Ideas of elementary school students at 4th, 6th, and 8th grades about matter

Matter concept is one of the fundamental concepts in science learning and its conception affects students? further learning of science concepts such as phase change and dissolution. Thus, science educators frequently search and follow students? understanding of the matter concept. Recent research in Turkey and abroad showed out that students at different levels of education do not have adequate understanding of matter concept at microscopic level. Most of the research studies in Turkey were conducted at secondary level. In this study, students? level of understanding of the matter concepts at 4th, 6th, and 8th grades were searched through qualitative inquiry.The study was conducted in an elementary school in Duzce. Four students at each of 4th, 6th, and 8th grades were chosen by their science teacher according to their level of success in the science course. Semi-structured clinical interviews were conducted with the students. Interview protocol and coding scheme were taken from Nakhleh ve Samarapungavan (1999). Content-analysis was applied in the analysis of the interview data. Frequency of codes were counted, graphed, and interpreted.Results of the study showed that 4th graders thought at macroscopic level, but 6th and especially 8th graders progressed toward microscopic level in defining the structure of matter.When students were asked to explain why sugar breaks down while water can be separated easily and metal can be bended, most of the students at upper grades (even 8th graders) proposed macroscopic properties of matters. Similarly, when they were asked to explain dissolution of salt in water, all of the students at 4th grade and most of the students at 6th and 8th grades explained at macroscopic level. When it was asked to explain how water can flow while air in a balloon escapes and a toothpick conserves its shape, 6th and 8th graders mostly proposed explanations at microscopic level. Interestingly, when it comes to explaining the melting of an ice cube, most of the students at 6th and 8th grades and even one of the students at 4th grade explained melting process at microscopic level.It was concluded that students reasoning processes about matter progressed toward from macroscopic level to microscopic level as their grade level increased. But, the students thinking at microscopic level in explaining the structure of matter proposed explanations at macroscopic level when they were asked to explain dissolution, fluidity, and rigidity. This would indicate that students at 8th grade developed some understanding at microscopic level, but they did not form a coherent reasoning system at microscopic level. Thus they could think at microscopic level while thinking on some processes such as melting while they could not think at that level on some other processes such as fluidity and rigidity. The reason for the increase in students? thinking at microscopic level in explaining the melting of an ice cube would be that it was a typical example given in teaching phase change at science courses.