Teaching the subject of the structure and properties of matter based on conceptual change strategies in science and technology teaching

The purpose of this study is to find out the effects of the science and technology course based on conceptual change strategies on students? conceptual understanding, motivation of success, problem solving skills and attitudes towards science and technology during the 7th grade unit of The Structure and Properties of Matter.The study was conducted with 24 students in 7/A class as experimental group and 24 students in 7/B class as control group in Ertuğrulgazi Primary School of Balçova, İzmir during the spring term in 2008. The experimental group received science and technology course based on conceptual change strategies while the control group received regular science education depending on the Science and Technology Curriculum over a period of 10 weeks. The materials used for the aim of conceptual change are working sheets, conceptual change texts and analogies based on 5E model in The Constructivist Teaching Theory. Both groups were given conceptual test, the scale for the motivation of success, the scale for problem solving, the scale for the attitudes towards science and technology before and after the application, the experimental group students were also given the scale for the attitudes of conceptual change strategies.Besides, the answers of experimental and control group students for the conceptual test were examined in order to determine the misconceptions and the conceptual changes and 6 students from each group were interviewed in a semi-structured way.In the research, it was seen that there are significant differences between experimental and control group students with respect to their conceptual understanding and the motivation of success in favor of experimental group. There was not found to be a significant difference between the experimental and control groups and the pretest and posttest scores regarding, attitudes towards science and technology and problem solving skills.