The Effect of Conceptual Change Approach to Eliminate 9th Grade High School Students' Misconceptions about Air Pressure.

Abstract The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of teaching based on conceptual change overcome misconceptions of 9th grade high school students about the subject of air pressure. The sampling of the study was formed with two classes of 9th grade students from a general high school in the city-center of Trabzon. A quasi-experimental method was used in the study as a research design. One of the classes that was selected for the study was chosen as a control group (n=45), and the other class was chosen as an experiment group (n=45). While conceptual change texts and concept maps were used to teach air pressure subject to the experiment group, traditional teaching methods were used to teach the same subject to the control group. For the purpose of collecting data, Success Test and Concept Test were implemented. The control and experiment groups' pre-test and post-test scores were analyzed by t test. Analysis of the data showed that there was not a statistically significant difference between the control and the experiment group in the pre-test in terms of the concept understanding achievement. However, post-test results showed that there was a significant difference in favor of the experiment group. It was concluded that teaching methods and materials based on conceptual change were more effective than traditional teaching methods to teach air pressure subject. Key Words Geography Education, Air Pressure, Misconception, Conceptual Change. Students develop meanings in their minds from their daily experiences for various concepts before the education period (Platten, 1995). These thoughts that are formed in students' minds are considered as misconceptions because they can differ from scientific facts (Buyukkasap, Duzgun, Ertugrul, & Samanci, 1998; Driver, 1989; Lane, 2008). Misconception is mismatching of the scientific definition of concept and the definition formed in students' minds and it conflicts with the expert opinions in related areas (Gilbert & Watts, 1983; Lane, 2008). It is a known fact that students' misconceptions cause negative results for them to understand scientific facts correctly. The studies that are subjected students' learning capabilities of geographical concepts and the misconceptions related to these concepts reflect the fact that students are facing difficulties in understanding various geographical topics and concepts and they have considerable misconceptions (Aksoy, 2003; Alim, 2008; Aron, Francek, Nelson, & Biasrd, 1994; Basibuyuk, Dogar, Gurses, & Yazici, 2004; Baysen, Temiz, Baysen & Yagbasan, 2004; Dogar & Basibuyuk, 2005; Lane; 2008; Quintero, 1996; Trend, Everett, & Dove, 2000). Defining students' ideas, pre-knowledge, misconceptions and alternative structures or separating these into categories does not result with eliminating these. Because of that, it is required to find out the root causes behind these misconceptions and develop appropriKuram ate teaching tools to correct these misconceptions (Broughton, Sinatra, & Reynolds, 2010; Canpolat, 2002; Hewson & Hewson, 1983; Sungur, Tekkaya, & Geban, 2000; Reinfried, 2006; Unal, 2007). Conceptual change methodology, which is developed based on constructive approach and widely used in teaching-learning activities recently, considers students' previous knowledge and plans teaching activities based on this (Canpolat & Pinarbasi, 2002; Dhindsa & Anderson, 2004; DiSessa, 2002; Mason, 2002; Uzuntiryaki, Cakir & Geban, 2001; Yuruk, 2000). Conceptual change methodology represents an alternative approach that encourages students' to change their ideas from misconceptions to scientific correct facts (Broughton et al., 2010; Canpolat & Pinarbasi, 2002). Conceptual change approach that is commonly used in education recently takes students' previous knowledge into account and education program is planned based on these (Canpolat & Pinarbasi, 2002; DiSessa, 2002; Dhindsa & Anderson, 2004; Mason, 2002; Uzuntiryaki et al. …