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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 6, Issue 1, Article 3 (June, 2005) Suat ÜNAL & Bayram COŞTU Problematic issue for students: Does it sink or float?
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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 6, Issue 1, Article 3 (June, 2005) Suat ÜNAL & Bayram COŞTU Problematic issue for students: Does it sink or float?
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Methodology
In this study, semi-structured interviews and a Sinking and Floating Conceptual Test (SFCT) comprising 20 multiple-choice questions were developed and used to collect data.
The content of the semi-structured interview protocol was designed by taking into consideration the propositional statements given in the curriculum, the results of earlier studies and teachers’ comments. The aim of the semi structured interviews was to reveal misconceptions held by the students. Therefore, in the semi structured interview, students were first given nine focus cards and asked to respond the questions on them. When explaining their ideas, their understanding was investigated more deeply by means of follow-up questions. One of the focus cards and its focus question used in the study is presented below:
To determine how widespread the misconceptions revealed from the students’ responses in the interviews was, a multiple-choice diagnostic test (SFCT) was developed and administered. Each question had four choices which included the correct answer and three misconceptions revealed from the interviews, a literature review or teachers’ views. One of the test items is presented below. Content validity for the test instrument was ensured by basing the test's construction on a previously validated list of propositions that represented primary science curriculum and reviews by three science educators and three experienced primary school science teachers. Cronbach alpha-reliability coefficient was measured 0.74 for the test by means of SPSS 10 TM.
This study was conducted during the spring term of 2004. Semi structured interviews were conducted with 12 grade-eight students who participated in these sessions voluntarily and then, SFCT was administered to a total of 108 grade-eight students from four different classes of science lessons instructed by two different teachers from a public primary school in Trabzon.
The methodology of the research is summarized in Figure 1.
Figure 1. The research methodology: stages of the study
To define concept boundaries related to sinking and floating, the primary science curriculum was examined. Before attempting to identify students’ misconceptions on sinking and floating, problematic areas reported in related literature were defined. Furthermore, primary school science teachers were interviewed for identifying their students’ difficulties about these concepts. By considering the propositional statements in the curriculum, the results from earlier studies and the teachers’ comments, focus cards and the content of semi-structured interview protocol were organized. All interviews were audio-taped. After the interviews, they were fully transcribed and analyzed to list students’ misconceptions on the phenomena under investigation.
In the second stage, a multiple-choice diagnostic test (SFCT) was developed. During this process, suggestions from three science educators and three primary science teachers were taken into account. In addition to this, science textbooks and other useful resources were also used. After the administration of SFCT, the students’ responses were analyzed. In the analyses process, items of the instrument were evaluated for both correct and incorrect responses. The frequencies and percentages of choices that were given by the students as correct answers for the questions were calculated for each of the test items. The results of this process were given in Table 1. And then, students’ misconceptions and the percentages of students who had these misconceptions for each of the test items were defined and presented in Table 2. Analyses of incorrect responses selected by the students provided data on students’ misconceptions related to items.
The choices of some test items include more than one misconception. Simultaneously, a misconception was used in more than one choice of the same question. When calculating the percentages of students who had this misconception, we considered the total of the students whose choices included that misconception. Therefore, in grouping misconceptions, the choices of the test items were used more than once in the same questions.
Copyright (C) 2005 HKIEd APFSLT. Volume 6, Issue 1, Article 3 (June, 2005). All Rights Reserved.
