Mental Models of the High School Students Related To the Contraction of Matter

Abstract

The aim of this study is to reveal the mental models of the high school students related to the ‘contraction of the matters’. In the study, the special case has been used as research method. The study group is composed of 107 high school students selected with the purposeful sampling. As the data of the study has been obtained from the open ended questions, it includes the description and visualization situations of the students related to the issue. The findings obtained have shown that the students have two types of mental models as initial and synthetic model related to the contraction of the matters. The results have been interpreted as that the school knowledge is not sufficient in structuring the mental models of the students in a scientific way. The usage of the training methods and techniques that will develop especially the spatial thinking and drawing characteristics in the training applications is proposed. Key