A Conceptual Change Teaching Strategy to Facilitate High School Students' Understanding of Electrochemistry

Recent research in chemistry education has shown an increasing interest in the facilitation of conceptual change in student understanding of chemical concepts. Most of the studies have tried to show the difference in student performance on algorithmic and conceptual problems. The objective of this study is to go beyond and design a teaching strategy based on two teaching experiments that could facilitate students' conceptual understanding of electrochemistry. The study is based on two sections (control, n = 29; experimental, n = 28) of 10th grade high school students at a public school in Venezuela. Experimental group participated in two teaching experiments designed to generate situations/experiences in which students are forced to grapple with alternative responses leading to cognitive conflicts/contradictions. Results obtained show that learning electrochemistry involves both algorithmic and conceptual problems. On Posttest 1, 93% of the experimental group students responded correctly, in contrast to 39% of the control group. On Posttest 2, 39% of the experimental group responded correctly, in contrast to 0% of the Control group. The difference in performance on both posttests is statistically significant (p < 0.001). It is concluded that the teaching experiments facilitated students' understanding (progressive transitions) of electrochemistry.     

Misconceptions and light: A curriculum approach

This paper describes the method used by the author to teach a class of Year 8 students about light and its properties so that the students’ own ideas were considered and their misconceptions addressed. To achieve this a series of teaching modules were designed using a model of conceptual change suggested by Posner and his colleagues at Cornell University. Students’ prior misconceptions about light were identified using a pretest developed by the author. After teaching a posttest was used to determine if the teaching method resulted in a lower level of misconceptions. Interviews from seven students selected at random and the observations gathered by a participant observor were used to verify results. It was found that the teaching method resulted in a lower level of misconceptions in the sample and this was confirmed by the results of the interviews and participant observation. This paper concentrates on the design and content of one of the teaching modules. Specializations: students’ misconceptions in science.     

Shadows: Young Taiwanese children’s views and understanding

The purpose of this study was to examine young children’s views about shadows. Young children hear references to or are involved in many scientific experiences in their everyday lives, and shadows are a part of children’s everyday experiences. Young children may have constructed their knowledge about shadows through their daily experiences. Therefore, a total of 32 children, of which one‐half were four years old and one‐half were five years old, were individually interviewed twice to elicit their views and understanding of shadows. Data were collected by a mixture of picture‐pointing, verbal explanation, and manipulation, and were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. We focused on five facets of children’s ideas about shadows: ideas about the source of light, shadow orientation, shadow shape, shadow size, and shadow intensity. The five year olds performed significantly better on production of shadows, production of shadow shape, and production of shadow size, and also gave more reasonable explanations for their choices than did the four year olds, showing a better understanding of the concept of shadows. Another significant finding of the study was that young children have a much more sophisticated understanding of shadows than Piaget originally suggested and than their verbal explanations imply.     

Strategies and Activities for Initiating and Maintaining Pressure on Students' Naive Views Concerning the Nature of Science

Many science teachers devote a portion of their course to improving students' understanding of the nature of science. However, despite a one- or two-week effort, students often cling to their misconceptions. This tenacity is not surprising in light of conceptual change theory. How then are teachers to facilitate more contemporary portrayals of the nature of science? The key is to maintain in students a sense of dissatisfaction with their archaic notions of the nature of science. Drawing from my recent six year experience teaching high school biology and chemistry, this paper provides examples of how science teachers might initiate and maintain pressure on students' misconceptions regarding the nature of science, and facilitate student consideration of more contemporary views.     

Students’ Alternative Frameworks and Teaching Strategies: a pilot study

Research has shown that students’ alternative conceptions in science are quite resistent to change, which indicates that the teaching strategies used are not appropriate and that new strategies should be implemented in order to promote conceptual change. This pilot study was carried out with 100 Portuguese 5th grade students and aims: (a) to investigate a teaching strategy geared to the students’ conceptual change, taking into account their misconceptions about scientific ideas; (b) to promote a better attitude towards science. The results of this study indicate that the teaching approach based on the pupils’ alternative ideas and that makes them reflect on their own work and ideas, seemed to increase learning of scientific concepts related to the topic ‘properties and corpuscular model of the air’ and consequently favoured conceptual change better than a ‘traditional’ approach.     

A Step-by-Step Design and Development of an Integrated Educational Software to Deal with Students' Empirical Ideas about Mechanical Interaction

We present the educational software Interactions between Objects, which we designed and developed to assist constructive teaching of Newton's 3rd law and Newtonian Dynamics in general. The software was designed on the basis of students' empirical ideas and conceptual difficulties, identified from previous research with Greek students (11–16 years old), the main findings of which are presented. We describe the step-by step design of this software, which aims to help students reconstruct their knowledge in the action–reaction thematic field through a number of experiments, by simulating real everyday life situations of interaction between bodies, modeling those situations by the help of an appropriate didactic method, applying cognitive conflict processes and supporting run my model features to promote students' conceptual change in this physics area.     

“The sun is sleeping now”: Early learning about light and shadows

To keep intuitive knowledge fluid for an extended time, we wish to encourage young children to examine continuously those intuitive explanations for natural phenomena which later become hard wired, highly resistant to development or change. To assist this we designed a learning package which integrated three extensively researched educational strategies (cooperative learning, informal inquiry and familiar context) for children to explore their notions about the topiclight. Children in a kindergarten class were encouraged to share their ideas about shadows and shadow formation with peers, as they took part in explorations of shadow formation inside and outside their classroom. Whole class discussions, small group conversations and final conversations between researcher and small groups provide insights into social and individual construction of knowledge, young children's abilities to be scientific and the social construction of gender. Specializations: children's learning in science and technology; inclusion; contexts, teaching models.     

A Lakatosian Conceptual Change Teaching Strategy Based on Student Ability to Build Models with Varying Degrees of Conceptual Understanding of Chemical Equilibrium

The main objective of this study is to construct a Lakatosian teaching strategy that can facilitate conceptual change in students' understanding of chemical equilibrium. The strategy is based on the premise that cognitive conflicts must have been engendered by the students themselves in trying to cope with different problem solving strategies. Results obtained (based on Venezuelan freshman students) show that the performance of the experimental group of students was generally better (especially on the immediate posttests) than that of the control group. It is concluded that a conceptual change teaching strategy must take into consideration the following aspects: a) core beliefs of the students in the topic (cf. 'hard core', Lakatos 1970); b) exploration of the relationship between core beliefs and student alternative conceptions (misconceptions); c) cognitive complexity of the core belief can be broken down into a series of related and probing questions; d) students resist changes in their core beliefs by postulating 'auxiliary hypotheses' in order to resolve their contradictions; e) students' responses based on their alternative conceptions must be considered not as wrong, but rather as models, perhaps in the same sense as used by scientists to break the complexity of a problem; and f) students' misconceptions be considered as alternative conceptions (theories) that compete with the present scientific theories and at times recapitulate theories scientists held in the past.     

The double curse of misconceptions: misconceptions impair not only text comprehension but also metacomprehension in the domain of statistics

Research shows that misconceptions are usually detrimental to text comprehension. However, whether misconceptions also impair metacomprehension accuracy, that is, the accuracy with which one self-assesses one’s text comprehension, has received far less attention. We conducted a study in which we examined students’ (N = 47) comprehension and metacomprehension accuracy (prediction accuracy and postdiction accuracy) of a statistics text as a function of their statistical misconceptions. Text comprehension and metacomprehension accuracy referred to both conceptual and procedural aspects of statistics. The results showed that students who had more misconceptions achieved poorer conceptual text comprehension and, at the same time, provided more overconfident predictions of their conceptual and procedural text comprehension than students who had fewer misconceptions. In contrast, postdiction accuracy of conceptual and procedural text comprehension was not affected by misconceptions.     

The use of examinations for revealing and distinguishing between students' misconceptions,misunderstandings and “no conceptions” in college chemistry

Students at all ages hold a wide variety of scientifically faulty knowledge structures called “misconceptions”. As far as misconceptions in chemistry are concerned, college science students are no exception. Systematic administration to freshman biology majors of specially-designed mid-term and term higher-order cognitive skills (HOCS)-oriented examinations within the courses “General and Inorganic Chemistry” and “Introduction to Modern Organic Chemistry” proved these examinations to be very effective in revealing and distinguishing between students'misconceptions, misunderstandings, and“no conceptions”. Several of these have never been mentioned before in the relevant research literature. Accordingly, reflective teaching strategies to overcome this “misconceptions problem” and affect meaningfully subsequent learning have been explored and implemented within our longitudinal effort to develop students' HOCS. The study results combined with accumulated experience indicate that properly designed HOCS-oriented examinations may be very effective for revealing, but notper se for overcoming, students' misconceptions. However, within HOCS-oriented chemistry teaching, the assessment of students by such examinations is very useful particularly for providing data for remediation purposes via appropriate modification of the teaching strategies. Eventually, this leads to gains in students' HOCS which is in line with the overall goal of the current reform in science education.     

Toward a durable prevalence of scientific conceptions: Tracking the effects of two interfering misconceptions about buoyancy from preschoolers to science teachers

While the majority of published research on conceptual change has focused on how misconceptions can be abandoned or modified, some recent research findings support the hypothesis that acquired scientific knowledge does not necessarily erase or alter initial non‐scientific knowledge but rather coexists with it. In keeping with this “coexistence claim,” this article presents an analysis of scientific understanding in four groups of individuals with varying degrees of expertise (preschoolers, elementary students, secondary students, and science teachers) using a cognitive task on buoyancy. This task allowed us to determine the prevalence of certain conceptions and the interference caused by two possible conceptual distractors with regard to producing accurate answers. Results describe the progression of the desired (scientific) conception with age/expertise as well as the evolution or regression of the statuses of two misconceptions. Results also show that misconceptions continue to interfere with performance even when there is a higher degree of scientific expertise, and that patterns of such interference can be studied. In keeping with these conclusions, we argue for the use of a model of conceptual learning called “conceptual prevalence.” © 2017 The Authors. Journal of Research in Science Teaching Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 54:1121–1142, 2017

     

Overcoming misconceptions via analogical reasoning: abstract transfer versus explanatory model construction

In most work investigating factors influencing the success of analogies in instruction, an underlying assumption is that students have little or no knowledge of the target situation (the situation to be explained by analogy). It is interesting to ask what influences the success of analogies when students believe they understand the target situation. If this understanding is not normative, instruction must aim at conceptual change rather than simply conceptual growth. Through the analysis of four case studies of tutoring interviews (two of which achieved some noticeable conceptual change and two of which did not) we propose a preliminary list of factors important for success in overcoming misconceptions via analogical reasoning. First, there must be a usable anchoring conception. Second, the analogical connection between an anchoring example and the target situation may need to be developed explicitly through processes such as the use of intermediate, bridging analogies. Third, it may be necessary to engage the student in a process of analogical reasoning in an interactive teaching environment, rather than simply presenting the analogy in tetext or lecture. Finally, the result of this process may need to be more than analogical transfer of abstract relational structure. The analogies may need to be used to enrich the target situation, leading to the student's construction of a new explanatory model.     

Elementary teachers' epistemological and ontological understanding of teaching for conceptual learning

The purpose of this study was to examine the ways in which elementary teachers applied their understanding of conceptual learning and teaching to their instructional practices as they became knowledgeable about conceptual change pedagogy. Teachers' various ways to interpret and utilize students' prior ideas were analyzed in both epistemological and ontological dimensions of learning. A total of 14 in‐service elementary teachers conducted an 8‐week‐long inquiry into students' conceptual learning as a professional development course project. Major data sources included the teachers' reports on their students' prior ideas, lesson plans with justifications, student performance artifacts, video‐recorded teaching episodes, and final reports on their analyses of student learning. The findings demonstrated three epistemologically distinct ways the teachers interpreted and utilized students' prior ideas. These supported Kinchin's epistemological categories of perspectives on teaching including positivist, misconceptions, and systems views. On the basis of Chi's and Thagard's theories of conceptual change, the teachers' ontological understanding of conceptual learning was differentiated in two ways. Some teachers taught a unit to change the ontological nature of student ideas, whereas the others taught a unit within the same ontological categories of student ideas. The findings about teachers' various ways of utilizing students' prior ideas in their instructional practices suggested a number of topics to be addressed in science teacher education such as methods of utilizing students' cognitive resources, strategies for purposeful use of counter‐evidence, and understanding of ontological demands of learning. Future research questions were suggested. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 1292–1317, 2007     

Role of Epistemic Beliefs and Scientific Argumentation in Science Learning

We hypothesized that instruction in the criteria of scientific arguments, in combination with constructivist epistemic beliefs, would produce greater learning about physics concepts. The study was a randomized experiment, where college undergraduates (n = 88) discussed, in pairs over the Web, several physics problems related to gravity and air resistance. Prior to their discussions, one‐half of the dyads received information on the nature of scientific arguments. All students were classified epistemologically as relativists, multiplists, or evaluativists. We found that students in the treatment group incorporated more scientific criteria into their discussion notes and accordingly developed better arguments on several dimensions. In addition, significantly more participants in the treatment group adopted the correct answer to one of the problems. Outcomes also differed in relation to students’ epistemic beliefs. Specifically, multiplists were less critical of inconsistencies and misconceptions, and interacted with their partners less than other belief groups, whereas evaluativists interacted more critically, bringing up different ideas from their partners. Evaluativists also solved one of the physics problems more accurately and tended to demonstrate a reduction in misconceptions. We discuss the results in light of instruction in scientific argumentation, conceptual development and change, and epistemic beliefs.     

The effects of explanation-driven inquiry on students’ conceptual understanding of redox

ABSTRACT

The study that is the subject of this paper tested the effects of EDI (explanation-driven inquiry) on students’ redox conceptual understanding and their misconceptions. Two classes of 119 10th grade high school students were involved. Two groups of students in the same school were chosen. One class that was taught by EDI teaching was set as the treatment group and another class that received conventional teaching was set as the control group. Students’ conceptual understanding was measured by a standardised instrument, and the students’ misconceptions were compared. The analysis of covariance showed that EDI teaching had significant effects on students’ redox conceptual understanding, and the results of the chi-square test demonstrated that students’ conceptual understanding level was improved by using EDI teaching. Also, after comparing the two groups of students’ misconceptions of redox, the results indicated that the students’ misconceptions changed toward deeper conceptual understanding in the treatment group that used EDI. Finally, some suggestions were made on how to implement EDI in the classroom.     

First Year Turkish Science Undergraduates’ Understandings and Misconceptions of Light

The present study aims to identify first year Turkish Science undergraduates’ understandings and misconceptions of the concept of light and its propagation. For this purpose, an instrument composed of four open-ended questions was developed by the researchers. The diagnostic test was piloted with twenty students and modifications were made prior to the final administration of the test. The content validity of the test questions was assessed by two physics researchers and one lecturer. These questions were administered to a hundred first year undergraduates (aged 16–18) enrolled in the Science Teacher Training Department in Ataturk University in Turkey. In addition, the semi-structured interviews of 30–40 min were conducted with the four students whose responses involved common misunderstanding. All interview records were transcribed and analysed. The findings showed that undergraduates’ understanding of light is poor and also they have important and prevalent misconceptions. Identified misconceptions, some of which have been reported in the literature, are discussed qualitatively. The misunderstandings identified were compared with those in the literature. The results have some implications for teaching light, suggesting that a substantial revision of teaching strategies is needed.

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Role of Discrepant Questioning Leading to Model Element Modification

Discrepant questioning is a teaching technique that can help students “unlearn” misconceptions and process science ideas for deep understanding. Discrepant questioning is a technique in which teachers question students in a way that requires them to examine their ideas or models, without giving information prematurely to the student or passing judgment on the student’s model. This strategy prompts students to see the contradictions in their own model. This study focused on the analysis of small group tutoring sessions on human respiration. Individual and small group construction of mental models was analyzed after instructed with a standardized teaching sequence based on model construction and criticism theory (Rea-Ramirez in Model of conceptual understanding in human respiration and strategies for instruction, Dissertation Abstracts International, 59 (10), 5196B, 1998). Analysis provided deeper understanding of the role discrepant questioning played in this construction of understanding and suggested new models of learning.     

Instructional Misconceptions in Acid-Base Equilibria: An Analysis from a History and Philosophy of Science Perspective

The implications of history and philosophy of chemistry are explored in the context of chemical models. Models and modeling provide the context through which epistemological aspects of chemistry can be promoted. In this work, the development of ideas and models about acids and bases (with emphasis on the Arrhenius, the Brønsted–Lowry, and the Lewis models) are presented. In addition, misconceptions (alternative and instructional ones) on acid-base (ionic) equilibria are examined from the history and philosophy of science perspective. The relation between the development of the models and students misconceptions are investigated. Finally, the hypothesis that history and philosophy could help educators anticipate students misconceptions is examined.