Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 8, Issue 1, Article 1 (June, 2007) Haluk ÖZMEN and Osman KENAN Determination of the Turkish primary students' views about the particulate nature of matter Previous Contents Next

Related studies on the particulate nature of matter

Ayas and Özmen (2002) investigated the 9^th grade and 10^th grade secondary school students’ understanding of the particulate nature of matter by using a test with five open-ended questions related to daily phenomena about the subject. The results of the study indicated that the ratio of 9^th grade and 10^th grade students’ responses in the understanding category were 16-35% and 24-44%, respectively. This meant that concept was not understood adequately by the students. In a similar study, Özmen, Ayas and Coştu (2002) determined science student teachers’ understanding and misunderstanding of the particulate nature of matter by implementing an open-ended test with three questions. The results showed that the ratio of science student teachers’ responses in Sound Understanding, Partial Understanding and Specific Misconceptions categories are in the range of 16-18%, 36-53%, and 16-24%, respectively.

In another study, Boz (2006) tried to explore year 6, 8 and 11 pupils’ views about the particulate nature of matter within the context of phase change by using 6-item open-ended questions about (i) arrangement and movement of particles in a solid, liquid and gas and (ii) application of particulate ideas to explain phase changes.

Liu and Lesniak (2006) tried to investigate progression in children’s understanding of the matter concept from elementary to high school by interviewing 54 students from grade 1 to grade 10. They found that the progression of students’ conceptions on matter from elementary to high school is multifaceted. And also, there is much overlap in conceptions among students of different grades.

Nakhleh and Samarapungavan (1999) investigated young children’s naïve understanding of the particulate nature of matter prior to formal instruction. Fifteen students were interviewed individually by using open-ended questions related to macroscopic and microscopic properties of states of matter. The results of the studies showed that 60% of the students stated beliefs about matter which were macroparticulate in nature, and 20 % of them expressed microparticulate beliefs about matter. The 20% remaining children held macrocontinuous beliefs about matter. These children’s beliefs about matter were not fully and developed from continuous solids to particulate solids to liquids to gases. In a similar study, Nakhleh, Samarapungavan and Saglam (2005) examined middle school students’ understanding of the nature of matter and compared middle school students’ ideas to those of elementary schools students. For this aim, nine middle school students were interviewed. The results of the study indicated that most of the students interviewed knew that matter was composed of atoms and molecules and some of them were able to use this knowledge to explain some processes such as phase transition of matter. Almost none of elementary school students knew that matter was composed of atoms and molecules. This means that it is difficult for students to assimilate the microscopic level scientific knowledge into their initial macroscopic knowledge framework.

Tsai (1999) conducted an experimental study to examine the effectiveness of an analogy activity, which was designed to overcome junior high school students’ about the microscopic views of phase change. The specific analogy activity used in experimental group was presented in the form of role-playing in which students acted as particles and worked together to perform the conditions of phase changes. The results of the study showed that the students of experimental group did not perform statistically better than did those of control group in the posttest. But, the comparison of a delay test between the groups indicated that the analogy activity had positive impacts on students’ conceptual change on these concepts.

Valanides (2000) conducted a study to determine primary student teachers’ understanding of the particulate nature of matter and its transformations during dissolving by using one-to-one interviews. They were asked to describe the changes in macroscopic and microscopic properties of substances when dissolving salt and sugar in water, when mixing water and alcohol, and when filtering of heating the respective water solutions. The results of the study indicated that the majority of the primary student teachers had perceptual rather than conceptual understanding of the particulate nature of matter and had difficulties to relate the observable macroscopic changes to the microscopic events. This means that molecular constitution of matter is not adequately understood by the primary student teachers.

Yilmaz and Alp (2006) investigated the effect of grade level on students’ achievement in matter concept by using the matter concept test implemented to 8^th, 10^th and 11^th grade students. The results of the study indicated that there was a significant effect of grade level on students’ achievement in favor of 11^th students. In the test, the 10^th grade students did better than 8^th graders and the 11^th grade students did better than the others.

Although the age level at which students should be introduced to the particulate nature of matter is somewhat questionable, if elementary science textbooks are examined, atoms, molecules and the particulate nature of matter are depicted in even the primary grades (Gabel, Samuel and Hun, 1987). In Turkey, concepts related to matter and the particulate nature of matter are firstly mentioned in grade 4 (age 10) and then, in grade 5 and 6 (age 11-12). Then, within the domain of chemistry and physics lessons in secondary education, these concepts are dealt with in different units. Because students preexisting beliefs influence how students learn new scientific knowledge and play an essential role in subsequent learning (BouJaoude, 1991), determining students’ understanding of these concepts in primary levels is important. Although many research studies about students’ understanding the particulate nature of matter have been carried out in international scale by using paper-pencil tests or open-ended questions, there are a few studies that search students’ conceptions related to subject because interest in science education is a new area in Turkey. From this point of view, the present study aims to synthesize students’ views about the particulate nature of matter via a test.