full paper ESERA 2007 EVALUATING THE CONCEPT MAPS OF PHYSICS TEACHER CANDIDATES IN IMPULSE MOMENTUM AND COMPARING THE ACHIEVEMENT OF TESTS Kübra YETER, Gazi University Bahadır SAYĞI, Gazi University Şebnem KANDİL İNGEÇ, Gazi University Pervin ÜNLÜ, Gazi University ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to determine, how physics teacher candidates were familiar with impulse- momentum by utilizing concept maps. At the end of the spring semester 2006 73 teacher candidates participated in this study. Firstly, the teacher candidates were asked to draw their own concept maps about impulse and momentum. Afterwards an achievement test about these concepts with 21 questions was administered It included questions about factual knowledge, explaining impulse and momentum, the relationship between changes in impulse and momentum, conservation of momentum, and impulse-momentum. Concept maps and the results of the achievement test were compared. Analysis of the drawings revealed that the teacher candidates have problems in applying and understanding the concepts of impulse and momentum. The correlation between scores in concept maps and the achievement test were weak. While the achievement test measures knowledge and using attained knowledge in different situations, the concept maps, on the other hand, measures knowledge about related concepts and the degree and quality of relationships constructed between concepts. As a result, concept maps is an assessment method that fulfills the lacking points of the achievement test. 1. INTRODUCTION A concept is a lived event or a generalized and symbolized form of a learned object. A concept is briefly a compressed form of our experiments and also stepping stones to pass from facts to abstraction. In other words, concepts are the nodal points between the abstract and the concrete. Concept maps is a techniques that opens the way to represent knowledge schematically. It also supports students for attaining meaningful learning. Ausubel’s “Theory of Meaningful Learning” played an important role in coming up with the idea of concept mapping (Novak, 1990). According to Ausubel “the most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows" (Ausubel, 1968, p. iv). On the basis of this principle Novak et al. while examining, on the one hand, what the students already knew and how their understanding changed in time, on the other hand, they developed a tool which was at first called “cognitive maps” and later “concept maps”. Studies revealed that there is a variety in students’ concept maps. Ruiz-primo et al. pointed out this variety in their 2005 paper in the Science Scope Magazine. According to this study, 5 types of concept maps (i.e. linear, circular, tree, net and middle centered) were shown together with examples.