The Effect of Group Work on Misconceptions of 9th Grade Students about Newton's Laws

Abstract

In this study, the effect of group work and traditional method on 9th grade students’ misconceptions about Newton Laws was investigated. The study was conducted in three classes in an Anatolian Vocational High School in Ankara/Turkey in the second term of the 2014-2015 academic year. Two of these classes were chosen as the experimental group and one as the control group. The groups in the experimental group were formed on a voluntary basis with two students in each of them. These experimental groups were given activities which included methods such as concept maps, worksheets, concept cartoons, doing experiments, preparing a project homework and doing case studies. In the control group, the activities which were done in the experimental groups were converted into questions and solved by the students and the teacher. As the assessment tool, ‘Force Motion Misconception Test’ was used, whose validity and reliability studies had been performed by carrying out pilot studies. This test was administered to both the experimental groups and the control group as pre-test before the teaching and post-test after the teaching. The data obtained showed that there was no significant difference in post-tests between the experimental and control group students in terms of misconceptions (p>,05). However, according to the averages, the students in the experimental groups were observed to have fewer misconceptions than those in the control group.