Epistemological beliefs, including the source of knowledge, the certainty of knowledge, the organization of knowledge, the control of learning, and the speed of learning, are important to identify since these beliefs impact students' learning processes and how they attribute meaning to life. Concept cartoons, that students find genuine and credible, are found to be effective assessment tools in revealing these beliefs. The present study aims to identify and compare 5th and 8th grade middle school students' epistemological beliefs utilizing concept cartoons. The study participants were 5th (N=38) and 8th grade (N=47) students enrolled in three different middle schools in the Çamlıhemşin district of Rize. In order to reveal the students' opinions, one concept cartoon for each dimension of epistemological belief was utilized. A scoring rubric was employed to analyze the student responses to the concept cartoons. According to the results of the t-tests on students' scores, the 5th and 8th grade students' epistemological beliefs in the dimensions of organization of knowledge, source of knowledge, and certainty of knowledge are similar. In contrast, 8th grade students' epistemological beliefs related to the speed of learning and the control of learning were found to be significantly higher than those of 5th-grade students. Among the mean values of the students' epistemological beliefs, source of knowledge beliefs were found to be the lowest.Keywords Concept Cartoons, Epistemological Beliefs, Middle School Students
-The aim of the present study is to develop concept cartoons for preschool children and to determine the reflections in the application process of these cartoons. The study was performed with 25 preschool teachers, 10 university lecturers and 76 preschool children in 2011-2012 spring educational term in Çayeli region of Rize province. Within the framework of the study, five concept cartoons were developed. They were called as; "Aliş's Bag", "Monkey Kiki's Experiment", "Aliş's Table", "Boni at the Greengrocer's" and "Little Bear Boni is at the Sandpool". The concept cartoons were developed in three stages as: planning, implementing and evaluating. In the development process, the concept cartoons were revised with the feedback coming both from informal interviews performed with university lecturers and applied evaluation forms. Having finalized the materials, during the main application phase it was determined that the children listened the instructions carefully, they put forward their ideas enthusiastically, they liked the visuals. The defined results might arise from fortification effect of the concept cartoons over self-expression skills of the children.
Since concept cartoons give an important opportunity for students to achieve informal physics learning, the current research focused on pre-service teachers’ initial impressions of the concept cartoons in the school corridors and informal physics learning. The aim of the research was to determine pre-service teachers’ initial impressions of the concept cartoons in the school corridors and informal physics learning via the concept cartoons. After a 14-week intervention, a questionnaire with seven open-ended questions was administered to 542 pre-service teachers from primary, mathematics and science teacher education programmes. Their responses to the questionnaire were exposed to qualitative content analysis via two categories (advanced and poor impression). The results showed that pre-service teachers generally refered to advanced impressions of the concept cartoons. In light of the results, it can be deduced that the concept cartoons have enhanced their initial impressions of informal physics/science learning via the concept cartoons. The current research recommends that pre-service teachers should be encouraged to produce their own concept cartoons on the topic(s) they found difficult.
Keywords: concept cartoon, informal learning, initial impression, science education.
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