Abstract:

This study has been conducted to determine the university students’ undear- standing levels and misconceptions about light and atom concepts. This study has been practiced to 62 students of science teacher program on 2003–2004 education session’s autumn term. The study data’s have been obtained from a test which occurs 16 item (for 62 students) and an interview which occurs 12 items (for 12 students). The findings from the test and the interview showed that students’ undear- standing levels are respectively 26% and 84% and students’ misconceptions about these concepts are respectively 34% and 6%. Some of the misconceptions about light concept; “light is a substance which illuminates wherever it devolves,” “light is a beam which breaks outs from a source and outgoing endless”. And about atom con- cept; “atom is the smallest and undividable piece of a substance”. This study shows that students have a nominal learning level about light concept and have a lot of mis- conceptions about light and atom concepts. We believe that this study can be benefi- cial if same studies execute in other education faculties.  

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