Investigation of children's books in elementary school classroom libraries in terms of energy concept

The concept of energy, which is directly or indirectly related to many concepts and confronts us with different perspectives in different disciplines/contexts, is among the important and basic subjects of science education. However, in teaching the concept of energy or its types, misconceptions appear as an obstacle to teaching. Therefore, researching the concept of energy at elementary school level in the context of children's books is of great importance for understanding the concept of energy. In this study, it is aimed to examine the use of the concept of energy in children's books in the classroom library in an elementary school in the 2017/2018 academic year. In this study, 760 books in the classroom library were evaluated and 44 books containing the concept of energy were determined. This research is a document review study. Frequency and percentage values with statistics related to the concept of energy have been revealed in the specified books. In order to determine the semantic field of the concept of energy in children's books, collocation analysis was performed. In addition, an expert opinion form was prepared to determine whether the concept of energy in the children's books examined was used scientifically. The data obtained by consulting the opinions of academicians who are experts in the field of science, physics, chemistry, and biology education were analyzed by content analysis. In a result, it has been determined that the misconceptions about energy seen in students and textbooks are also in children's books. As a result of the content analysis, energy misconceptions revealed five concepts: source of energy, energy conservation, energy types/forms, use of energy as a tangible asset and use of energy as a metaphorically. In order to prevent the misconceptions of energy in children's books, it may be recommended to examine/review the books (works) by field educators.