Bağlam Temelli Öğrenme İle Lise Fizik Derslerinde Kullanılabilecek Günlük Hayattan Konular

Introduction Physics is one of the courses that explain natural events (Gürel, Güven & Gürdal, 2003). However, in literature there are some studies (Gürel, Güven & Gürdal, 2003; Erduran & Yağbasan, 2004; Taşdemir & Demirtaş, 2010; Göçmençelebi & Özkan, 2011; Emrahoğlu & Mengi, 2012) claiming that the association level of students between daily life events and physics subjects is very low. In traditional methods, physics is thought with laws and formulas but its basic aim is to explain natural events (Tekbıyık & Akbıyık, 2010). Additionally, when 9th grade and 10th grade physics books are examined, it was concluded that the subjects and experiments were not exemplified from daily life events (Güzel, Oral & Yıldırım, 2009; Tekbıyık & Akdeniz, 2010). Gilbert (2006) states that solving these kinds of problems and improving students' science literacy can be accomplished by adopting contexts into science lessons. Context based learning aims to suggest that daily life objects and events can be used as learning activities (Bülbül, 2013). Another advantage of context based learning is to make a relationship between theories and practises (Acar & Yaman, 2011). Also, when the subject is associated with contexts, students' attitudes is improving (Yaman, 2009). Dealing with physics teachers' opinions about context based learning, Ayvacı (2010) concludes that physics teachers think their skills are not sufficient to apply this method in classrooms and it is suggested that teachers should be guided with sample examples. Determination of appropriate contexts is the most important part of context based learning (Tekbıyık & Akdeniz, 2010). The aim of this study is to determine daily life events that can be used with context based learning. This study also aims to look at whether there is a difference in these contexts with respect to students' grades or gender. Qualitative research method is used in this study. In 2009-2010 education year, 94 private high school physics students from 9th (51 students), 10th (31 students), and 11th (12 students) grades participated in the study in Ankara. These students were responsible to prepare a poster on subjects of their interests in physics. All the students prepared posters in a term (nearly 4-month-period) and presented them to their friends at the end of the term. Students were not restricted about the subject selection. During the data analysis, content, categorical and frequency analyses were performed. During the content analysis, some notions in texts, repeated words and relevant data were gathered to construct categories (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2006). Additionally, proportional and frequency analyses were done. Findings Some students selected the same subjects so the number of total subject title was less than the total number of students in study. A total of 64 different posters were prepared by the students and the titles of the posters were classified into the following 9 categories: mechanics, electricity, flying objects, astronomy and space, sky, modern physics, optics, waves and others. Mechanics deals with the objects that are slower than light in velocity and are bigger than atoms in mass (Çolakoğlu, 2012). During the classification process, as the number of flying objects' posters was as many as that of mechanics, the flying object category is constructed. The other categories were used as in physics courses. To determine daily life events that can be used with context based learning, poster titles were used and these titles are presented here. The poster titles of mechanics: "Air resistance and its effects", "Kinematics of projectile motion", "buoyancy", "why do cats fall on all four legs?", "If the gravity is less", "catapult", "why not can a person stay on balance on a stationary bike?", "why does a motorcycle leans in cornering?", "energy" and "how does a submarine dive?". The poster titles of electricity: "Conductive plastic", "super conductivity", "magnet", "why not do birds shock?", "electromagnet", "wind turbine", "making battery with lemons", "base station", "flying train" and "television". The poster titles of flying objects: "how do plains fly?", "how do rockets fly?", "airship", "how do helicopters fly?", "the world biggest plains", "how does a Frisbee fly?", "Concorde plains", "until how far does a flying balloon fly?" and " back propeller of helicopters". The poster titles of astronomy and space: "Hubble space telescope", "black hole", "wormhole", "space", "solar system", "dwarf planet", "meteors" and "nebula". The poster titles of sky: "why is the sky blue?", "how does rainbow occur? Why is it circler?", "why is the moon seen in different colours?", "global warming", "aurora" and why is the weather getting cooler while closing the sun?". The poster titles of modern physics: "the occurrence of the universe", "travel in time", "travel to future" and travel to past". The poster titles of optics: "how colours occur", "refraction of light" and "why are traffic lights in red-yellow-green colours?". The poster titles of waves: "earthquake", "tsunami", "sound" and "sound weapon". To determine the relationship between students' grades and subject categories, frequency analysis was conducted and presented here. As for 9th grades: 10 students selected their posters from sky, 8 students from flying objects, 7 from mechanics, 7 from electricity, 5 from astronomy and space, 4 from optics, and 2 from waves. No one selected modern physics. As a result of these findings, it can be concluded that 9th grade students especially were interested in sky, flying objects,and mechanics and electricity subjects in their daily lives. As for 10th grades: 10 students selected their posters from astronomy and space, 4 students from sky, 4 from mechanics, 4 from modern physics, 3 from flying objects. As a result of these findings, it can be concluded that 10th grade students especially were interested in astronomy and space, sky, mechanics, modern physics and flying objects subjects in their daily lives. Another important point is that, modern physics subjects are only selected in this level. As for 11th grades: only 12 students participated in the study and there is no clear difference between poster numbers. There were one or two posters nearly in each subject. To determine the relationship between students' gender and subject categories, frequency analysis was conducted and presented here. Girls: 7 students selected their posters from sky and astronomy and space, 5 from electricity, 4 from mechanics, 3 from flying objects, 2 from optics and waves. It can be concluded that girls were mainly interested in sky and astronomy and space. Boys: 10 students selected their posters from flying objects and astronomy and space, 9 from sky, 8 from mechanics, 5 from electricity, 3 from modern physics and optics, 2 from waves. It can be concluded that boys were mainly interested in flying objects and astronomy and space. The posters' titles are also classified according to students' grades and gender in these 9 categories. The findings are presented here. 9th grades: the same numbers of girls and boys selected sky posters, and nearly the same numbers of girls and boys selected the subjects about mechanics and electricity. However, only boys selected flying objects. As a result of these findings, astronomy and space, mechanics and electricity are appropriate subjects for 9th grade students. 10th grades: 8 boys and 2 girls prepared posters about astronomy and space. Nearly the same number of students selected; sky, mechanics, modern physics and flying objects. In addition to these, girls are not interested in electricity, optics and waves. Conclusion, Discussion and Suggestions In this study, the examples that can be used with context based learning are determined. Students are mainly interested in nine subjects. These are: Mechanics, electricity, flying objects, astronomy and space, sky, modern physics, optics, waves and others. In total, the most interesting subject for the students is astronomy and space. The reason of that can be the space movies in TV, computer games related to space or the news related to space in media. When the high school physics program (MEB, 2013) are examined, it is shown that 9th grade program includes subjects related to sky as the one finding of this study, but the program do not cover mechanic and flying objects much. 10th grade program includes optic, waves and electricity, but the interest of 10th grade students is low to these subjects. For 11th grades, the interested events and the program are in parallel. In another study (Sencar & Eryılmaz, 2004), the interested subjects depend on sexes and in theoretical subjects boys and girls have similar scores but in practical subjects boys have bigger scores than girls. During context based learning, teachers need to give examples related to students' daily lives (Hırça, 2012). As a result of this study, daily life examples that can be used in classrooms were given to teachers. These examples can also be used in physics books. When the results of this study are examined carefully, physics lessons can be less bored and fear for high school students. Adding these daily life subjects to physics lessons is also helpful for the students to see this lesson as a part of life. The number of these studies should be increased to create funny physics lessons.