Investigation of the Conceptual Understanding Difficulties in 9th Grade Biology Books About Cell Unit

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the ninth grade students’ misconceptions and
confusions of concepts in the cell unit according to new biology curriculum which was started during 2008–2009
educational year. In the first part of our study, we investigated the ninth grade biology textbook, aspects which
may cause misconceptions and conceptual understanding difficulties are found as eight items. In the second part
of our study we determined the eight items which have misconceptions. Then, we developed the conceptual
understanding test and we applied this test as pre-test and post-test to the twenty five students. We chose the
students by random cluster sampling in Izmir Anatolian High School, located in Izmir-Karabaglar. In the results
of the conceptual understanding test, our analysis revealed that students had constructed misconceptions