Investigation of secondary school students' misconceptions regarding chemistry topics in science course

This study was conducted to determine the misconceptions of secondary school 7th grade students in the science course "Pure Matter and Mixtures" unit and to examine the effects of the concept wheel learning technique on eliminating these misconceptions. The sample of the study consists of 122 secondary school 7th grade students studying in Kastamonu province Tosya district. In this context, the Pure Substances and Mixtures Concept Test (SMKKT) developed and the concept wheel learning technique activities, one of the current teaching approaches, and the quasi-experimental method with experimental control group, pre-test and post-test were used. The data in the study, which lasted for six weeks in the spring semester of the 2022-2023 academic year, were obtained from four different data collection tools consisting of Concept Wheel Diagram (KÇD), SMKKT, Short Answer questions and True-false questions applied for the unit "Pure Matter and Mixtures". The data obtained in the application were applied separately to the experimental and control groups as pre-test and post-test. SPSS was used in the analysis of quantitative data, and MaxQDA programs were used in the analysis of qualitative data. In order to determine whether there is a significant difference between before and after the application in data analysis, independent t-test was applied according to the pre-test and post-test results between the groups. ANOVA test was used for variables with more than two categories. According to the findings related to the pre-test results of the students in the experimental and control groups, the majority of the students have a misconception about the "Pure Substance and Mixture" unit. The positive effects of the concept wheel learning technique were observed in eliminating the misconceptions in students and in the perception of these concepts. In the light of the findings obtained, some suggestions for eliminating misconceptions were also presented. KEYWORDS: Misconception, Concept teaching, Pure matter and Mixture