Exploring High School Students’ Cognitive Structures for Energy Concept Through Word Association Test

This research, which was conducted in order to reveal the cognitive structures of high school students regarding the concept of energy through the word association test, was designed in a survey model. Word association test was used as a data collection tool. After the necessary information was given to the students, they were given three minutes and they were asked to write the first words that came to mind about the key concept. The study group of the research consists of 202 students studying in a high school in the province of Malatya in the 2019-2020 academic year. 58 of these students are 9 grade, 46 are 10th grade, 45 are 11 grade and 53 are 12 grade. While choosing the study group of the research, one of the purposeful sampling types was chosen based on easily accessible situation sampling. The words obtained related to the concept of energy are tabulated using Microsoft office excel program. The cut-off points of the tables, which were examined in detail and repeated words were taken into account, were determined. Concept networks were created in line with the determined cut-off points. In the research, 189 different words were produced for the concept of energy by high school students. While 114 of these words were not included in the analysis because they had 4 or less frequencies, 75 words were included in the analysis. Among the words included in the analysis, the most repeated word in the 9th grade was “petrol” (f = 30), the most repeated word in the 10th grade was “fossil fuel” (24), the most repeated word in the 11th grade “electricity” (19), the most repeated word in the 12 grade was found to be “potential” (28). In the comparison between the classes, a difference in quantity and quality is observed. It has been observed that as the grade level increases, the quality of the answers given increases.


Introduction
In Turkish Language Association [TDK] dictionary (2005), energy is described as power which is in an object and comes out as heat and light. A great attention has been paid to energy since the humankind has begun to live on the Earth due to the fact that people require energy to survive and make production. Every system and living being need energy to perform and maintain its life (Dönmez Usta, Karslı, & Durukan, 2016). In this regard, energy is essential for both living and non-living beings (Aladağ, Tapur, & Duran, 2018). People always need energy to sustain their life and energy has been one of the indispensable sources of countries throughout the history. When people choose a place to live on the Earth, it's important for them to be close to the energy sources (Aydın, 2010). As a basic input in production, energy is a necessary element for the rise of the welfare level of societies and is used in almost every field in daily life (Koç & Kaya, 2015). Energy, in addition to being the most important necessity of a person in daily life, is very crucial for the development of countries, especially for economic development. Moreover, the economic, cultural and scientific rankings of countries are measured by the amount of energy they produce and use (Atılgan, 2000).
Energy sources are generally classified regarding their usage and convertibility. On the basis of their usage, it can be classified as renewable and non-renewable, furthermore, on the basis of convertibility it can be classified as primary and secondary energy sources (Karabulut, 2000;Koç & Kaya, 2015). Lignite, coal, asphaltite, oil shale, crude oil, natural gas, uranium and thorium are kinds of fossil resource reserves and hydraulic energy, geothermal energy, solar energy, wind energy, and biomass energy are the potential renewable sources (Atılgan, 2000;Doğanay & Coşkun, 2018). While the primary energy sources are plant and animal-originated fossils (Bilginoğlu, 1991), secondary energy sources consist of electricity, nuclear, solar, geothermal, wind, marine and biomass energy. These resources can be named renewable energy as well (Uslu, 2004).
In history, the need for energy and energy resources has differed depending on the trends of the period. Therefore, countries fought against each other and made treaties with different nations to obtain energy sources and to have authority over energy trade and energy transport routes (Pamir, 2003). After the Second World War, coal, which was considered an important energy source of its time, had influence on the states coming together and laying the foundations of the European Union (Akbulut, 2008).
Energy sources have an important place in Turkey, as in the world. In recent years, Turkey has become a country that is rapidly industrializing, urbanizing, increasing its population and competing with the countries of the world. For those reasons, ensuring energy diversity by producing energy from different sources, creating a competitive energy sector and using alternative energy sources have been a requirement for Turkey to meet its growing energy demand (Yıldırım & Örnek, 2007). Turkey's economy has been developing quite rapidly since 1980. Despite the limited domestic resources available, the demand for primary and secondary energy is growing rapidly due to industrialization efforts. The main energy sources of our country are hydraulics and lignite. Turkey has no oil and gas reserves. A significant amount of them are imported (Haskök, 2005). Importing these products, which are important for the country, also leads to external dependence.
As a result of the developments in science and technology along with industrialization and urbanization, the scarce sources of the world are rapidly depleting and the demand for energy is increasing (Dikmenli, Öztürk Demirbaş, & Gafa, 2019;Koç & Kaya, 2015). In addition, the rapidly growing world population brings many problems as well.
One of these problems is the lack of available energy resources (Geçit & Yangın, 2012). Providing and using energy at an adequate level and not threatening environmental values are the most important problems of societies (Çukurçayır & Sağır, 2008).
Countries around the world have to look for alternative energy sources in order to solve the problems that arise due to the growing population. In addition to meeting people's needs, some of these resources pose many environmental problems. Therefore, upon determining energy policies, countries should aim to use energy types that can best meet energy needs and do minimal or no harm to the environment (Geçit & Yangın, 2012).
The energy consumption rate in the world is 300 thousand times higher than the formation rate of fossil fuels. In other words, fossil fuels formed in a thousand years are consumed in one day (Yılmaz, İlbaş, & Su, 2003). Predictions about the remaining of fossil fuels in the world suggest that the future will not be very bright. Accordingly, it is estimated that oil will run out in 2050, natural gas in 2070 and coal in 2150 (Kantemir, 2003).
Depletion of fossil fuel reserves and failure to meet increasing energy demand cannot be avoided (Önder, 2001). As a result of the growing demand for energy need, the trend towards renewable energy sources is increasing all over the world and in our country as well. This is due to the fact that renewable energy has a greater advantage over fossil fuels and does not pollute the environment and constantly renew itself (Ülgen & Hepbaşlı, 2002). Considering the rates of use all over the world, it is known that renewable energy sources have not become widespread enough at the point of replacing fossil fuels yet (Çolak, Kaymakçı, & Akpınar, 2015). The reasons why the renewable energy sources have not become so widespread are because of the high cost of initial installation, lack of permanency, low efficiency, and inability to store the generated energy (Akova, 2008). It is believed that the permanent use of renewable energy could be possible with technologies that allow more efficient and more economical methods in the future, as well as the progress achieved in renewable energy studies (Şen, 2009).
Countries have been trying to find out solutions both to meet the growing need and to prevent environmental damage. Therefore, the use of renewable energy is becoming increasingly common, especially in developed countries, and the use of renewable energy is regarded as a kind of development indicator (Çolak, Kaymakçı, & Akpınar, 2015). In general, countries' expectations for renewable energy use can be expressed as meeting the need for energy to some extent, reducing the dependence on fossil fuels and reducing polluting gases released into the atmosphere (Akova, 2008).
The use of renewable energy sources is vital to ensure the future of all mankind (Keleş & Hamamcı, 2002). In terms of renewable energy sources, Turkey has a significant potential and the use of renewable energy sources is increasing gradually (Kaygusuz, 1999). Renewable energy sources of Turkey are solar, wind and geothermal energy. Furthermore, boron mines in Central Anatolia and the accumulated hydrogen potential beneath the Black Sea can be considered as other renewable energy sources of our country (Ülgen & Hepbaşlı, 2002). Renewable energy sources can be regarded as the use of permanent energy flows without disrupting quantitative and qualitative characteristics or sources of energy that can keep existing the next day, in the course of nature's own evolution. Solar, water, biogas, biomass, wind, hydrogen, geothermal energy and sea currents are some example of renewable energy sources (Üstün, Apaydın, Başaran-Filik, & Kurban, 2009).
It should be taken into account that the environmental problems that people encounter, affect each individual one by one. This point of view suggests that students should be educated regarding the necessary information about energy. As the concept of energy contains a large framework depending on daily use, students sometimes have problems in learning concepts and fall into misconceptions. Some methods and techniques are used to determine misconceptions (Ercan, Taşdere, & Ercan, 2010). One of these methods and techniques is the word association test.
Word association is a method used to reveal the relationships that people create among concepts (Kurtaslan, Aydın & Özer, 2018). This method is practiced in order to "analyze the cognitive structure of students and the inter-concept relations-information network-in this structure" (Kurtaslan, Aydın, & Özer, 2018). It is a technique used to determine the cognitive structure of students and the inter-concept connections in this structure. Moreover, it is practiced to find out whether long-term inter-concept relationships in memory are sufficient or meaningful (Kılıçavan & Kalenderoğlu, 2018).

Research Design
This research aims to determine the cognitive structures of high school students regarding the concept of "energy". It was conducted using the survey design model, which is a research approach that aims to describe a situation that exists in the past or present as how it is in reality (Karasar, 2014).

Participants
Participants of this research are 202 students studying at a public high school in Malatya province in the 2019 -2020 academic year. 58 of these students are 9 th grade, 46 of them are 10 th grade, 45 of them are 11 th grade and 53 of them are 12 th grade. In selection of the participants, convenient sampling was preferred because this sampling enables researcher to choose a sample that is readily available in some non-random way. Also, it allows researcher to collect data more quickly and in a practical way (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2016).

Data Collection Tool
In this research, WAT (Word Association Test) was used as a data collection tool, which aimed to determine the cognitive structures of high school students related to the concept of "energy". WAT consisted of two dimensions; on the first page, there are explanations about the WAT and a WAT sample, which comprised the first dimension of the research and on the second page, there is a WAT worksheet for the energy concept, which comprised the second dimension of the research.

Collecting Data
At the beginning of the data collection, the participants were informed about the data collection tool and process. Then the participants went over the first dimension of the WAT and then they are required to give their response in three minutes. Students were asked to write the first word that comes to their mind related to the key concept.

Analyzing the Data
The words obtained about the concept of energy are presented in tables using the Microsoft Office Excel program. Cut-off points of the tables were determined by considering the repeated words in detail. As a result of the examination and approval of the three experts from the field, cut-off points were decided regarding the responses and frequencies as 15 and above, range between 10-14 and range between 5 and 9. Then, concept networks were created in line with these cut-off points.

Findings
In the following part, data obtained from the research findings were displayed in tables and presented as conceptual networks. The words uttered for the energy concept were presented in a separate table for each grade level, and then concept networks are created to display all grades together according to the specified cut-off points. The 9 th grade students generated 46 different words related to energy. 25 of these words are not included in the table and concept network, as they fell outside the specified cut-off points. The words were listed below the table.
That is, the words uttered fewer than four times were excluded from the analysis. Considering the 9 th grade students' words related to energy, 21 words were included in the analysis and the mostly articulated word was "oil" (f=30). The 10 th grade students generated 41 different words related to energy. 23 of these words are not included in the table and concept network, as they fell outside the specified cut-off points. The words were listed below the table.
That is, the words uttered fewer than four times were excluded from the analysis. Considering the 10 th grade students' words related to energy, 18 words were included in the analysis and the mostly articulated word was "fossil fuels" (f=24). 49 different words related to energy were generated by the 11 th grade students. 32 of these words are not included in the table and concept network, as they fell outside the specified cut-off points. The words were listed below the table. That is, the words uttered fewer than four times were excluded from the analysis. Considering 11 th grade students' words related to energy, 17 words were included in the analysis and the mostly articulated word was "electricity" (f=19).  internet, non-renewable, joule, fan, technology, practical, time, health, getting tired, radiator, fire, soil, redbull (an energy drink), life, mind, Edison, machine, natural, robot, Turkey, accumulator, clock, relax, Earth, wood, science class.
The 12 th grade students generated 53 different words related to energy. 34 of these words are not included in the table and concept network, as they fell outside the specified cut-off points. The words were listed below the table.
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Discuss
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high school stu cy of four or le n word in the "heat" (F=19 usually associa urthermore, am analysis. aders is "fossi ords and frequ oncepts like th s among other 9). "Coal" and he 11 th graders sis. Among the word is follow grades, it is un he 12 th grades s erable part of w uantity. As the Vol. 14,No. 9; s in different le are 29 words i ds that were ut one is for the 9 t reover, eight w des, lastly, six w least and 9 at m al, electricity, t, heater, pote in. It is inferred udents. Of all ess, while 75 w 9 th graders is 9). The words ted with renew mong all classe l fuel" (f=24). uencies provide he 9 th grade stud r classes, whic  Vol. 14, No. 9; increased, the quality of their responses increased as well. The reasons to explain this difference is the content of the 10 th and 11 th grades curriculum and also the students' development in time. The findings of the current research suggest that the words produced for the concept of energy are largely consistent with the extant literature. However, there exists misconception in some words. It will be useful to conduct studies at various levels of students to overcome this misconception. The concept of energy, which falls within the field of many disciplines, should be conveyed by associating it with other disciplines. Making association has a great importance in teaching the concept of energy. Otherwise, occurrence of misconception is inevitable.
Energy is the most important element for the development or even maintenance of the country It is very important to transfer this consciousness to the next generations. It should be noted that if next generations do not recognize the importance of energy, they may have to face big problems in the future. It should be taken into account that the environmental problems that the human beings going through will affect each individual one by one. This point of view suggests that students should be educated regarding the concept of energy. Adopting the idea that the measures that students will take individually will create a snowball effect is really important. Because details that can be perceived as small and are not cared much can cause big social problems in total.
Renewable energy is another point to focus on when educating the students about the concept of energy. It should be emphasized that renewable energy is important for humanity and the future of humanity. Moreover, it is essential to recognize Turkey's renewable energy sources and the country's potential for renewable energy. For example, Turkey does not have oil and natural gas reserves, which are quite common in usage among the energy sources. A significant amount of them is imported, which in return leads to both foreign trade deficiency of the country and an external dependency. Energy produced by renewable energy sources across the country enable Turkey to solve these problems.

Recommendation
• According to the results of the research, the following recommendations can be made: • Existing misconceptions should be eliminated by practicing meaning analysis tables, conceptual change texts, concept maps, concept cartoons, analogies and worksheets in order to make students internalize the concept of energy.
• Students should be encouraged to carry out research projects in their neighborhood to prevent misunderstandings related to the concept of energy in students' cognitive structures.
• In order to avoid misunderstandings related to the concept of energy in students' cognitive structures, a poster competition can be organized at the school and displayed to families and other students during the week of the Science Festival.