Investigation of misconceptions regarding the science in the context of TIMSS

The aim of this research is to determine the misconceptions about the science course based on the TIMSS exam and to determine how the subjects and achievements related to these misconceptions are included in the curriculum and textbooks. In this context, the results of 335 items, which are answered by the eighth-grade students who took the exam between 2007 and 2019, were examined and interviewed with 7 science teachers who are working at the secondary school level. In the interviews, the reasons for and elimination of misconceptions were taken and the curricula and textbooks were evaluated together when necessary. IDB Analysis was performed in order to determine the change of the identified misconceptions over the years. Then, the items with direct misconceptions in the context of TIMSS and the gains for the items that were determined by the researcher were determined. It was examined how these achievements were handled in the curriculum and textbooks that changed from 2000 to 2018. As a result of the research, it has been determined that although Turkey's TIMSS success has increased, the identified misconceptions continue and sufficient achievements are not included in the curriculum, and the missing content, visual and scientific errors in the textbooks are prepared in a way that will reveal the misconceptions. It has been determined that misconceptions arose due to the lack of basic concepts in the field of science such as particle, atom, mass and density, where the unit of "particle structure of matter" was not sufficiently concretized. Due to the lack of basic concepts, the existence of misconceptions on similar subjects in the upper classes has been detected. It has been concluded that with the updating of the curricula, many gains have been eliminated and the content has been simplified considerably. Especially in the field of chemistry it has been determined that the content of "chemical reactions" and "law of conservation of mass" has been simplified. Likewise, in the field of physics it has been determined that the failure rate in the items related to the OHM Law between 2007 and 2019 was quite high and the gains in this field were completely removed after the 2013 curriculum. Due to the importance of the relevant subjects in the curriculum, suggestions are given for updating the acquisitions again.