Ask a Scientist Website: Trends in Chemistry Questions in Turkey
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Ask a Scientist Website: Trends in Chemistry Questions in Turkey ¨ mer Geban Rıdvan Elmas • Fatma Nur Akın • O
De La Salle University 2013
Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate questions submitted by users of a website that is popular with Turkish students learning about chemistry and thereby to inform teachers about trends in student interest. The website contains articles and information about chemistry and encourages visitors to ‘‘Ask a Scientist’’ questions about the subject. Over 1,500 enquiries, submitted over a 5-year period between 2006 and 2011, were classified according to field of interest in chemistry, type of information requested in the question, and motivation for asking the question. The most popular category was basics of chemistry (27.1 %), followed by nuclear chemistry and chemistry of the elements (19.1 %). We found that 37.3 % of the questions sought factual information and 20.1 % explanatory information. Our analysis of enquirers’ motivation for asking their questions indicated that 55.6 % were asked for non-applicative, while 26.8 % were asked for
R. Elmas (&) Department of Secondary Science and Mathematics Education, Room 207, Faculty of Education, Middle East Technical University, Universiteler Mah. Dumlupinar Blv. No:1, Cankaya, 06800 Ankara, Turkey e-mail: [email protected] F. N. Akın Department of Secondary Science and Mathematics Education, Room 212, Faculty of Education, Middle East Technical University, Universiteler Mah. Dumlupinar Blv. No:1, Cankaya, 06800 Ankara, Turkey e-mail: [email protected] ¨ . Geban O Department of Secondary Science and Mathematics Education, Room 208, Faculty of Education, Middle East Technical University, Universiteler Mah. Dumlupinar Blv. No:1, Cankaya, 06800 Ankara, Turkey e-mail: [email protected]
applicative reasons. With respect to gender, males asked 54.44 % of the questions. Keywords Ask a scientist website Chemistry questions Interest Gender
Introduction Students need flexible learning environments that provide opportunities for questions (Dyche and Epstein 2011). Higher level questions support and enhance meaningful learning and students’ motivation. In addition, student generated questions are used as a hint to redesign the classroom instruction to cater for students’ curiosity, enthusiasm, and engagement. Students, who are encouraged to pose their own questions about a course topic, develop their understanding as to how answers are related, conditional, and contextual, and how they rely on supplementary questions (Bowker 2010). The active process of questioning rather than the passive repetition of concepts and facts supports the development of critical and creative thinking, which shapes our perspective (Deluty 2010). Questions are simply sentences that are used to demand a request for information as an answer (Dillon 1982). Asking questions shows questioners’ will, effort, courage, commitment, skill, and the level of knowledge (Van Der Meij 1992). Besides, they are key tools that reflect students’ understanding, i
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