An investigation of students’ views about enzymes by fortune lines technique

Fortune lines technique used for determining students’ attitudes, satisfaction, understanding level, and thoughts is a complimentry technique to the traditional measurement and assessment techniques such as writing composition and true-false tests (Bahar et al., 2010; Rush, 1998, cited in White & Gunstone, 1998).

This current research has examined the views of students regarding the usage of enzymes in daily life using fortune lines technique as well as their perceptions of fortune lines technique itself. This study was not aimed to explore and explain the students’ understanding of enzymes in detail using the fortune lines technique, but rather their perceptions of their own understanding.

The expected fortune lines of the researchers were all developing fortune lines except for Items 2 and 6 related to enzymes. Most of the students drew developing fortune lines for Items 1, 9, 10, and it could be percieved that the students had better understandings about Items 1, 9, 10 compared with the other items. Although Items 3, 4, 5, 8 were a moderate level, it could be percieved that the students did not understand well enough about Items 6 and 7. A possible reason could be that the teacher conducted the course only using PowerPoint and this may not be efficient enough (Sinan, 2007). Additionally, the subject of enzymes is difficult and includes abstract concepts (Kurt, 2013). It is also believed that students have some misconceptions about enzymes (Kurt, 2013; Linenberger & Bretz, 2012; Selvi, & Yakışan, 2004; Sinan, et. al., 2006). In short, perceptions of the students regarding the usage of enzymes in daily life may have affected their drawings of fortune lines negatively.

Models and information technology such as videos and simulations related to enzymes may help to convert abstract concepts into concrete ideas. Additionally, enzymes can be taught through laboratory work in secondary education. Thus, it is believed that the inefficiencies and misconceptions among the students regarding the topic can be remediated.

White and Gunstone (1998) stressed that detailed data can be obtained about learning levels of students in a short time using this technique at the beginning and/or at the end of the learning processes. Students can complete this technique in a short time and possibly enjoy mapping their own fortune lines. Additionally, class diccusion can be facilitated using the fortune lines drawn by students and discussing the possible reasons for variations in each student’s fortune lines.

As seen in the data from the Fortune Lines Technique Questionnaire, all students had positive reactions to fortune lines technique except for one student. Most of the students indicated that fortune lines expressed their thoughts very well in a short and concise manner. Thus, this technique was enough to express their thoughts. However, a few of students said it was not enough to express their thoughts or since it had limits. Reasons for this could be that the Fortune Lines Technique is new and different technique for students, and they may have problems in adapting to this technique. Some students may have difficulties reflecting on their own thoughts by drawing lines or may be unwilling to draw lines. By implementing fortune lines technique in more activities in classes, students may become more familiar with it, which may elemınate these initial issues. In other words, because fortune lines technique is a new form of assessment, there may be some problems to overcome. Further testing of fortune lines technique may reveal more issues that need to be addressed in future studies.

Finally, in future studies fortune lines technique can be used as a complimentry measurement tool in addition to conventional measurement and assessment techniques in classrooms (Bahar et al., 2010). It can be used throughout different levels of education. Data collected by fortune lines technique can be enriched by other techniques such as interviews and tests (Feteris, 2008; White & Gunstone, 1998).

Acknowledgments
We are grateful for valuable feedback from the editor and anonymous reviewers.