Abstract:

The purpose of this research was to compare the effect of conceptual change texts enriched with metaconceptual processes with the effect of refutational and expository texts on pre-service science teachers’ conceptual understanding of heat and temperature. The durability of the effect of the texts on pre-service science teachers’ conceptual understanding was also examined. A pre-test- post-test experimental research design was employed. One hundred and five pre-service teachers who were enrolled in an Elementary Science Teacher Education Program of a public university located in Turkey participated in this research. They were randomly assigned to three treatment groups each of which read a different type of texts. Heat and Temperature Concept Test (HTCT) was administered as a pre-test, post-test and delayed test to assess the participants’ conceptual understanding of heat and temperature concepts. The results show that the conceptual understanding of pre-service teachers who read conceptual change text enriched with metaconceptual processes was significantly better than that of the other groups and this significantly positive effect did not diminish eight weeks after reading the texts.

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