as a separate island i.e., with no relation to the other
keywords appeared. For
>f> ,
matter
joins to the structure with relation to
inertia . The other keyword unit of constant joined to the structure for
>f> , with
the relation of can be , can not be , and physics . “t this level, a relation between
velocity and displacement also showed up. “cceleration was also joined to the
structure with relation to motion at this level. “lthough all the keywords appeared at
this level, two more relaxation for the cut-off point was made in order to better
investigate the understandings of the participants. “t
>f>
level unit of constant
related to other two keywords velocity , and motion as well as to some response
words. “t this level the keyword inertia was still like separate island. “t
>f>
level, i.e., the weakest part of participants’ cognitive structures, inertia joined to the
structure with relation to unit of constant and motion . “t this level, there were
many relations between all keywords and most of the response words.
Table VIII: Concept map drawn by using the frequencies of the response words for chemistry
keywords
Cut-off
Graph
point
30
Element
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Atom
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Elif Atabek-Yigit, Mustafa Yilmazlar, Esat Cetin INVESTIGATION OF CLASSROOM TEACHER CANDIDATES’ COGNITIVE STRUCTURES ON SOME
BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS
25
Same
Element
Atom
Compound
Water
Molecule
20
Same
Gold
Electron
Element
Atom
Small
Salt
Volume
Compound
Matter
Inertia
Chemistry
Water
15
Molecule
Mass
Copper
Neutron
Same
Gold
Electron
Proton
Main part
Silver
Element
Atom
Small
Salt
Volume
Compound
Matter
Inertia
Chemistry
Water
Molecule
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Mass
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Elif Atabek-Yigit, Mustafa Yilmazlar, Esat Cetin INVESTIGATION OF CLASSROOM TEACHER CANDIDATES’ COGNITIVE STRUCTURES ON SOME
BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS
10
Dalton
Copper
Neutron
Same
Gold
Electron
Proton
Main part
Silver
Element
Atom
Small
Iron
Bomb
Periodic
table
Salt
Object
Volume
Compound
Matter
Inertia
Chemistry
Water
Molecule
Mass
Solid
Liquid
Gas
Particulate
structure
Participants’ cognitive structures for chemistry keywords were strongest in element
and atom relation, according to Table VIII. “t
>f>
level compound appeared
with relation to both element and atom . Also, same for element , and water
and molecule for compound joined to the structure. When cut-off point relaxed to
25-
level the last keyword matter appeared with relation to all the other keywords
and volume , inertia , and mass attached to it. Also, electron and small for
atom, gold for element and salt and chemistry for compound showed up in
the structure. Although all the keywords appeared in the structure at this level, two
further relaxations of cut-off point were made in order to get a deeper insight to the
cognitive structures of the participants. At level 20>f>15, participants added proton ,
neutron and main part to atom, copper , and silver to element . “t
>f>
level, i.e., the weakest part of participants’ cognitive structures, there were much more
relations in between both the keywords and response words. From them, it can be said
that participants added the states of matter gas, liquid, solid to
matter
and
interestingly periodic table could take its part in relation to element barely at this
level.
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Elif Atabek-Yigit, Mustafa Yilmazlar, Esat Cetin INVESTIGATION OF CLASSROOM TEACHER CANDIDATES’ COGNITIVE STRUCTURES ON SOME
BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS
Table IX: Concept map drawn by using the frequencies of the response words for biology
related keywords
Cut-off
Graph
point
30
Vitamin A
Oxygen
Respiratory
Vitamin
Sugar
Glycose
25
Vitamin A
Oxygen
Respiratory
Vitamin
Biology
Sugar
Glycose
20
Photosynthesis
Aerobic
Orange
Vitamin B
Vitamin A
Oxygen
Anaerobic
Vitamin C
Respiratory
Vitamin
Vitamin D
Biology
Carbondioxide
Sugar
Glycose
Monosaccharide
Carbohydrate
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BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS
15
Photosynthesis
Aerobic
Orange
Vitamin B
Vitamin A
Oxygen
Anaerobic
Vitamin C
ATP
Respiratory
Vitamin D
Vitamin
Biology
Water
soluble
Carbondioxide
Vitamin E
Sugar
Plant
Glycose
Leaf
Stem
Fructose
Flower
Monosaccharide
Carbohydrate
Rose
10
Photosynthesis
Mandarin
Vegatable
Orange
Vitamin A
Aerobic
Anaerobic
Oxygen
Vitamin B
Organic
Vitamin C
ATP
Air
Respiratory
Biology
CarbondioxideBreathing
Lung
Vitamin D
Vitamin
Water
soluble
Vitamin E
Vitamin K
Sugar
Plant
Glycose
Leaf
Stem
Fructose
Flower
Monosaccharide
Carbohydrate
Blood
Rose
Odor
Glycogen
Outer
leaves
The concept map of participants’ cognitive structure on biology keywords was given in
Table IX. From this table it can be said that participants strongest part of cognitive
structure i.e., f>30, related to these keywords appear firstly as separate islands with one
response word attached to them. Respirator , vitamin , and glucose appeared at
this level. When cut-off point was relaxed to 30>f>25 range they were still separate
islands with a new response word, biology , attached to glucose . For
>f>
level,
there were still three separate islands with many attachments to each of them. The
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Elif Atabek-Yigit, Mustafa Yilmazlar, Esat Cetin INVESTIGATION OF CLASSROOM TEACHER CANDIDATES’ COGNITIVE STRUCTURES ON SOME
BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS
keyword flower was first appeared in
>f>
level with relation to biology and
with many other attachments as well. A further relaxation of cut-off point to 15>f>10
level revealed the interrelations between all four keywords. For physics and chemistry
keywords it was enough to relax the cut-off point to 25>f>20 level while for biology
keywords it was needed to be relaxed to 15>f>10 level.
Participants’ related sentences for keywords were analyzed through categorizing
them into correct scientific knowledge CSS , i.e.,
Velocity is a vectorial quantity
putted in this category, misconception MC , i.e., “ compound composed of same
types of elements was thought to be in this category, and irrelevant IR , i.e., Flowers
are beautiful putted in this category. Findings were given in Table X.
CSS
MC
IR
Total
Glucose
Flower
Respiratory
Vitamin
Compound
Atom
Matter
Element
Motion
Inertia
constant
Unit of
Velocity
Table X: Findings from related sentence analysis
6
19
7
4
25
34
29
16
34
29
10
25
(15.79)
(63.33)
(26.92)
(12.12)
(67.57)
(82.93)
(72.5)
(50)
(87.18)
(74.36)
(28.57)
(69.44)
13
4
11
10
5
2
2
11
1
5
2
6
(34.21)
(13.33)
(42.31)
(30.30)
(13.51)
(4.88)
(5)
(34.37)
(2.56)
(12.82)
(5.72)
(16.67)
19
7
8
19
7
5
9
5
4
5
23
5
(50)
(23.34)
(30.77)
(57.58)
(18.92)
(12.19)
(22.5)
(15.63)
(10.26)
(12.82)
(65.71)
(13.89)
38
30
26
33
37
41
40
32
39
39
35
36
(100)
(100)
(100)
(100)
(100)
(100)
(100)
(100)
(100)
(100)
(100)
(100)
* Numbers in parenthesis were the percentages.
According to Table X, participants were able to write the most correct scientific
knowledge
.
% for the keyword vitamin that was one of their strongest cognitive
structure part for biology keywords according to the concept maps, and the most
sentences that had misconceptions (42.31%) were for the keyword inertia, which was
also appeared a separate island in their cognitive structure concept maps. Flower was
the keyword that participants wrote mostly irrelevant sentences. When the table
examined for physics keyword it can be said that participants wrote most correct
scientific knowledge
misconception
. % for the keyword
unit of constant , and had most
. % on the keyword inertia . For chemistry keywords, participants
were able to write the most correct scientific knowledge
most misconception
.
. % for matter , and the
% was found on compound . The most correct scientific
knowledge (87.18%) for the keyword vitamin and the most misconception (16.67%) for
the keyword glucose were detected for biology keywords.
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Elif Atabek-Yigit, Mustafa Yilmazlar, Esat Cetin INVESTIGATION OF CLASSROOM TEACHER CANDIDATES’ COGNITIVE STRUCTURES ON SOME
BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS
5.
Discussion
The primary education has a vital role in all educational progress (Unal 1993). Students
firstly face to academic subjects and their success in their academic lives is very
dependent to the primary education period. Any misconceptions forming in this stage
of education level would affect the entire education process of an individual. Therefore,
it is obvious that classroom teachers I.e., the teachers teach at primary education level,
play an important role in an individual’s whole academic life and success. Science has
always seen as a difficult subject for many students mostly because they cannot relate
the subject to the daily life and has seen it as utopic. Therefore, classroom teachers’ role
in teaching science can affect an individuals’ success in science in his/her future
academic career (Ozdemir 2008; Unal 1993). For this reason, it was aimed to investigate
the cognitive structures of classroom teacher candidates on some basic science concepts.
In this study, findings were given in tables and graphs as physics related,
chemistry related and biology related because it would be more meaningful to
interpret. “ccording to findings of this study it can be concluded that participants’
cognitive structures were moderate, i.e., strongest in chemistry and weakest in biology.
It is a very interesting finding because most of the studies in literature (Demircioglu et
al. 2004; Taber 2001) reveal that students have difficulties in structuring abstract
concepts, which exist mostly in chemistry between three of them, i.e., physics,
chemistry and, biology. The reason of this finding might be their tendency to chemistry.
Number of different responses to any given keyword might be an indicator of how
strongly that concept structured in someone’s mind ”ahar et al.
. For physics
related keywords motion was the keyword that had most different responses
different responses and
unit of constant
had the least different responses
different response). From this finding, it can be concluded that participants structured
motion better in their minds. For chemistry related keywords matter was the one
that had most different type of responses
different responses and element had
the least different responses (83 different responses). Therefore, participants can be said
to be structured matter better. For biology related keywords flower was the one
that had most different responses
different responses and respiratory had the
least different responses (96 different responses). From these findings, it can be said that
participants have structured flower better.
In order to better understanding the cognitive structures of the participants
concept maps were drawn according to both the frequencies of the response words and
the relatedness coefficients RC’s . The maps drawn by relatedness coefficients can
show how strongly the participants relate the keywords each other while the maps
European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 1 │ Issue 4 │ 2016
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Elif Atabek-Yigit, Mustafa Yilmazlar, Esat Cetin INVESTIGATION OF CLASSROOM TEACHER CANDIDATES’ COGNITIVE STRUCTURES ON SOME
BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS
drawn by frequencies can show how they relate the keywords with other concepts and
words. For physics related keywords, participants related velocity with motion
strongly RC= .
.
Inertia
was the weakest part of the participants’ cognitive
structure since it appeared lastly in the maps drawn by RC’s Table VI . It was also
firstly showed up as a separate island i.e., with no relation to the other keywords, in the
maps drawn by using frequencies (Table VII). According to Turker (2005), students
have several misconceptions concerning force and motion, and especially they have
difficulties in understanding the meaning of inertia.
For
chemistry
related
compound better RC= .
keywords,
participants
related
element
and
. From the concept map drawn by using frequencies
(Table VIII) it can be seen that participant’s strongest part of cognitive structure on
chemistry related keywords was the
element
atom
relation followed by their
relations with compound . “ccording to Table VI participants added matter lastly to
the concept map meaning that its relation with other keywords was weakest. It can also
be seen from Table VIII matter joins to the structure lately.
For biology related keywords, participants calculated relatedness coefficients
were smaller and the biggest one was in between
respiratory
and
flower
(RC=0.092), that is participants related respiratory with flower most in between the
given keywords. According to Table VI three of the keywords (respiratory, vitamin and
glucose) appeared firstly as separate islands. At very last relaxation, the relations
between keywords could show up, meaning that participants mostly cannot relate the
given keywords with each other.
When the response words examined it was found that inertia was the word
that participants used most both for physics related keywords and chemistry related
keywords. In other words, participants related physics and chemistry through inertia,
which is a key feature of matter. “lso, motion was found to be the common word
between physics related keywords and biology related keywords probably because they
thought the movement of livings.
Since writing a sentence is more complex and requires higher order thinking
skills in comparison to a word , it would give better inside to the cognitive structure
(Ercan et al. 2010). In the examination participants’ related sentences for physics related
keywords, it was found that participants wrote most scientifically correct sentences for
unit of constant . This finding was probably because they gave the formal definition
for unit of constant , which should be counted as scientifically correct. However, it
does not mean that even a participant can give the definition of a keyword he/she could
structure that keyword strongly. Here in this study the number different responses
European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 1 │ Issue 4 │ 2016
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Elif Atabek-Yigit, Mustafa Yilmazlar, Esat Cetin INVESTIGATION OF CLASSROOM TEACHER CANDIDATES’ COGNITIVE STRUCTURES ON SOME
BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS
given to unit of constant were the lowest. It was also firstly appeared in the concept
map as a separate island.
The most misconception was found on inertia , which was also proofed by the
concept maps as the weakest part of their cognitive structures for physics related
keywords. Participants wrote the most irrelevant sentences for
motion
and the
percentages of their irrelevant sentences were higher than the other sentences for
motion
and
velocity . This finding can be explained, as since
motion
and
velocity are the words most frequently used in daily life, participants preferred their
daily life usages. For chemistry, related keyword participants wrote most scientifically
correct sentences for
matter
probably with the same explanation for
unit of
constant . Participants wrote the formal definition of matter but as it can be seen
from concept maps Table VI and Table VIII
matter was the last part attaching on the
cognitive structure. The most misconceptions were found in the sentences related to
compound . Similarly in a study by Bayram et al (1997) classroom teachers and
classroom teacher candidates understanding of some basic science concepts and they
were also found that both classroom teachers and classroom teacher candidates could
be able to give the right answer related to element and compound in a multiple choice
test but they were not able to write down the reasons for their selections.
The most irrelevant sentences were written for atom . “tom was an abstract
concept and most studies in literature (Demirioglu et al. 2004; Demircioglu 2002; De Vos
and Verdonk 1996; Ginns and Watters 1995; Nakhleh 1992) reveal that students have
difficulties in understanding the abstract concepts because they cannot relate the
macroscopic world with the microscopic concepts. This might be the reason of those
irrelevant sentences. For biology, related keywords the most scientifically correct
sentences were written for vitamin and the most misconception was found in the
sentences related to glucose , which was the most abstract one in the given keywords.
Also, percentages of irrelevant sentences were higher than the other sentences for
flower . Participants mostly wrote types of flowers.
Overall results of this study reveals that participants haven’t got strong cognitive
structures on the given science concepts. This situation probably causes them to have
struggle when teaching science concepts to their students in the future. According to a
study by Cepni et al (2003), classroom teachers have difficulties in teaching science
courses; they are not willing to make experiments in lab. Therefore their students have
difficulty in understanding science and anxious about science. In the same study, it was
also revealed that classroom teachers think that science courses should be given by
science teachers at all levels. In another study by Kahyaoglu and Yangin (2007) it was
found that from among pre service science, classroom and mathematics teachers, pre
European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 1 │ Issue 4 │ 2016
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Elif Atabek-Yigit, Mustafa Yilmazlar, Esat Cetin INVESTIGATION OF CLASSROOM TEACHER CANDIDATES’ COGNITIVE STRUCTURES ON SOME
BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS
service science teachers have positive attitude to science courses and to teaching of
science courses.
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BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS
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