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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 18, Issue 1, Article 3 (Jun., 2017) |
Examining fifth-grade students’ level of associating some daily-life events with “changes of state”
1*Ekrem CENGİZ and 2Hakan Şevki AYVACI
1Ministry of National Education, Science Teacher, Erzurum, TURKEY
2Karadeniz Technical University, Fatih School of Education, Science Education Department, Trabzon, TURKEY*Corresponding Author E-mail: ekremcengiz2525@mynet.com
Received 23 Nov., 2016
Revised 29 Jun., 2017
This study aims to examine fifth-grade students’ level of associating daily-life events with the subject “changes of state” in the science curriculum. Among the qualitative research methods, the case study method was used in the study. Seven open-ended questions about the changing states of matter were used for data collection. These open-ended questions were prepared based on daily-life events. They were administered to 107 fifth-grade students studying at a secondary school in Erzurum city centre in the 2014-2015 academic year. Descriptive analysis was used for the data analysis. The results of the analysis revealed that most of the fifth-grade students were unable to associate changes of state with daily-life events. It has been found that the concept which is least associated with daily life is evaporation and the concept most associated with daily life is melting. The study also concluded that it would be better to teach the science subjects relating to changing states of matter by means of associating them with daily life.
Keywords: Change of state, daily life, fifth-grade secondary students, science course
