Effects of Conceptual Change Texts and Laboratory Experiments on Fourth Grade Students' Understanding of Matter and Change Concepts

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether conceptual change texts and laboratory experiments are effective in overcoming misconceptions and whether the concepts were acquired permanently when these methods were utilized. In this study, we addressed some topics from the "Matter and Change" unit in science and technology class of elementary 4th grade. Students from three classes of an elementary school participated in the study (N = 104). Students' misconceptions were determined by administering the "Matter Concept Test" before, immediately after and 13 weeks after the instructional period. The results of the study showed that both conceptual change texts and experiment method were more successful than traditional instruction in overcoming the misconceptions and acquiring permanent knowledge. However, there was not a significant difference between these two alternative approaches in terms of reducing the misconceptions.