The role of conceptual conflict in conceptual change and the design of science instruction

Conceptual conflict has long been recognized as a factor that could facilitate student learning. Due, however, to the lack of a convincing explanation of why it occurs, and how it can be resolved, it has seldom been used in instructional design. Its potential use in instruction is particularly relevant in the light of the recent, well-documented finding that students' existing conceptions frequently constitute a barrier to effective learning. This article examines conceptual conflict in the light of an epistemological model of learning as conceptual change. This analysis shows that the conceptual change model provides an explanation of conceptual conflict which is sufficiently detailed to allow it to be used in the design of instruction. The results of two studies, the first of which addressed the concepts of mass, volume, and density, and the second, the concept of speed, show that instruction, designed in this way, is effective in changing students' existing conceptions.     

Personal metaphors of prospective secondary economics and science teachers

Using the responses to open questions, this qualitative study examines the personal metaphors expressed by prospective secondary education teachers, 46 science graduates and 41 economics graduates. The metaphors are classified into the four categories of Leavy, McSorley, and Boté: the behaviourist/transmissive, the cognitivist/constructivist, the situative, and the self-referential. The results showed most metaphors to fall into the behaviourist/transmissive category, followed by the cognitivist/constructivist, self-referential, and situative categories, although some teachers expressed metaphors framed in more than one category. Of the 129 metaphors detected in the study, only one, of a chemistry graduate concerning the equilibrium between reactants, was associated with the prospective teachers' specific undergraduate education. The rest were expressions of their overall vision of teaching and learning, regardless of the speciality.     

The development of a recycling awareness scale for prospective science teachers

The purpose of this study was to develop a scale for measuring prospective science teachers’ awareness of waste recycling. The study was conducted with the participation of 382 prospective teachers attending a university located in northern Turkey. The five-point Likert type scale that was developed contained 82 items relating to prospective science teachers’ awareness of waste recycling. The factor analysis conducted showed that five items had factor loadings below 0.30, and five were cross loading items. Factor analysis was repeated after removing these items. A further 24 items were removed from the list at the end of the factor analysis, and the remaining 48 items were grouped under ten dimensions. The reliability coefficient for the factors extracted varied between 0.717 and 0.805, and the internal reliability coefficient for the whole scale was 0.905.     

Tracing conceptual change in preservice teachers

This article reports on a study examining changes in preservice teachers' conceptions of teacher planning associated with a year-long course on Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment. Changes were measured by pre and post concept maps. Conceptions of planning on pre-maps differed significantly by certification level (elementary or secondary). Conceptions on post maps differed significantly by course instructor (three sections). Qualitative shifts in responses on pre and post maps are also noted. A new method is described for determining group patterns of response, and depicting them graphically. This method makes analysis of concept maps more practical for educators (less time consuming), and thus may contribute to further program evaluation studies.     

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.     

A survey of the use of newspapers in science instruction by secondary teachers in Northern Ireland

The purpose of this study was to explore the extent and nature of teachers' use of newspapers in the secondary science classroom. A survey was conducted in 50 schools. Through semi-structured interviews with the heads of their science departments, three broad issues were investigated: the prevalence, pattern and purpose of use, classroom practice and curricular priorities. It was found that a great many teachers use newspapers, in some way, to support science instruction. The majority, however, used the resource incidentally rather than systematically. By far their most common intention was to highlight the link between school science and everyday life. Only a few reported that they used newspapers to develop among their students an aptitude and ability to read and respond critically to science in the media. It is suggested that such findings are significant in the context of current discussion of the school curriculum and 'scientific literacy'.     

Effect of instruction using students' prior knowledge and conceptual change strategies on science learning

One of the factors affecting students' learning in science is their existing knowledge prior to instruction. The students' prior knowledge provides an indication of the alternative conceptions as well as the scientific conceptions possessed by the students. This study is concerned primarily with students' alternative conceptions and with instructional strategies to effect the learning of scientific conceptions; i.e., to effect conceptual change from alternative to scientific conceptions. The conceptual change model used here suggests conditions under which alternative conceptions can be replaced by or differentiated into scientific conceptions and new conceptions can be integrated with existing conceptions. The instructional strategy and materials were developed for a particular student population, namely, black high school students in South Africa, using their previously identified prior knowledge (conceptions and alternative conceptions) and incorporate the principles for conceptual change. The conceptions involved were mass, volume, and density. An experimental group of students was taught these concepts using the special instructional strategy and materials. A control group was taught the same concepts using a traditional strategy and materials. Pre- and posttests were used to assess the conceptual change that occurred in the experimental and control groups. The results showed a significantly larger improvement in the acquisition of scientific conceptions as a result of the instructional strategy and materials which explicitly dealt with student alternative conceptions.     

Research interests of secondary science teachers

In the past few years, science educators and the nation at large have become increasingly concerned about the “Crisis in Science Education.” An underlying cause of this crisis is the nonuniform quality of instruction delivered by secondary science teachers. One way to improve the quality of teaching in the schools is the application of science education research findings to teaching. Most teachers are unaware of the research findings and/or do not apply them in their classrooms. This study helps determine the areas of research which are of greatest interest to secondary science teachers. Results will be used by NSTA to determine the contents of future volumes of the monograph What Research Says to the Science Teacher. A random sample of 600 secondary science teachers was obtained from the National Registry of NSTA. Teachers were sent a 23 item questionnaire that asked them to rate their interest in each research topic on a five point scale. The questionnaire contained the 12 items prepared by a NARST-NSTA committee in 1979 and an additional 11 items using the same format. Demographic data collected from the survey included sex, teaching assignment, role in school, type of school, type of community, years of teaching experience, and familiarity with What Research Says. … Data were analyzed using this demographic data as well as according to whether teachers returned the original or a follow-up questionnaire. Teachers who returned the first questionnaire had basically the same preferences as those who returned the follow-up questionnaire. Sixty percent of the teachers completed the questionnaire in usable form. Overall results of the study based on both frequency of response and on mean rating indicate that the following five topics are of greatest interest to secondary science teachers: laboratory experiences, motivational techniques, effect on college courses, problem solving, and meaningful learning. Analysis of data according to the subject taught indicated that chemistry and physics teachers are more interested in problem solving than biology teachers, and that chemistry, physics, and earth science teachers are also interested in the sequence of the content. Males and females had the same top five interests but in a different order. The same is true for teachers of grades 7–9 versus grades 10–12. Rural teachers preferences varied substantially from those in other settings and differences were also found for teachers familiar with What Research Says … compared to the rest of the sample. For every classification of teacher, the area of least interest was sex difference research.     

Peer mentoring in the development of beginning secondary science teachers: three case studies

In this study, the researchers examined the effectiveness of a reflective model of peer mentoring in the professional growth of early‐career science teachers. The study was carried out over one academic year with three beginning secondary science teachers. The public school teachers in this study reported that participation in peer mentoring provided a support mechanism through which they developed confidence in risk‐taking and experienced professional growth. Results indicate teachers gained insight into each of the four broad domains of teacher responsibility that were measured, including specific issues relevant to curriculum structure, managing student behavior and classroom safety, utilizing new instructional approaches and negotiating relationships with various stakeholders as part of their professional responsibilities. This study has relevant implications for teacher education and provides a model for peer mentoring that could be considered for implementation as a means of initial support to beginning science teachers.     

Challenging gender-blindness in preservice secondary science teachers

This material is based upon work supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation (Grant No. HRD 945-0022). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.     

Evolution of the personal teaching models of prospective secondary school science teachers as expressed through metaphors

This study analyses the evolution of the personal metaphors of 31 science graduates enrolled in a Master’s degree course in Secondary Education Teaching during the 2012–13 academic year. The instrument used was an open questionnaire that included asking the participants to make drawings representing the roles of the teacher. Four categories of metaphor were considered: behaviourist/transmissive, cognitivist/constructivist, situative/socio-historical, and self-referential. It was found that most of the prospective teachers were indeed able to conceptualize their roles in the form of metaphors. Comparison of the results before and after the teaching practicum revealed no changes in most of the participants’ metaphors and associated models. Instead, these appeared to be firmly set already at the beginning of the Master’s course, and remained uninfluenced by either the course or the practicum. Only a minority of the participants showed changes in their metaphors—5 with progressive changes, and 5 with regressive changes.     

Mathematical belief change in prospective primary teachers

The development and influence of beliefs in teacher education has been a topic of increasing interest for researchers in recent years. This study explores the responses of a group of prospective primary teachers to attempts to facilitate belief change as part of their initial teacher education programme in mathematics. The students’ responses seemed to fall into three categories: non-engagement; building a new set of beliefs and; reforming existing beliefs. In this article the participants’ responses are outlined and illustrated with stories from three individuals. This study suggests that belief reform is complex and fraught with ethical dilemmas. Certainly there is a need for further research in this area, particularly given the pervasive influence of beliefs on teaching practice.

Student outcomes with rotation of teachers in secondary biology

Look carefully at outcomes in the affective domain before exchanging a classroom with a rotating staff for the conventional one teacher design.     

Cognitive development in a secondary science setting

Observations were made of the progressive change in the cognitive development of 141 students over the course of their secondary education in an Australian private school. Cognitive development was measured in years 8, 10 and 12 usingBond's Logical Orerations Test. Rasch analysis of each of the data sets provided ability estimates for students in the year groups of 1993 (year 8), 1995 (year 10) and 1997 (year 12). Twenty-nine students from the year group of 1993 were tested on all three occasions. We analysed data from these 29 students in order to investigate the children's cognitive development across years 8, 10 and 12. We also examined the influence of the Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (CASE)Thinking Science program on the cognitive development and scholastic achievement of these students. We found increased mental growth between years 8 and 10 for most students in theThinking Science cohort, which could not be predicted from their starting levels. There was a significant correlation between cognitive development and the scholastic achievement of these students. Although boys as a group were more advanced in cognitive development than girls in years 8 and 10, no difference was found in the rate of cognitive change based on sex up to year 10. However girls showed cognitive gains across years 10–12 which were not found in boys. The students who were new to the school also showed increased cognitive development in years 11 and 12. Students who had experienced theThinking Science course were more cognitively developed than students who joined the school after the intervention had taken place. This study supports the claim of Adey and Shayer that there is a relationship between cognitive development and scholastic achievement, even though we used different measures of cognitive development and scholastic achievement.     

概念转变教学中创造性思维能力的培养

概念转变研究是近20年来科学教育研究的热点之一,创新教育、创造能力是目前人们最为关注和讨论的热点问题之一,而创造性思维与创新教育、创造能力是不可分的。本文探讨了概念转变教学中如何培养学生的创造性思维能力。     

教学模式 师生角色与教学效率

教学过程是师生之间的一个行为博弈,博弈的结果可以是良性的也可以是非良性的,这取决于师生双方在教学过程中的角色、地位和教学模式所提供的效率.传统模式过分看重知识的传授,从而严重损失了教学效率.变传统教育模式为创造型模式从而加强学生在教学中的主体地位,是未来教育发展的趋势.