The Determition of first year high school students misconseptions about heat and temperature and the influence of the constructivist approach on the eradication of the misconceptions

The purpose of this study to identify 10th grade students' misconceptions related to heat and temperature, and to compare effect of traditional teaching approach and constructivist approach on to break down these misconceptions. The subject of this study consisted of total 54 students from two classes of lyceum I in Ankara - Mamak Türközü Şehit Nuri Pamir Lyceum. The topic of heat and temperature was teach with traditional teaching approach in one of two class (control group) and with constructivist approach in other class (experience group) during five weeks in fell semester 2002 - 2003 education year. Research design was pretest - posttest control group design. Logical Thinking Ability Test, Scientific Process Skill Test, Heat and Temperature Concept Test was given to students as pre-test and post-test. After teaching heat and temperature it was made interviews with 12 students and determined their deeply ideas related to heat and temperature. As the results of this study, it was identified that students hold a lot of misconceptions related to heat and temperature. When controlling logical thinking abilities, scientific process skills, pre-knowledges and sex, there is meaningful difference between the effect of traditional teaching approach and constructivist approach on to break down these misconceptions (p<0,05). However, it was determined that students5 pre-knowledges, logical thinking abilities, scientific process skills and sex did not affect their understanding heat and temperature.