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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 19, Issue 1, Article 3 (Jun., 2018) |
This study was designed as a longitudinal study. The study was carried out in three stages. In the first stage, the data was collected at the beginning of the second class year in the Faculty of Education in 2013, when prospective science teachers began taking courses related to the environment. Then, in the second stage, when they took routine courses such as Ecology, Geology, and Biological Resources of Turkey, a planned intervention was not carried out. In the third stage, data was collected again from the same prospective science teachers, at the end of the fourth class year in 2016, when they had completed these courses successfully. In this way, the change in prospective science teachers’ perception of environment based on their college education was evaluated longitudinally.
While determining the study group, criterion sampling, a purposeful sampling method which aims to analyse all situations meeting all predetermined criteria, was utilized (Patton, 1990).
The study was conducted in a region where environmental pollution has been intense. This was the first criterion. The study was conducted in the province of Kocaeli located in the north-west of Turkey. Kocaeli is an industrial city, where a wide range of industrial establishments, such as a solid waste disposal facility, oil refinery, shipyards, chemical, metal, paint and food factories are located and where marine transportation is conducted. Moreover, it has a large population of migrants who come from different regions of the country due to the industrialization. All these factors keep many environmental problems, especially air pollution, soil pollution, water pollution and irregular urbanization, on the city’s agenda (Demirarslan & Demirarslan, 2016; Kiliç & Deniz, 2010; Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, 2014; OECD, 2008; Özdilek, 2006).
The other criterion was that the concept of the environment and subjects related to the environment were mostly processed in science courses in Turkey. Thus, the working group was formed from prospective science teachers (Özata Yücel ve Özkan, 2014b; Akınoğlu ve Sarı, 2009; Ürey ve Aydın, 2014, Tanrıverdi, 2009). The courses taken during their college education were accepted as the criterion in order to determine the grade level of the study group. The first application included 63 prospective teachers continuing in the second grade, in which they had recently started taking courses such as Biology, Ecology, etc. These were expected to influence their environmental perceptions at a cognitive level. The second application included 55 prospective teachers of the same group who had taken and completed these courses successfully and who were in the fourth grade. In the second application, 55 of the 63 prospective teachers who participated in the first study could be reached. Eight prospective teachers who could not participate in the second application were not taken into consideration during the evaluation of the data.
Data Collection Tool and Data Collection
Data were obtained by means of a Word Association Test (WAT), which is an effective technique that is used to determine cognitive structure and misconception (Atabek Yiğit, Yılmazlar & Çetin, 2016; Ercan, Taşdere & Ercan, 2010), perception of a particular phenomenon, event or concept (Kurtdede Fidan, 2015; Özata Yücel & Özkan, 2015). In the word association test, the respondents give one or two-word responses within a certain time, which they associated with the keyword they are given. It is considered that the sequential response given by the students to a keyword reveals the connection in the cognitive structure between the concepts and shows semantic connection. The closer two concepts are in the cognitive structure, the faster they appear in the responses. Indeed, the number, accuracy and diversity of responses given to a keyword in WAT are considered to be important signs of understanding and perception of this concept (Bahar & Özatlı, 2003; Bahar, Johnstone & Sutcliffe, 1999; Gunston, 1980; Shevelson, 1974; Tsai & Huang, 2002; Özata Yücel & Özkan,2015).
In this study, the concept of ‘environment’ was determined as the keyword, and it was written ten times in a vertical list on a blank sheet of paper. Thus, WAT was created so as to correspond to a single response per line (Figure 1). As occurred in many studies in the literature (Bahar, Johnstone & Sutcliffe, 1999; Canbazoğlu Bilici, 2016; Nakipoğlu, 2008; Özata Yücel & Özkan, 2015; Özata Yücel & Özkan, 2014a), respondents were given 30 seconds to apply WAT.
In order to determine the relationship between the keyword and the responses of WAT more clearly, Gunston (1980) developed Shavelson’s technique by requesting a sentence about the keyword after completion of the word association. Moreover, he emphasized that the sentence can also be used to evaluate cognitive relations (Gunston, 1980). Thus, following completion of WAT, the prospective teachers were asked to write a sentence regarding the environment.
Figure 1: Word Association TestIn the analysis of the data, the number, accuracy, diversity of responses and sentences given to the keyword of environment were used. The responses were subjected to content analysis. Firstly, a frequency table was created that showed the repeated numbers of all the responses given by respondents to the keyword. Then, these responses were grouped according to their similarity and were examined under four main themes: ‘natural environment’, ‘artificial environment’, ‘environmental problems’ and ‘emotions and situations’. The natural environment theme was divided into sub-themes of ‘living things’, ‘non-living things’ and ‘ecological concepts’ (Figure 2). Also, sentences were subjected to content analysis and the forms were analysed under four main themes: ‘environment as social life area’, ‘environment to be protected’, ‘environment as setting’ and ‘environment as system’. The theme of environment as setting was examined in three sub-themes: ‘place where people live’, ‘place where living things live’ and ‘place where living things and non-living things are located’ (Figure 3).
Figure 2. Themes created in line with the responses given
Figure 3. Themes created in line with the sentences formedWord association is one of the methods applied to determine the relationship between conceptual perception, conceptual understanding and establishment of relationships between the concepts (Bahar et al., 1999; Bahar & Özatlı, 2003; Canbazoğlu Bilici, 2016; Gunston, 1980; Nakiboğlu, 2008; Özata Yücel & Özkan, 2014a; Özata Yücel & Özkan, 2015; Shavelson, 1974; Tsai & Huang, 2002). Furthermore, WAT was implemented following the positive opinion of two experts. Thus, content and face validity was established. In order to ensure the reliability of the WAT, each response to the keyword was arranged so as to be written on a separate line, and thus, the impact between the responses was kept at a minimum level (Bahar, Johnstone & Sutcliffe, 1999). The responses given to the keyword were compared to the sentences formed and listed, and responses considered to be unrelated or randomized were not included in the evaluation (Gunston, 1980). Moreover, in establishment of the themes, separate draft themes were determined by both researchers for both the responses and the sentences. Then, the percentages of consistency between the two researchers were calculated as 87.01% for responses and 83.64% for sentences. Having a consistency percentage of 70% or more (Miles & Huberman, 1994) is considered acceptable. Accordingly, it is possible to say that the percentage of consistency was high. Divergent codings were re-evaluated and final themes were formed by reaching consensus. In addition, a complete list of participant responses was provided as a list and examples of formed sentences were given. This method was intended to increase reliability.
