the primary school students’ cognitive structure on the concept of “home”: sample of life science course with a qualitative analysis

Abstract

The aim of current study is to analyze primary school students’ conceptual structures for the concept of “home”. Case study design was applied in this qualitative tudy. A total of 75 primary school students participated in this study in which purposeful sampling was used. The free word-association test and the drawing technique were used as data collection instruments. The average reliability between coders was found to be 96%. The data analyses were subject to content analysis. The data collected through the study were divided into 5 categories and 2 subcategories, which were stated as follows: family members/ animals are living in house/shelter, the places for livable house, furniture and objects in the house, the activities done in house, the feelings towards house. In this context; father and mother emphasis has come to the fore. Besides, birds and trees were observed to be drawn in the drawings in which the concept of home is associated with animals. In their writings, explanations containing sentences about more of the positive feelings toward the member of the family and the happiness coming from living all together at home were made.