Investigation of conceptual change of hearing impaired students about moon phases and the reasons of phases

The purpose of this study is to determine the hearing impaired sixth grade middle school students' conceptual understanding of the phases of the moon and causes of formation of phases and to investigate the conceptual changes after the computer aided inquiry based teaching method. The study was conducted in a hearing impaired public middle school at 2016-2017 academic years in Adana. Five students from sixth grade, including four girls and one boy, have participated to the study. Interviews before the treatment have taken place to reveal the conceptual understanding level of the students. After that, interviews with students were held to find out the conceptual understanding of the students after the computer aided inquiry based teaching and lecture models. Students' conceptual understanding levels were categorized based on the data obtained. After the analysis, students' conceptual understanding levels were determined. The alternative conceptions were dominant before the instruction, however, the number of alternative conception were decreased after the instruction while the scientific conception increased. Other teaching methods may be tried out in future studies.