THE EFFECT OF THE SCIENCE WRITING HEURISTIC APPROACH ON MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS’ CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING AND VIEWS ON USING REPRESENTATIONS IN SCIENCE

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This study investigated the effect of the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) approach on 6th grade students’ conceptual understanding related to particular nature of the matter unit and views on using representations in science. Thirty-seven middle school students participated the study designed as one group pre-posttest design. Data included a two-tier concept achievement test and a representation survey. While a pair sampled t test analysis was performed on the data gathered from the concept achievement test and the representation survey, an ANCOVA analysis was done for the male and female students’ concept achievement test and the representation survey results. The results indicated that the students had significantly better conceptual understanding and views on using representations in the posttests. When the female and male students’ pre- and post-tests conceptual understanding and views on representations were investigated, there was a significant difference in favor of female students in the pretests, but there was no significant difference in terms of gender in the posttest scores. The results also revealed that the students preferred to use multiple ways of representation since they helped students learn and remember the ideas better, organize the ideas effectively. Meanwhile, it was determined that the students preferred to use multiple ways of representation because they helped the students convey the ideas more accurately to the others and allowed the students to help others to understand their ideas better.

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The science writing heuristic (SWH) approach , representations , conceptual understanding

Abant İzzet Baysal Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi

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Abant İzzet Baysal Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi