The effect of V-diagrams on success of 10th grade students in `the mechanical waves? subject

In order to make students understand physical subjects correctly and learn principles, theories and laws better which are suitable for these subjects the support of laboratory is inevitable in subjects like Physics that has abstract concepts. Laboratory methods used in physics classes, mediates the development of meaningful relationships between facts and theoretical knowledge to help meaningful learning. V- Diagrams are one of the meaningful learning techniques that are used in laboratory studies. While creating V-Diagrams it is very important to use network concept, concept map and meaning analysis activities for conceptual learning. With the help of these diagrams student can have the experience of obtaining information and interrogating this information.In this study it is focused on issues like the importance of V-Diagrams for experimental learning, function of these diagrams for showing relationship between theoretical knowledge and laboratory applications, contribution of V-Diagrams to meaningful learning and how they are prepared. In the study quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test control groups were used. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of using V-Diagrams for the success of students in experiments carried out in `Waves? Unit thought in 10th grade. The study was carried out with 68 students in four different classes in 2010-2011 Academic Years - Spring Semester in Selehattin Eyyubi Anatolian High School that is located in the city center of Diyarbakır.Experimental and control groups were formed of these classes. Grades of students in Physics course in first semester and pre-test results were taken into consideration while determining experiment and control groups.During the study period while V-Diagram technique was applied to the experimental group, the traditional laboratory method was applied to the control group. In this study in order to determine the changes in the success of students an achievement test consisting of 30 multiple-choice with the subject of `Waves Unit? and a concept test that consisted of 20 questions with true-false and fill in the blanks sections were applied as pre-test and post test. At the end of study when the scores of these tests were compared it was observed that experimental group students that used V-Diagrams were more successful than the control group students that used traditional laboratory methods (P <0.05). In addition to these tests "V-Diagram Student Feedback Survey" was applied to experimental student group in order to determine their views on V-diagrams. When this study was examined it was seen that students enjoyed doing experiments with using V-Diagrams and they found V-Diagrams as a useful technique in concept learning and creating meaningful and regular information.Key words: Physical Education, V-Diagram, Concept Map, Network Concepts, Success, Mechanical Waves.