New Perspectives in Science Education

It is important for students to construct concepts in a meaningful way. Knowing the meaning of concepts and being able to identify their relationships with other concepts is crucial for meaningful learning. However, when students learn concepts, they may confuse concepts that are similar but have different content, leading to misconceptions. It is important for students to fully learn concepts so that they can identify the differences between the concepts they have learned and other concepts. In Türkiye, the science curriculum was revised in 2024, and for the first time, the concept of velocity, a vector quantity, was included in the curriculum. Since velocity is a vector quantity, previous curricula only addressed the concept of speed. It is considered important that a new topic is included in the curriculum and that its learning is examined. This study aimed to investigate how middle school students learn the concepts of speed and velocity, and whether they have any potential misconceptions. For this purpose, open-ended questions incorporating the concepts of speed and velocity, relevant to the learning outcomes, and a three-stage misconception assessment test will be created to reveal the learning status of middle school students regarding these concepts. The research will be conducted using a descriptive survey model. The findings will be evaluated using quantitative and qualitative analysis methods, and recommendations regarding the situation will be included.

Keywords: Turkish Century Education Model, Speed ​​and Velocity, Concept Teaching, Misconception