Investigation of engineer applicant students' conceptual and procedural knowledge of integral problem solving process from the point of bloom taxonomy

In this research the aim is to investigate the integral knowledge of the candidate of engineering students, process of problem solving, approaches to problems, the relationship between conceptual and procedural knowledge and how to constitute and explain those relations in terms of Bloom´s Taxonomy and its performance. Because the purpose is to examine the candidate of engineering students´ integral performances and conceptual-operative knowledge in detail without making generations with the help of various data collection tools (Integral Test, semistructured focus groups) in a specific time frame, the model of investigation implements qualitative paradigm. A test based on Bloom´s Taxonomy Knowledge and Cognitive Process Dimension was generated with the intention of measuring knowledge and skills about integral by 25 Mathematic instructors and expert opinions. After the reliability and validity were confirmed, it was implemented to 55 engineering students who were chosen according to the suitable sampling method and they study in different universities in different engineering faculties. The qualitative data was interpreted by using SPSS and office programs. Besides, the quantitative data was interpreted by using content analysis method with creating category. The findings of qualitative research showed that the students´ best performance was in conceptual knowledge questions and the worst performance was in operative knowledge questions. It was observed that when the students' cognitive steps rises, the performance of students decreases in the problems which were categorized according to revised version of Bloom´s Taxonomy with regard to cognitive process. It went down to the lowest level of performance evaluation and creation in Bloom´s Taxonomy. As a result, it is suggested that students should be implemented activities that develop their high level learning skills and the exercises that are completed in classroom should be in a supporting attribute for those learning skills. According to the results that were supported by the analysis of findings the conceptual knowledge of students are stronger and it was perceived that they perform lower by making more mistakes in operative knowledge questions. When the process of students' problem solving is investigated, for the necessity of solution to the general problem even if students have the required answers for correlation and formulas, it was perceived that students make calculation and reasoning mistakes by applying their knowledge. Consequently, it was emphasized that these two conceptual and procedural knowledge should be maintained together. Furthermore, it was defined that engineering students have generated affirmative emotions and beliefs about integral.