This study aims to determine Turkish high school students' misconceptions about the electric charge imbalance by using a four-tier misconception test, where the main questions are accompanied by a question about the reason for the answer, as well as student declarations about their degrees of certainty. A four-tier electric charge imbalance…

Energy is a difficult concept to be understood by students of all levels. Thus, the aim of the study is to determine how high school students at different levels perceive the energy and related concepts. In line with this purpose, 173 students in total of which 57 ones of the 9th grade, 94 ones of the 10th grade and 22 ones of the 11th grade…

In the modern physics unit included in the course curriculum of grade 10 physics introduced in the 2007-2008 education year, the aim is that students at this grade level are aware of any developments which constitute modern physics and may be considered new, and interpret whether mass, length and time values of the motions at any velocities close…

This cross-sectional study examined how the progression and consistency of students' understanding of thermal concepts in everyday contexts changes across the grade levels. A total of 656 Turkish students from Grade 8 (age 13-14), Grade 10 (age 15-16), and the first year of college (age 19-20) participated in the study. The data were analysed…

This study investigates the effect of a conceptual change approach over traditional instruction on students' understanding of DNA, gene and chromosome concepts. 52 10th grade students belonging two different classes participated the study. One of the classes was assigned randomly to the control group, and the other class was assigned randomly to…

Visualizing the chemical structure and dynamics of particles has been challenging for many students; therefore, various visualizations and tools have been used in chemistry education. For science educators, it has been important to understand how students visualize and represent particular phenomena--i.e., their mental models-- to design more…

This study involves the development of a three-tier diagnostic test to measure high school students' understanding of states of matter concepts. The States of Matter Diagnostic Test (SMDT) is a 19-item three-tier diagnostic test consisting of three-tier items for assessing students' understanding of states of matter concepts. The SMDT was…

The goal of this study is to analyze the 10th grade high school students' misconceptions related to the sense of ruling in the Ottoman State during the absolutist and constitutional periods and to investigate the causes of these misconceptions. The data were collected through eight open-ended questions related to the concepts of absolutism and…

Following up on the effects of learning environments is essential to learning. The aim of this study was to examine students' mental models related to the concepts of expansion and contraction of materials. The population of the case study consisted of 155 students in a city center in Turkey. The data was gathered using open-ended questions that…

Student conceptions related with matter and the particulate nature of matter (PNM), are vital for advanced understanding in chemistry, and have been a research area of significant attention. Lacking in the literature are studies addressing chemical misconceptions from an ontological point of view. The purpose of the current study was to develop a…

Pre-existing misconceptions are serious impediments to learning in mathematics. Means for detecting and correcting them have received much attention in the literature of educational research. Dynamic geometry software has been tried at different grade levels. This quasi-experimental study investigates the effect of Cabri-assisted instruction on…

This study was conducted to explore the effectiveness of conceptual change oriented instruction over traditional instruction on students' understanding of acids and bases concept. Besides, effects of gender difference and science process skills on students' understanding of acids and bases were also investigated. Analysis of the results showed…

Background: Trigonometry is an area of mathematics that students believe to be particularly difficult and abstract compared with the other subjects of mathematics. Trigonometry is often introduced early in year 8 with most textbooks traditionally starting with naming sides of right-angled triangles. Students need to see and understand why their…

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of a conceptual change approach over traditional instruction on tenth-grade students' conceptual achievement in understanding chemical equilibrium. The study was conducted in two classes of the same teacher with participation of a total of 44 tenth-grade students. In this study, a…

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of conceptual change texts oriented instruction on 10th grade students' understanding of solubility equilibrium concept. The misconceptions related to solubility equilibrium concept were obtained through interviews with high school chemistry teachers and related literature. The data were obtained…