Secondary school students' level of understanding basic geographical terms and their misconceptions (The case of Amasya province)

The aim of this study is to determine the 6th, 7th and 8th grade students' level of understanding some basic terms in social sciences course geography topics (climate, continental climate, mediterranean climate, black sea climate, monsoon climate, desert climate, maquis, steppe, exposure, mathematical location, private location, parallel- latitude, meridian-longitude, map, scale, lowland, plateau, lake, sea, ocean, valley, island, continent, landslip, erosion, snow slide, population, overpopulation) and their misconceptions regarding these terms. The scanning model being one of the quantitative research methods was used in the research. A test composed of open-ended questions was developed in order to determine students' level of understanding the concepts specified within the context of the research. The test developed was performed in the 2017-2018 academic year, on 585 students in the 6th, 7th and 8th grades at eight schools in total in Amasya province, four of which were in the city center, three were in the district and one in the village. The data obtained were examined by categorizing them as understanding, limited understanding, not understanding, misunderstanding and unanswered. As the result of the study, it was found that students did not adequately understand the determined geographical concepts and they had various misconceptions regarding these concepts. In addition, it was noted that some concepts' understanding levels were high in junior classes and lower in senior classes.