The impact of conceptual change texts on misconceptions in social studies courses

The aim of this study is to determine the misconceptions of elementary school sixth grade students about the concepts of map, scale, weather condition, climate and position, and to demonstrate the effectiveness of the teaching based on the conceptual change approach in eliminating these misconceptions. The study group of the research consisted of the sixth grade students studying in two classes in an elementary school located in the Mamak District of Ankara. Each of these two classes were intact appointed as experimental (n=31) and control (n=30) groups.In the research, the non-equivalent control group design of the quasi-experimental model was employed as the research method. While conceptual change texts were used in the experimental group in order to remove students? misconceptions regarding the concepts of map, scale, weather condition, climate and position, the curriculum-based (program-based) teaching approach was used in the control group.To collect data in the research, Achievement Test (CT) and Concept Test (CT) were used. The analysis of the pretest and posttest scores of experimental and control group students was performed in SPSS 15 software through the statistical measures of descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test and two-way ANOVA. The analyses conducted revealed that there did not exist a statistically significant correlation in the pretest between experimental and control groups with respect to CT and CT scores; whereas there existed a significant difference in the posttest in the favour of the experimental group.It was concluded in the research that the teaching and materials based on the conceptual change approach is more effective than the curriculum-based approach in concept achievements of students and in the elimination of their misconceptions regarding the concepts of map, scale, position, climate and weather condition. In the light of the research findings, several suggestions were directed to researchers, teachers and curriculum development specialists.Key Words: Concept, Conceptual Change, Misconception, Conceptual Change Text