The role of hypothetico-deductive reasoning and physical analogues of molecular interactions in conceptual change

Two hypotheses about theoretical concept acquisition, application, and change were tested. College biology students classified as intuitive, transitional, or reflective (hypothetico-deductive) reasoners were first taught two theoretical concepts (molecular polarity and bonding) to explain the mixing of dye with water, but not with oil, when all three were shaken in a container. The students were then tested in a context in which they misapplied the concepts in an attempt to explain the gradual spread of blue dye in standing water. Next students were taught another theoretical concept (diffusion), with and without the use of physical analogues. They were retested to see which students acquired the concept of diffusion and which students changed from use of the incorrect polarity and bonding concepts (i.e., the misconceptions) to use of the diffusion concept to correctly explain the dye's gradual spread. As predicted, the experimental/analogy group scored significantly higher than the control group on a posttest question that required the definition of diffusion. Also as predicted, hypothetico-deductive reasoning skill was significantly related to correct application of the diffusion concept and to a change from the misapplication of the polarity and bonding concepts to the correct application of the diffusion concept to explain the gradual spread of the blue dye. Thus, the results support the hypotheses that physical analogues are helpful in theoretical concept acquisition and that hypothetico-deductive reasoning is needed for successful concept application and change. Educational implications are drawn.     

Metalearning and conceptual change

Conceptual change means the commitment to a new belief about a principle or a phenomenon, and the abandoning of an old one. Promotion of a new belief is relatively easy, but it is difficult to get students to abandon their former beliefs. Conflicting beliefs can be held by a learner. This article argues that the resolution of conflicting beliefs requires elements of metalearning (conscious control over one's learning).

The work of the Project to Enhance Effective Learning (the peel project), which attempts to promote metalearning in a secondary school is described and some general principles derived from the experience of the project are outlined. It is suggested that the key to the acceptance of metalearning strategies by students parallels the conditions for promoting conceptual change specified by Posner et al. (1982) and in particular in the acceptance of the fruitfulness of the new approaches. It is argued that this requires changes in the organization of schooling, particularly adoption of methods of assessment that reward understanding.     

Understanding conceptual change: connecting and questioning

We engage in a metalogue based on eight papers in this issue of Cultural Studies of Science Education that review the state of conceptual change research and its possible affect on the teaching and learning of science. Our discussion addresses three aspects of conceptual change research: theoretical, methodological, and practical, as we discuss conceptual change research in light of our experiences as science educators. Finally, we examine the implications of conceptual change research for the teachers and students with whom we work.

Classroom conceptual change: philosophical perspectives

Researchers of students’ concepts and conceptual change frequently draw analogies to the history of science. The analogy is generally presented when comparing students’ scientific concepts to similar ones in the history of science. We have tried to show the importance of this analogy on a higher level ‐‐ that of understanding the process of conceptual change in general among students.

This article outlines a number of lines in the philosophy of science and analyses differences between the perspectives of a number of broadly constructivist positions which have developed during this century.

The analysis is used to clarify the theoretical basis on which research into student conceptual change is conducted and interpreted.     

Chaos and cosmos: Educational discourse and social change

School textbooks are assumed to be important socializers. However, because of the complexity and methodological stumbling blocks involved in the subject matter, the impact of specific textbooks and the interaction between pupils and textbooks have seldom been studied. I discuss the methodological problems in explorations of the role of school textbooks as agents of socialization, and suggest methods for exploring and understanding the dynamic interaction between textbooks and their readers.     

Kuhn and conceptual change: on the analogy between conceptual changes in science and children

This article argues that the analogy between conceptual changes in the history of science and conceptual changes in the development of young children is problematic. We show that the notions of ‘conceptual change’ in Kuhn and Piaget’s projects, the two thinkers whose work is most commonly drawn upon to support this analogy, are not compatible in the sense usually claimed. We contend that Kuhn’s work pertains not so much to the psychology of individual scientists, but to the way philosophers and historians should describe developments in communities of scientists. Furthermore, we argue that the analogy is based on a misunderstanding of the nature of science and the relation between science and common sense. The distinctiveness of the two notions of conceptual change has implications for science education research, since it raises serious questions about the relevance of Kuhn’s remarks for the study of pedagogical issues.     

The effects of teacher discourse on students’ discourse,problem-solving and reasoning during cooperative learning

The study sought to determine if teachers who are taught specific communication skills designed to challenge students’ cognitive and metacognitive thinking during cooperative learning use more challenging and scaffolding behaviours to mediate students’ learning than teachers who implement cooperative learning or small-group work who have not been taught these skills. The study involved 51 teachers in three conditions (cooperative + communication conditions; cooperative condition, group-work condition) and two groups of students from each of the above teachers’ classes. The results show that the teachers in the cooperative + communication condition used significantly more challenging and scaffolding behaviours than teachers in the group-work condition but not more than the teachers in the cooperative condition. The study also showed that the children in the cooperative + communication condition provided significantly more elaborative and help-giving behaviours to group members than peers in the other two conditions and they obtained higher scores on the follow-up reasoning and problem-solving activities than their peers in the group-work condition.     

Developmental action learning: Toward collaborative change

In this account of practice, the authors introduce a variant of classic action learning, called developmental action learning (DAL). The DAL model, derived from cognitive development theory, introduces conventional learning modules prior to the more intensive set experience. It also calls for facilitation designed to help participants, selected for their readiness to change, make the leap to deeper levels of personal and organizational development. The DAL approach is applied to a leadership development series among a group of high-level administrators within a university consortium. The case study gives promise to the use of developmental action learning to enhance collaborative leadership processes.     

Theory of mind and conceptual change

We agree with the commentaries by Scholl and Leslie, and also by Moses, that the meta-analytic findings do not definitively rule out early competence accounts. But they do make extant versions of such accounts increasingly unlikely. In particular, the meta-analytic findings argue against executive function expression accounts, including the Theory-of-Mind Mechanism/Selection Processor account advocated by Scholl and Leslie. Specifically, Scholl and Leslie articulate two explicit predictions of their account: that task manipulations that attenuate inhibitory demands should differentially advantage older children, and that theory-of-mind developments should occur with consistent timetables. Both of these specific predictions are clearly contradicted, not supported, by the meta-analytic findings.     

Searching and planning: young children's reasoning about past and future event sequences

Six experiments examined children's ability to make inferences using temporal order information. Children completed versions of a task involving a toy zoo; one version required reasoning about past events (search task) and the other required reasoning about future events (planning task). Children younger than 5 years failed both the search and the planning tasks, whereas 5-year-olds passed both (Experiments 1 and 2). However, when the number of events in the sequence was reduced (Experiment 3), 4-year-olds were successful on the search task but not the planning task. Planning difficulties persisted even when relevant cues were provided (Experiments 4 and 5). Experiment 6 showed that improved performance on the search task found in Experiment 3 was not due to the removal of response ambiguity.     

Prompting conceptual understanding with computer-mediated peer discourse and knowledge acquisition techniques

Numerous computer‐mediated communication (CMC) tools have been designed to facilitate group discourses on the Web. However, previous studies noted that participants did not value online conferencing as a method for conducting in‐depth discussions, and instead considered this method as merely scratching the surface of the issues involved. Therefore, the teachers must moderate the online discourse to add value to the success of CMC. This study presents a methodology that uses knowledge acquisition techniques during online discourses to increase student conceptual understanding and evaluation skills. The methodology explains the conceptual frameworks of individuals and the conceptual relationships between student peers. Active database triggers then are applied to automatically monitor the conceptual relationships and to moderate online discourses between student peers. Student reactions demonstrated that discourses mediated by the repertory grid analysis technique helped group members not only promote common conceptual understandings but also to approach the level of conceptual understanding of the teacher.     

Children's conditional reasoning part III: A design for research on children's learning of conditional reasoning and research findings

Educational Studies in Mathematics -     

A 21st century collaborative policy development and implementation approach: a discourse analysis

Abstract

The article used Unisa Framework for the implementation of a team approach to curriculum and learning development to explore and analyse the views and experiences of academic lecturers and curriculum and learning development experts on the conceptualisation and development of the said framework and its subsequent implementation thereof. I used a qualitative poststructuralist paradigm underpinned by the case study research design to critically analyse the processes that were followed to craft the policy. I posit that a policy that is conceptualised by an inflexible classical hierarchical organisational structure without the full collaborative participation of all the stakeholders is bound to fail in its crucial implementation processes. I used online blogging, facebook, documents and face-to-face tape-recorded interviews to collect the data. Results indicated that the elite mass (traditional) policy-making model was used to craft the policy and as a result its operationalisation process received indifferent attention and responses by Colleges.     

Transfer and conceptual change: the change process from the theoretical perspectives of coordination classes and phenomenological primitives

The purpose of this study is to understand the nature of pre-instructional knowledge transferred by students into problem situations and the change process on students’ knowledge system during classroom discussions. This study was framed by two interrelated theoretical frameworks on knowledge structures, phenomenological primitives and coordination classes. The data were collected through problem solving sessions on turning effect of forces (torques or moment) from ten participants who were seeking a degree to become physics teachers. The analysis of data showed that, in this particular context, students’ pre-instructional ideas can be characterized according to phenomenological primitives. The theoretical constructs of the coordination classes generated meaningful results to understand students’ particular difficulties in transferring the moment concept across different contexts and the change process on students’ knowledge system. The major stimulator of the change process emerged as the students’ becoming aware of the epistemological nature of their knowledge structures and searching the causal mechanisms behind physical phenomena.     

Developing children's conceptual understanding of area measurement: A curriculum and teaching experiment

The present study examined the effectiveness of three instructional treatments which had different combinations of mathematical elements regarding 2-dimensional (2-D) geometry and area measurement for developing 4th-grade children's understanding of the formulas for area measurement and their ability to solve area measurement problems. Participants were 120 fourth graders. The results showed that the enriched curriculum, involving the geometry motions and area measurement connections effectively facilitated children's mathematical judgments and explanations demanding high-level conceptual understanding. The instructional curricula accentuating only 2-D geometry or numerical calculations for area measurement did not exhibit such effectiveness. Interview data revealed that the geometric operations of superimposition, decomposition, re-composition as well as the concept of congruence were deemed essential by children for the conceptualization of the formulas for area measurement.     

温室气体与全球环境变化

近年来，人类正面临着许多全球环境问题，如引起全球变暖的温室气体、臭氧减少、物种严灭绝、土地荒漠化以及淡水资料短缺等，而大气中温室气体浓度的增加已引起科学家们的极大关注，N2O和CH4是两种重要的温室气体，因为它们在大气中浓度迅速增加和其在大气化学中的重要作用，因此，N2O和CH4的研究已成为温室气体的研究的热点。     

Effect of instruction using microcomputer simulations and conceptual change strategies on science learning

This article describes an investigation into the effects of instruction using microcomputer simulations and conceptual change strategies. The microcomputer program was designed in accord with a model of conceptual change to diagnose and remediate an alternative conception of velocity. Results show that, first, the microcomputer simulations are credible representations of reality, and second, that the remedial part of the program produced significant conceptual change in students holding the alternative conception.     

Danish majority children's reasoning about exclusion based on gender and ethnicity

This study investigated 282 eight- to twelve-year-old Danish majority children's judgments and justifications of exclusion based on gender and ethnicity (i.e., Danish majority children and ethnic-minority children of a Muslim background). Children's judgments and reasoning varied with the perpetrator of the exclusion and the social identity of the target. Children assessed exclusion based on ethnicity as less acceptable than exclusion based on gender and used more moral reasoning for the former than the latter. Children judged it less acceptable for a teacher than a child to exclude a child protagonist. Children were sensitive to status, judging it less acceptable to exclude a less powerful group member. The findings are discussed in relation to intergroup relations in Denmark.