Dogar, Çetin; Gürses, Ahmet; Geban, Ömer

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of conceptual change approach oriented instruction over traditionally designed instruction on students' understanding of electrochemical cell concepts. Sampling consists of a total of 55 students (age range of 17-18) on two Grade 11 classes of a high school. Prior to instruction, students in both groups were pre-tested in order to determine their previous understanding of electrochemistry, electrochemistry concept test (ECT), science process skills (SPST) and attitude toward chemistry (ATSC) as a school subject. In addition to these, the students' views in the experimental groups related to the computer simulations exercises were determined at the end of the study. After instruction over a period of four weeks, data was analyzed with two-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) using science process skill scores as covariate and independent samples t-test was used to compare the students' attitudes scores. The results showed that the experimental group a significantly higher mean scores with respect to achievement related to electrochemistry concepts than the traditionally designed chemistry instruction group. In addition, science process skills were a strong predictor in understanding electrochemistry concepts. Students' attitudes were not changed by treatments. In addition, it was determined that the students in experimental groups displayed a positive attitude toward computer simulations.

Sülün, Ali

This study aims to investigate the understanding of some essential biological concepts for both the biology student teachers, biology teachers teaching biology in secondary schools, and pre-service science teachers teaching science in primary schools. The General Biological Misconceptions Test (GBMT) developed by Benrhisel (1999) which consists of 15-item instruments, each item consisting of a two-tier test questionnaire was administrated to the samplles. Data analysis was done by using descriptive analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Frequencies and percentages were obtained. The results showed that biology teachers gain higher scores than the student teachers. However, all respondents have many misconceptions. In addition, there is no difference among the preservice and in service teachers, statistically (p<.05). In order to remove their misconceptions about the essential biological concepts, it is suggested that science teachers, science teacher candidates, pre service biology teachers and biology teachers should be instructed by contemporary teaching methods. In addition, the preservice teachers can reduce their misconceptions in an appropriate learning environment.