INVESTIGATION OF STUDENTS' COGNITIVE STRUCTURES AND CHANGES IN UNDERSTANDING ON THE TOPIC OF “INVENTIONS” USING WORD ASSOCIATION TESTS / KELIME İLIŞKILENDIRME TESTI ILE ‘’İCATLAR’’ KONUSUNA ILIŞKIN ÖĞRENCILERIN BILIŞSEL YAPILARININ VE KAVRAMSAL DEĞIŞIMLERININ İNCELENMESI

Abstract

Word association tests, first used in the field of psychology to understand people's subconscious thoughts, began to be used in the field of education over time to determine the kind of connections students make between concepts, reveal misconceptions, and assess whether these connections are sufficient. In this study, word association tests were used as a pre-test and post-test to reveal students’ misconceptions, the kinds of connections they made between concepts, and to see whether these connections were sufficient or not. The study sample comprised 32 3rd grade students. A word association test prepared by the researcher was used as the data collection tool in the study. The word association test consisted of the words “invent,” “inventor,” “technology,” “need,” and “innovation.” The cut-off point technique was used to analyze the data of the word association test. The pre-test indicated that the students frequently talked about key concepts from daily life. It was observed that the students had some misconceptions. The post-test revealed that the involvement of students' responses to key concepts with the subject increased, and misconceptions were largely eliminated. Ilk olarak psikoloji alaninda, insanlarin bilincaltindaki dusuncelerini ortaya cikarma amaciyla kullanilan kelime iliskilendirme testleri zaman icinde egitim alaninda ogrencilerin kavramlar arasinda kurduklari baglantilari, bu baglantilarin yeterliligini ve kavram yanilgilarini belirlemek amaciyla kullanilmistir. Bu calismada da kelime iliskilendirme testleri ile on test ve son test olarak ogrencilerin kavramlar arasinda kurduklari baglantilarin, bu baglantilarin yeterliliginin ve kavram yanilgilarinin ortaya cikarilmasi amaclanmistir. Calismanin orneklemini otuz iki 3. sinif ogrencisi olusturmaktadir. Calismada veri toplama araci olarak arastirmaci tarafindan hazirlanan kelime iliskilendirme testi kullanilmistir. Kelime iliskilendirme testi “icat, mucit, teknoloji, ihtiyac, yenilik” kelimelerinden olusmaktadir. Kelime iliskilendirme testinin verilerini analiz etmek icin kesme noktasi teknigi kullanilmistir. Yapilan on test sonucunda ogrencilerin anahtar kavramlara yonelik olarak siklikla gunluk yasamdan yanitlar verdikleri belirlenmistir. Ayrica on test sonucunda ogrencilerin birtakim kavram yanilgilarina sahip olduklari ortaya cikmistir. Son test sonucunda ise ogrencilerin anahtar kavramlara verdikleri yanitlarin konu ile iliskisinin arttigi, kavram yanilgilarinin buyuk oranda ortadan kalktigi gozlenmistir. Article visualizations: