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Makale Özeti:
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In order to think, to interpret and judge correctly, the humans have to comprehend what they have learned. Concepts are the abstract representatives of the classifications that are formed by objects, events, ideas and behaviors which have common specifications. (Fidan, N., 1985).
Concepts reduce the complexity by simplifying the environment that people live. They help us in defining and explaining the objects in our environment. Learning concepts cannot be determined only by classifying objects or by telling the name or definition of a class of objects. Learning concepts has three steps; interpreting, translating and transition. For an individual to overcome these three steps, he has to have the ability to percept common elements objects, events, ideas and behaviors by abstracting them and has to distinguish the common and uncommon sides of these. Glover, Ronning and Bruning (Glover,A.Roning,R.R.,Bruning, R. H., 1990) have divided the database needed in problem solving process into three parts as subject knowledge, general and specific strategic knowledge. The conceptual knowledge that is related to the subject of the problem constitutes the first type of knowledge. Remembering a knowledge signifies that it is known. However, this remembrance can both be by memorizing and comprehending. It is the comprehension step, which is formed by the behaviors that distinguishes a person who has comprehended, from a person who has memorized. (Alkan, H., Altun, M., 1998). As knowledge and skill is not transferred genetically and cannot be controlled by instinct, the behaviors that will be necessary in life should be designated to the person. This can be achieved by learning. The people agree that without learning life cannot be successful. While teaching new knowledge to individuals, it should be made sure that the concepts are formed correctly. In recent years, students’ understanding of the scientific concepts is one of the subjects that researchers and teachers give importance to. The reason is that students have difficulties in understanding scientific concepts. Learning concepts in a non-meaningful way leads to the formation and increasing of misconceptions. Misconception is the perception of concepts by students in a different way than their scientifically accepted definitions.
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