The effect of cooperative learning to eliminate the students? misconceptions about Newton?s rules of movement

This research was made in order to determine the misconceptions about ?Newton?s Rules of Movement? dealt in Physics instruction undergraduate program?s Physics-1 lesson and to examine the effects of cooperative learning method in overcoming these misconceptions.Sampling of the research consists of 40 undergraduate students learning in the first grade of Gazi University School of Education Physics Education Department in 2006 ? 2007 academic year. The experiment and control groups within these students were selected objectively. Pre-Post Test Control Group Experimental Design was used in this study. Lessons were taught by cooperative learning method in experiment group and by traditional teaching method in the control group.The data obtained from the application were organized, and they were analyzed by the statistics program and electronic computation table program. As well as these quantitative studies, the students within the experiment group were demanded to express their written opinions at the end of the research.As a result of the analysis, it has been reached that cooperative approach is more efficient than traditional approach in terms of correcting the misconceptions about ?Newton?s Rules of Movement?.