The Effects of different laboratory approaches on 8th graders comprehension of concepts of acids- bases and on the change of misconceptions

The main aim of this research is to examine the effect of different laboratoryapproaches on 8th graders? comprehension of concepts about acids and bases, tochange any previous misconceptions , and to investigate the students? attitudetowards science.The sample of this study is 113 students (53 girls and 60 boys) who attend50.Yıl zzet Baysal Secondary School and are in 8th grade in Bolu. There are eight8th grade classrooms in the school. Out of these eight classes; pre-lab discussion,post-lab discussion, pre and post lab discussion and experimental groups wereformed by random selection.The groups were administered acids and bases concept test and scienceattitude test as pre and post tests, and attitude towards the teaching method as a posttest in order to examine the comprehension of 8th graders? in relation to the labapproaches that were used, and to investigate the effect of these approaches in regardto how to change the misconceptions about subject.vMultiple Variance Analysis (MANCOVA) and variance analysis (ANOVA)were used to test the hypotheses. The results showed that the discussions that wereheld before and after experiments were more effective in teaching students conceptsabout acids and bases, and they were also effective in changing misconceptions.There was no statistical difference in attitude towards science between classes whowere taught by different lab approaches. The students who were administereddifferent lab approaches were found to have positive attitudes towards them.Key Words: Misconceptions, Eliminating Misconceptions, Different LabApproaches , Meaningful Learning