Word Association Test for Studying Conceptual Structures of Teachers and Students

The paper presents the use of a free word association test for revealing the scientific conceptual structures of teachers and students, concerning two stimulus words – living cell and biodiversity. The stimulus words retrieve a cluster of associations most of which are based on science education and are studied as connected. Associations with the stimulus words are analyzed and classified according to predetermined criteria. The stimulus word ‘living cell’ was quantitatively assessed in order to find out the balance between the associations with its components and to make inferences about curricula and textbooks. The stimulus word ‘biodiversity’ was comparatively assessed using four target groups and the results analyzed in order to find out the effect of biology education on the development of attitudes to this global environmental problem. The data is used to make inferences about the word association test combined with concept map construction as an assessment technique and to make some recommendations for teaching and for improvements of curricula and textbooks