A descriptive investigation of Turkish students’ misconceptions on common science concepts

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate Turkish students’ misconceptions about general science subjects. Variables such as gender, school type, grade, age, and school level were employed in the present study. Descriptive research method was used and the sample consisted of 749 students (male=364, female=385) from two state middle schools, two state high schools, one private middle school, and one private high school located in the Çankaya district of Ankara. The instrument used was the Turkish translated version of the questionnaire “A Survey of Some Science- Related Ideas – SSSRI.” SSSRI was developed by Osborne, Freyberg, & Bell (1985) for the purpose of determining students’ misconceptions on general science subjects. The SSSRI contains 19 multiple-choice type and one open-ended question. The questionnaire was administered to students in the fall term of 2017-18 academic year. The analyses of data were conducted by taking into consideration students’ grades of science, biology, physics, and chemistry courses, total scores of students, and their responses to each item. Descriptive statistical analyses were conducted to determine students’ levels of misconceptions based on variables: gender, school type, grade, age, and school level. Independent samples t-test was used to find out if there were significant differences between mean scores within gender and school type. One-way ANOVA was conducted to determine if there was significant difference between mean scores of grades. Additionally, Pearson correlation coefficients were computed between total scores of students and their grades of science, biology, physics and chemistry courses. Analyses demonstrated that students’ misconceptions about general science subjects were independent from their gender and school type. Moreover, students still had misconceptions, especially in topics “electric current” and “change of state of water.”