The effect of the computer based conceptual change texts on the achievements and attitudes of students studying science education

The purpose of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of the use of computer based conceptual change texts and its' on students' achievement, attitudes and conceptual understanding levels in the unit of "Measurement of Power's Magnitude" in 5th grade class in secondary school. In this study, mixed-methods research design was used. In the research, while the experimental-group students were given computer-based conceptual change, the control-group students were given practices related to the current curriculum. Before and after the study, both the experimental- and control-group students were given a conceptual understanding test which aimed to determine students' understandings levels of the concepts in the 5th grade unit of "Measurement of Power's Magnitude" and an achievement test which aimed to investigate the effect of the implemented teaching on students' achievement. Furthermore, an attitude scale was distributed to the students before and after the study in order to measure their attitudes towards science class. For this purpose, two fifth-grade classes at a private school in the center of Diyarbakır province were chosen, one as the experimental group and the other as the control group. The experimental group consisted of 37 students, while the control group included 33 students. Besides, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the teacher and 9 students from the experimental group in order to evaluate the application carried out in the class. These students were selected on the basis of their scores in the achievement test and included students with high, medium, and low scores. The data collection instruments in the study incorporated conceptual understanding test, achievement test, attitude scale, and semi-structured interviews with the teacher and students from the experimental group. The achievement test and the attitude scale were analyzed statistically through SPSS package. The recordings of the semi-structured interviews were transcribed and then analyzed through the emerging similarities across the responses given to the interview questions. The findings of the research revealed that the teaching implemented in the experimental group generated more increase in the students' conceptual understanding levels. As for the control group, it was observed that the students made incorrect explanations more when compared to their pre-test results. It was found that the teaching implemented in the experimental group was effectıve onimproving the students' achievement in the unit of "Measurement of Power's Magnitude" in 5th grade class in secondary school. Furthmore, it was observed that computer-based conceptual change texts were not effective on improving the students' attitudes towards scıence course. Key Words: Misconception, Computer based conceptual change text, Attitude,Achievement.