مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - Cognitive Constructs Related to Velocity and Speed Concepts of Science Teacher Candidates: Application of Word Association Test (WAT)

Abstract :

The aim of this research is to reveal the cognitive structures of science teachers velocity-speed concepts and to determine the conceptual misconceptions through the word association test. In the research conducted in the screening model, the word association test (WAT) was used to determine the cognitive structures of the teacher candidates regarding the mentioned concepts. The research was carried out with 88 teacher candidates studying in the third and fourth year of Science Education Teaching Program of the Faculty of Education at a state university during the spring semester of 2016-2017 academic year. Word association test was used as data collection tool in the study. As a result of the research, the obtained words about the concepts were examined in detail and concept nets were formed in the direction of the cut points determined by considering the repeated words. In the research, it is seen that the teacher candidates repeated the word time most frequently regarding the concepts of velocity and speed. Road, acceleration, car words are the most frequently repeated words for teacher candidates for both concepts. As a result of the research, it has been determined that the teacher candidates have more non-scientific or superficial knowledge about the concept of speed and they have more misconceptions about the concept of velocity. The difference between this study and the other researches is that the concepts of velocity and speed are examined using word association test.