natural, processed, and artificial consumption

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 31 (2012) 663 – 668

WCLTA 2011

Concept knowledge of “natural, processed, and artificial consumption substances” subject in 4th grade science and technology course books and course book analysis in terms of exemplification Zeliha Özsoy-Güneş a *, Filiz Avci a, F. Gülay Kirbaşlar a a

Istanbul University, Hasan Ali Yucel Education Faculty, Departmant of Elementary Education, Division of Science Education, Vefa/Istanbul 34070, Turkey

Abstract In this research it is aimed to study “Natural, Processed and Artificial Consumption Substances” subject and concepts in the 4th grade Science and Technology course books of 2010-2011 academic year in terms of context and given examples. Whether there is an effect of course books in misconceptions, which are possible results of misunderstood Chemistry concepts, is also included as an aim of the study. It is known that accurate teaching of concepts is very necessary to prevent incorrect comprehension and concept errors during education. In this context the importance of the course books are very obvious. In this research several concept errors, contradictions between concepts and improper choice of examples have been detected. © PublishedbybyElsevier Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Prof. Hüseyin Uzunboylu. © 2011 2011 Published Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. Keywords: Science and technology textbook, chemistry subjects; concepts, examples, textbook review;

1. Introduction Course books are still the most important source during teaching and learning periods, despite the frequent usage of technological equipments in Science Education in recent years. The main source is again the course book as a guide, while planning which subjects to teach and which method to be applied during the teaching period by the teachers. In this context Science and Technology course books preserve its importance as an inseparable part of science teachers (Kılıç, 2001; Kılıç & Seven, 2002; Pelletier, 1995). The basic principle of setting up a course book in teaching period is that the books must have the quality to give the defined behaviors in teaching program, which are, knowledge, skills and qualifications (Kaptan, 1999). Qualified education is only possible with quality course books. In primary school science education, concept teaching is one of the basic subjects. In concept teaching, two approaches are being applied which are: traditional method and new method. In traditional method; a word is given to the student stating the concept and a verbal definition of the concept is done, after stating the descriptive and distinguishing points of the concept, the student is asked for finding examples exemplified by the concept or

* Zeliha Özsoy-Güneş, Tel.: +90-212-440-0000 / 26067 E-mail address: [email protected] 1877-0428 © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Prof. Hüseyin Uzunboylu. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.12.121

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examples staying out of the exemplification. This method is not sufficiently effective for teaching concepts as many concepts cannot be defined verbally. But new method enables the student to reach a generalization through the best examples of the concept. In this method the student studies many examples, finds the definitive qualifications and reach the generalization. Following that the student works on the examples staying out of the exemplification, by this way unnecessary generalization can be avoided (Çepni, Ayas, Akdeniz, Özmen, Yiğit & Ayvacı, 2010). Teaching the concepts precisely and accurately has utmost importance for an effective science education during primary and secondary school as precise study of concepts makes learning future subjects easy. As a matter of fact it has known that for future learning it is very important to study the concepts accurately during primary and secondary education (Çiçek, 2008). Preliminary information is one of the factors affecting learning. Preliminary information (concepts) is the thought of a concept that the student has before existing in the learning environment. In all learning environments the aim is to structure the new information based on the preliminary information the students have in their minds before. When the students come across the same situation and the same information, each one of them creates different ideas in relation with their former experiences and previous information (Stahly et al., 1999). During this period, unhealthy structuring of the information causes development of scientifically incorrect knowledge in their minds by affecting their learning negatively (Garnett, Garnett & Hackling, 1995; Jonassen, 1991). Misconception can be defined as: concepts developed as alternative for the scientifically approved concepts (Tekkaya, Çapa & Yılmaz, 2000). These kind of concepts encountered among the students are termed as: concept error or alternative idea (Kabapınar, 2008), misconceptions (Disessa & Sherin, 1998), (alternative frameworks) (Caravita & Halden 1994), alternative conceptions (Hewson & Hewson, 1983; White, 1994) in scientific researches. The reasons of misconception obstructing the learning of students are based on different sources. Misconceptions in course books or misconceptions by teaching may result in occurrence of concept errors. The student can gain misconception through the teacher or the course book during education (Aubrecht & Raduta, 2005; Yağbasan & Gülçiçek, 2003) and also the student’s cognitive level can cause the student to comprehend the concept improperly (Lawson & Thompson, 1988). Chemistry, one of the important branches of Science, has many abstract concepts. Teaching and learning of abstract science concepts is among the primary difficulties of science education. Therefore, in recent years, researches made in the field of science education show that science subjects are found to be abstract, complex and hard to understand by the students and, thus they have many misconceptions and misunderstandings regarding science subjects. National and international researches put forth that the students have misconceptions in Chemistry subjects like: atoms and molecules (Griffiths & Preston, 1992), chemical bond (Peterson, Treagust & Garnett, 1986) substance and sub granular structure (Ben-Zwi, Eylan & Silberstein, 1986, Novick & Nussbaum, 1981), chemical equations (Huddle & Pillay, 1996), acid bases (Cross, Maurin, Amouroux, Chastrette, Leber & Fayol, 1986; Geban, Ertepınar & Tansel, 1998; Nakhleh & Krajcik, 1994; Oversby, 2000; Toplis, 1998), chemical balance (Johnstone, Mac Donald & Web, 1977), physical and chemical changes (Anderson, 1986; Briggs & Holding 1986; Sökmen, Bayram & Yılmaz 2000). In these researches identification of misconceptions are focused on, the reasons for these misconceptions are studied (Erdem, Yılmaz, Atav & Gücüm, 2004; Köseoğlu, Budak & Kavak, 2002) and it is determined that environment, spoken language, course books, individual qualifications, preliminary information of the students and the teachers are causing these misconceptions (Skelly & Hall, 1993). The students start to learn substance concept at 4th grade of primary school for the first time. All the concepts related to substance and all the advanced subjects of Chemistry to be learnt at the following grades will be built upon the substance concept they have learnt at that grade. Therefore, in the context of this study “Natural, Processed and Artificial Consumption Substances” subject and the concepts, used in this subject, are studied. It is known that newly-learned concepts must have been gathered precisely and accurately in education environments where preliminary information is very important. Thus, the definitions related to the concepts, statements and examples given in course books are very necessary to be relevant to each other. “Natural, Processed and Artificial Consumption Substances” subject in 4 th grade Science and Technology course books have been studied and the answers for the questions below have been seeked.  Are the concepts given related to the subject sufficient? 2

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 Are the concepts and examples consistent with each other? In this research it is aimed to study “Natural, Processed and Artificial Consumption Substances” subject and concepts in the 4th grade course books of 2010-2011 academic year in terms of context and given examples. Whether there is an effect of course books in misconceptions, which are possible results of misunderstood Chemistry concepts, is also included as an aim of the study. 2. Research Method Research has three parts: In the first part three Science and Technology course books, studied at primary schools in 2010-2011 academic year are coded. The codes given to the course books are: 4. Science and Technology (4A): Agalday, Akçam, İpek & Kablan (2010) (4B): Balcı (2010) (4C): Sökmen, Ekmekçi & Güler (2010) In the second part, the subjects and concepts of “Natural, Processed and Artificial Consumption Substances” have been defined and evaluated regarding the context and the given examples; missing and incorrect concepts and inconsistencies between the concepts and examples in the subjects have been detected and shown together with the page numbers. In the last part, the fact that lacks and inconsistencies resulting in improper comprehension of complex information is related with the misconception studies of various researchers. 3. Findings and Commentary 3.1. The Study of 4th grade science and technology course books In (4B) P: 66 the statement “The sawdust, formed while the plank timber and wood are being processed, is moulded after it is mixed with glue. Artificial wood (particle board) is formed.” is used. In course book (4C) on page 74 it is also said that particle board is artificial. Similarly, in book (4B) in the table titled with “Consumption Substances”, examples are given for natural, processed, artificial substances. Milk powder, given as an example in artificial substances, is not actually an artificial substance but a processed product. Milk powder is defined as: the milk in state of powder acquired by vaporizing the water in milk with the help of various techniques (Keskin, 1982; TDK, 2011). In (4B) P: 67 tile is one of the examples given for the table titled as “consumption substances”. Main substance of tile is clay soil. And hence, this example is not an example of artificial substance as well and again it is an exemplification of processed substance. In another source tile is defined as burnt clay plate, which one side of it is enameled and designed with various motifs and which is used for covering and decorating the walls. (TDK, 2011). In (4A) P: 80 it is stated that “Some materials are produced by human. For example glue, foam cups, plastic bags, concrete, polished wood are produced by changing the structure of natural substances. These materials are called as artificial materials.” and later it is stated that “artificial substances are obtained by combining natural and artificial materials together and produced in an another structure.” In the given examples only glue, foam cups and plastic bags are artificial and the rest is processed products. The statements “a natural material, grit become glass after various process. Thus, glass is a processed material. And the materials like mirror and several types of cups acquired from glass are artificial materials.” used incorrectly. Mirror and cup are processed materials, they are not artificial. In the same book (4A) P: 90 it is written that “With heat effect, mines can be shaped. For example, during manufacturing of glass cups and glass vases, glass is melted and made liquid. Liquid glass is poured into moulds and shaped at will. These statements affirm that glass materials are processed. Two statements taking place in the 3

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same book are contradicting with each other. Through these statements artificial and processed materials are both defined inaccurately as concepts and this mistake is also reinforced with incorrect examples. The word “artificial” is defined as: “Materials made or produced by mankind in a similar way with the examples in nature” (TDK, 2011). Another example is encountered in another book. In (4C) P: 72 it is stated that: “Milk is natural as it is collected from cows. For pasteurization several chemicals are added into it. In that case is pasteurized milk natural? Or processed?” Pasteurization is a heating process of keeping milk at 70 0C for 4 minutes and instant cooling of it. No chemical is added during pasteurization and hence pasteurized milk though treated with heating process, stays natural (Uğur, Nazlı & Bostan, 2001). That is why it is not a proper example for processed material. In the same book P: 73 say that some of the materials to be used in the activity will be called both processed and artificial. This statement is not correct. A material is either processed or artificial. Once again in the same book at P: 81 the statements “Air, water, soil, gas, trees and mines are some of our natural resources. Natural and artificial materials are all acquired from these natural sources.” are inaccurate statements as well; since natural sources cannot be found in artificial materials. In (4B) P: 75 while the products, which are acquired by moulding the material after transmuting it from solid phase to liquid phase ,are being exemplified related with the transmutation of the substances, the statement “ Dişçi (meaning the person selling dental products) puts melted porcelain into tooth impressions.” is used. The Turkish word “dişçi” is used incorrectly at that page. Correct usage should be “diş doktoru” which means “dentist”. Moreover, this process is held by the dental technician, not by the dentist. This example is not the right example for the subject. In the other book (4C) P: 77 the statement “Find out the similarities and the differences between the natural teeth and false teeth (artificial).” also includes an incorrect concept usage. “False teeth” concept is used incorrectly in daily life since they can be taken out and put in anytime. This incorrect usage is also continued to be used as it gives the thought that these kinds of teeth are not constant and they are not natural. But scientifically this concept does not mean the same as it is thought to be. These kinds of teeth are not artificial. They are made of porcelain. Porcelain is a natural material. Porcelain is defined as a material produced from natural origin raw materials, getting its whiteness from the raw materials not from the dyes, intensified by waring at around 1400 °C, having light transmittance and being a healthy product. (Karagöz, 2008; URL-62314, 2011). These kinds of teeth are named as dentures and constant dentures can be made nowadays but they are also called as “false teeth” colloquially. It is a typical example taking us to misconceptions formed in our daily life as shown in many researches held in the subject of misconception; misconception is explained with one to one examples in the book. In (4A) P: 81 the statement “Artificial blood has been produced by Hungarian Scientists. Artificial blood is colorful and in the form of powder. “is used while in (4C) P: 76 it is said that “Some materials cannot be acquired as artificial. For example artificial blood cannot be made.” These two examples in these books are contradicting each other. So they are not proper examples for the subject. In 4(C) P: 76 the statement “Though several materials can be acquired artificial they cannot be as quality and eligible as in nature.” can be true for many food products and incorrect for many materials. For instance natural C vitamin (Ascorbic Acid) and unnatural C vitamin has no difference in quality and eligibility (Larson, 1997; Papas, 1999; Shaihidi, 1997). 4. Results and Suggestions 4th grade is the first class when the students are introduced to the concept of substance. They also start to learn the concepts like: states of matter, characteristics, conversion, pure substance, mixtures, solution, dissolution, separation of solutions. It is known that accurate teaching of concepts is very necessary to prevent incorrect comprehension and concept errors during education. In this context the importance of the course books are very obvious. In this research several concept errors, contradictions between concepts and improper choice of examples have been detected. Chosen examples can be incorrect and reinforce the concept. It is evident that while writers are defining, describing and exemplifying the concepts they generally make use of their own knowledge not the scientific sources about the subject. Not only many are concepts like:” artificial, 4

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processed, and natural materials, milk powder, pasteurization and etc.” defined incorrectly but also they are written with daily language. In many researches in literature it has been proved that after the students have been taught this incorrect information these mistakes are going to increase incrementally and mistakes are going to stay steadfast in the future classes even though they are tried to be replaced with the right information. It has been found out that teachers are highly-effective during the preparation of the books which is a defective application. But this process should have been undertaken by the professionals who are experts on concept teaching in education faculties. This is an important and professional field requiring conceptual education. Course books can result in concept errors and they can be the source of it as well. During the formation of course books for every concept, literature has to be reviewed and possible concept errors should be searched and statements causing misconception should be avoided. The results obtained from the research are expected to be a guiding light during the edition of 4 th grade Primary School Science and Technology Course books. Acknowledgements We thank the Research Fund of the University of Istanbul for financial support of this work. References Agalday, M., Akçam, H.K., İpek, İ., Kablan, F. (2010). İlköğretim Fen ve Teknoloji 4. Sınıf Ders Kitabı. MEB Devlet Kitapları, İstanbul. ISBN 978-975-11-3414-1. Anderson, B. (1986). Pupils’ explanations of some aspects of chemical reactions. Science Education, 70(5), 549-563. Aubrecht, G. J. & Raduta, C. (2005). American and Romanian student approaches to solving simple electricity and magnetism problems. Association for University Regional Campuses of Ohio Journal, 11, 51-66. Balcı, T. (2010). İlköğretim Fen ve Teknoloji 4. Sınıf Ders Kitabı, Üner Yayıncılık, Ankara. ISBN 978-975-13-0290-8. Ben-Zwi, R.I., Eylan, B. & Silberstein, J. (1986). Is an atom of copper malleable? Journal of Chemical Education, 63(1), 64-66. Briggs, H. & Holding, B. (1986). Aspects of secondary students’ understanding of elementary ideas in chemistry: Full Report, CLISP, University of Leeds, UK. Caravita, S. & Halden, O. (1994). Re-framing the problem of conceptual change. Learning and Instruction, 4, 89. Cross, D., Maurin, M., Amouroux, R., Chastrette, M., Leber, J. & Fayol, M. (1986). Conceptions of first-year university students’ of the constituents of matter and the notions of asids and bases. European Journal of Science Education, 8(3), 305-313. Çepni, S., Ayas, A., Akdeniz, A.R., Özmen, H., Yiğit, N., Ayvacı, H.Ş. (2010). Fen ve Teknoloji Öğretimi (Kuramdan Uygulamaya). Pegem Yayıncılık, Ankara. Çiçek, Ş. (2008). Lise II Öğrencilerinin kimya dersinde başarıları ve tutumları üzerine bilim şenliklerinin etkisinin incelenmesi. Yüksek lisans tezi, Gazi Üniversitesi, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, Ankara. Disessa, A. & Sherin, B. (1998). What changes in conceptual change. Int.J.Sci.Educ., 20(10), 1155. Erdem, E., Yılmaz, A., Atav, E., Gücüm, B. (2004). Öğrencilerin “Madde” konusunu anlama düzeyleri, kavram yanılgıları, fen bilgisi dersine karşı tutumları ve mantıksal düşünme düzeylerinin araştırılması. Hacettepe Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 27, 74-82. Garnett, P., Garnett, P. & Hackling, M. (1995). Students’ alternative conceptions in chemistry: A review of research and implications for teaching and learning. Studies in Science Education, 25, 69-95. Geban, Ö., Ertepınar, H., Tansel, T. (1998). Asit-Baz konusu ve benzeşme yöntemi. K.T.Ü. III. Ulusal Fen Bilimleri Eğitimi Sempozyumu, 23-25 Eylül 1998, s:176-178, Trabzon. Griffiths, A.K. & Preston K.R. (1992). Grade-12 students’ misconceptions relating to fundamental characteristics of atoms and molecules. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 29(6), 611-628. Hewson, M.G. & Hewson, P.W. (1983). Effect of ınstruction using students’ prior knowledge and conceptual change strategies on science learning. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 20(8), 731-743. Huddle, P.A. & Pillay, A.E. (1996). An in-depth study of misconceptions in stoichiometry and chemical equilibrium at a South African university. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 33(1), 65-77. Johnstone, A.H., Mac Donald, J.J. & Web, G. (1977). Chemical equlibrium and its conceptual diffuculties. Education in Chemistry, 14(6), 169171. Jonassen, D.H. (1991). Objectivism vs. constructivism: Do we need a new paradigm? Educational Technology: Research and Development, 39(3), 5-14. Kabapınar, F.(2008). Matematik, Fen ve Teknoloji Öğretimi. Anadolu Üniversitesi,Eskişehir Kaptan, F. (1999). Fen Bilgisi Öğretimi. Milli Eğitim Basımevi, İstanbul. 5

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