Examining the effect of workshops pedagogically modelling exhibits at science centres on the development of students’ conceptual achievements

ABSTRACT

This study aims to examine the effect of the instructional plan which includes workshops pedagogically modelling the exhibitions at science centres for an effective field trip, on high school students’ learning the concepts on ‘Simple Machines: Pulley and Levers’. In this study, a semi-experimental design with the pre- and post-test control group was used in a combination of quantitative and qualitative data collection tools. In this study, which was conducted in physics courses for four weeks, according to the convenience sampling method, one control and three experimental groups consisting of 9th-grade students (n = 32). Four groups were created as: traditional teaching in the control group, a field trip to the science centre after teaching the subject in the experimental group 1, workshop after the field trip to the science centre in the experimental group 2, a field trip to the science centres after the workshop in the experimental group 3. Simple machines concept test and semi-structured interview forms were used as data collection tools in the research. The research concluded that field trips that were made with the instructional plan containing workshops pedagogically modelling the exhibitions in the science centre had a significant effect on the conceptual achievements of the students.

KEYWORDS:

• Science centre
• field trip
• workshops
• simple machines
• conceptual achievement

Acknowledgements

This study is based upon work supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, 1001-Scientific Technological Research Project Support Program under Grant 114K646 entitled BİLMER Project: A Teacher Explainer Professional Development Model to Increase the Effectiveness of Science Centers in Science and Society Communication in Science Education.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).