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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 10, Issue 2, Article 8 (Dec., 2009) Osman CARDAK Students' ideas about dangerous animals |
This research was conducted among 316 primary education students attending a primary education school in Turkey during April and May 2009. Primary education students were chosen randomly. The ages of the students in the sampling of the research varied between 10, the youngest, and 15, the oldest. The average age was around 13.
The students participating in the study were asked to fill out a questionnaire consisting of open-ended questions and word associations. The questionnaire was written in Turkish, and was later translated into English for this manuscript. The participating students were asked, “Which is the most dangerous animal in your opinion?”; “When dangerous animals are mentioned, which animals do you think of?”; “What is the characteristic that makes an animal dangerous?”; and “What associations do you think of when you hear the words snake, scorpion, centipede and spider?” The questionnaires were given to the students during science and technology classes, and they were given 30 minutes to answer the questions freely. This data collection method allows for the observation of the thoughts of the participants (Sato & James, 1999).
Data obtained from the questions directed at the students was analysed individually. As there were many associations, words of the same or similar meaning were coded together. Words used less often, but meaning the same as frequently used words, as well as frequently used general words, were separated into subgroups. Associations encountered less than three times, and those that could not be coded with the others, were removed. The words were categorized according to meaningful relationship criteria (Sato & James, 1999; Flogaitis & Agelidou, 2003; Torkar & Bajd, 2006) and the usage frequency of the words in each category was calculated quantitatively. Separate lists of the answers to the open-ended questions were created. In the first of the open-ended questions, the most dangerous animals (11 animals) were listed with their frequencies. In the second question, dangerous animals (15 animals) were listed with their frequencies. In the third question, the feature that makes these dangerous animals dangerous was given in categories (two categories). In the fourth section, the associations given for the words snake, scorpion, centipede and spider were categorized into different quantities according to the word (snake: 4; scorpion: 5; centipede: 4; spider: 4).
