Ceyhan Cigdemoglu

A Three-Tier Diagnostic Test to Assess Pre-Service Teachers' Misconceptions about Global Warming, Greenhouse Effect, Ozone Layer Depletion, and Acid Rain.

This study describes the development and validation of a three-tier multiple-choice diagnostic test, the atmosphere-related environmental problems diagnostic test (AREPDiT), to reveal common misconceptions of global warming (GW), greenhouse effect (GE), ozone layer depletion (OLD), and acid rain (AR). The development of a two-tier diagnostic test procedure as described by Treagust constitutes the framework for this study. To differentiate a lack of knowledge from a misconception, a certainty response index is added as a third tier to each item. Based on propositional knowledge statements, related literature, and the identified misconceptions gathered initially from 157 pre-service teachers, the AREPDiT was constructed and administered to 256 pre-service teachers. The Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of the pre-service teachers’ scores was estimated to be 0.74. Content and face validations were established by senior experts. A moderate positive correlation between the participants’ both-tiers scores and their certainty scores indicated evidence for construct validity. Therefore, the AREPDiT is a reliable and valid instrument not only to identify pre-service teachers’ misconceptions about GW, GE, OLD, and AR but also to differentiate these misconceptions from lack of knowledge. The results also reveal that a majority of the respondents demonstrated limited understandings about atmosphere-related environmental problems and held six common misconceptions. Future studies could test the AREPDiT as a tool for assessing the misconceptions held by pre-service teachers from different programs as well as in-service teachers and high school students.

Improving students’ chemical literacy levels on thermochemical and thermodynamics concepts through a context-based approach

The aim of this study was to delve into the effect of context-based approach (CBA) over traditional instruction (TI) on students’ chemical literacy level related to thermochemical and thermodynamics concepts. Four eleventh-grade classes with 118 students in total taught by two teachers from a public high school in 2012 fall semester were enrolled in this particular study. The treatments were randomly assigned to the already formed classes; experimental groups were treated as CBA, the control groups as TI. Each teacher had one experimental and one control group. Open-ended contextual item sets were developed to assess students’ chemical literacy level in thermochemical and thermodynamics concepts. The test was administered to both groups as a post-test at the end of the implementation. Students’ responses to item sets were analyzed based on the rubric prepared as the answer key. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used for interpreting the data. The results reveal that CBA is superior to TI on improving students’ chemical literacy levels, implying that CBA, as a discussion platform for concepts through real-life experiences, has a significant role in increasing students’ chemical literacy levels in abstract and difficult concepts regardless of the gender difference.

Individual flipped learning and cooperative flipped learning: their effects on students’ performance, social, and computer anxiety

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to differentiate the effect of cooperative learning strategy integrated with a flipped learning (FL) model from sole FL implementation in promoting students’ performances while decreasing their social and computer anxiety in an undergraduate course. As a method, a classical experimental design is used. The participants were from the department of English Language and Literature, and Translation and Interpretation. Students were randomly assigned to individual FL (the control group) class; and FL with cooperative activities (experimental group) class. The groups were randomly assigned as experimental and control by tossing a coin. The implementation took 10 weeks. Students’ performances (grades), social anxiety, and computer anxiety were dependent variables of the study and they were compared through multivariate analysis of variance. The results indicated that there is no significant mean difference between groups’ performances; however; the group of FL with cooperative activities had less social anxiety, but no significant change occurred at their computer anxiety level.

The effect of peer-led team learning on undergraduate engineering students’ conceptual understanding, state anxiety, and social anxiety

This study aims to compare the effectiveness of a Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) model with that of traditional college instruction (TCI) in enhancing the conceptual understanding and reducing both the state anxiety and social anxiety of undergraduate engineering students in a general chemistry course in a quasi-experimental design. 128 engineering students taking the course participated in the study. One of the course sections was randomly assigned to the experimental group and the other section was assigned to the control group. Both sections were taught by the same instructor. The control group was instructed using traditional college instruction, while the experimental group was instructed using the PLTL model. Throughout this study, six peer-led chemistry workshops and leader training sessions were performed simultaneously. The General Chemistry Concept Test, the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Adults were administered before and after the treatment to both groups. One-way Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) indicated that after controlling students’ university entrance scores, trait anxiety scores and pre-test scores of both the General Chemistry Concept Test and state anxiety, the PLTL model was more effective in improving the conceptual understanding and reducing the situational anxiety of engineering students in undergraduate general chemistry. However, it was not so effective in lessening their social anxiety when compared to traditional college instruction.

Argumentation to foster pre-service science teachers’ knowledge, competency, and attitude on the domains of chemical literacy of acids and bases

Argumentative practices have the potential to contribute to scientific literacy. However, these practices are not widely incorporated in science classrooms and so their effect on the domains of literacy is still not revealed. Therefore, this study proposes to reveal the effect of argumentation on the three domains of chemical literacy related to the concepts of acids and bases. The study participants comprised 29 freshman pre-service science teachers’ enrolled in a General Chemistry-II course. Argumentation practices were implemented over six weeks. Open-ended contextual chemical literacy items were developed to assess the differences in the chemical literacy domains and the items were administered before and right after the intervention. The responses to the chemical literacy items were scored with a rubric and three scores were calculated: knowledge, competency, and attitudes. Paired sample t-tests were used to compare the mean scores. All the intervention sessions were video recorded, and three of them were analyzed according to three criteria: the presence of arguments, the frequency of arguments, and the levels of the arguments. The findings revealed that the argumentation practices contributed to the pre-service teachers’ chemical literacy skills, mostly to their knowledge and competencies when compared to their attitudes. Moreover, distinct differences in the quality of argumentation levels were observed over the six weeks.