Examining tourism management students’ cognitive structure towards cittaslow-slow city through word association test

The purpose of the research is to reveal the cognitive structures of the associate degree students about the concepts related to the slow city concept through the Word Attribution Test (K？T), which is an alternative measurement evaluation technique. For this purpose, 58 associate degree students were applied KIT. The concept of slow city key was given to students and they were asked to write the words that the key concept brought to their mind in a certain period of time. The data obtained were recorded in a frequency table. The data in this frequency table and the 16-dimensional concept map showing the cognitive structure of students were drawn. In addition, the relevant sentences to be established for the key concept were analyzed by their classification according to their meaning and characteristics. The results have been aimed to reveal the subjects that students who are at associate degree in the tourism management program are lacking in the concept of slow city. So, suggestions towards vocational schools involving this program have been presented