Comparison of Students’ Answers to Context-Based and Traditional Questions on the Topic of Light Across Gender

In this casual comparative research study, it was aimed to compare the 6th, 7th and 8th grade elementary school students’ answers to context-based and traditional questions on the topic of light across gender. Therefore, Light Achievement Tests (LATs) were developed for each grade level in accordance with 6th, 7th and 8th grade curriculum objectives. Each LAT consists of 20 multiple-choice questions; 10 are Context-Based Questions (CBQ) and 10 are traditional questions that are equivalent to the CBQ in terms of targeted objectives and cognitive level. The current study was carried out with 869 students (431 female and 438 male) in Izmit district of Kocaeli and the data were analyzed through MANCOVA test in SPSS 23.0 program. LATs’ cronbach alpha reliability coefficients were found 0.794 for the 6th grade, 0.785 for the 7th grade and 0.824 for the 8th grade level. According to MANCOVA results, there was no statistically significant difference between male and female students’ LAT total scores, CBQ scores and traditional question scores in the 6th (Wilks’ λ=0.987, F(2,290)=1.966, p=0.142), 7th (Wilks’ λ=0.991, F(2,278)=1.257, p=0.286) and 8th (Wilks’ λ =0.995, F(2,288)=0.732, p=0.482) grade levels. The findings were interpreted and recommendations were made to teachers, researchers, curriculum developers and related institutions