Cognitive Structures of Elementary School Students: What is Science?

• Published in: European Journal of Physics Education 2015-09, Vol.6 (2), p.54
• Main Author: Oner Armagan, Fulya
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Association Measures; Cognitive Structures; Concept Formation; Construction; Constructivism (Learning); Data Analysis; Data processing; Elementary School Science; Elementary School Students; Foreign Countries; Grade 6; Grade 7; Laboratories; Networks; Pretests Posttests; Science Curriculum; Science Education; Science Teachers; Scientific Concepts; Scientists; Students; Tables (data); Teaching Methods; Test procedures; Turkey; word association test, cognitive structure, science; Word Lists
• ISSN: 1309-7202; 1309-7202
• DOI: 10.20308/ejpe.17882

The aim of this study is to examine the change in the cognitive structures of elementary school students in respect to the concept of science through word association test in a constructivist approach based project. The study was conducted with 50 students attending to 6th and 7th grades who participated in a project supported by The Scientific and Technologic Research Council of Turkey in 2014-2015 academic year. Students were applied a 90-minute activity in scope of the training on science, scientist and scientific knowledge under the project that lasted for 5 days. A word association test that included the concepts of science, scientific knowledge, scientific method, scientist, research, project, experiment and laboratory was applied at the beginning (pre-test) and at the end (post-test) of the project. While word association test was applied, the students were asked to write down the words which were constructed in their minds by the given concepts. A frequency table which consists of concepts of word association test and response words were prepared in data analysis. According to the obtained frequency table, concept networks that revealed the cognitive structures of students were drawn. Upon reviewing the frequency table of the pre-test and post-test of students, and the concept networks, it was observed that the cognitive structures in the relevant concepts of students changed positively.  Accordingly, it was concluded that word association tests prove an effective method for revealing the cognitive structures of students. Study findings were discussed in comparison with the studies in the literature, and recommendations were given.