Bilingual Students' Ideas and Conceptual Change About Slow Geomorphological Changes Caused by Water

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper presents the results of an experiment investigating the development of elementary-school dual-language learners' conceptual knowledge about processes of erosion, deposition, and transportation caused by water movement. To elicit students' ideas, researchers asked students to answer four open-ended questions using written answers and/or drawings. Students' responses were analyzed, and misconceptions were organized in a systemic network. A semiquantitative analysis was conducted to investigate changes in students' number of misconceptions as a result of a science and reading instructional sequence. Forty-nine fourth-grade students participated in this investigation. Eleven misconceptions were identified in relation to erosion processes. The science and reading intervention, which focused on the use of cognitive strategies, was effective at reducing the number of misconceptions students held. Changes in the number of misconceptions were significant for four misconceptions explaining slow geomorphological changes based on (1) unnatural explanations, such as magical or man-made explanations; (2) accumulation rather than erosion; (3) forces other than gravity cause water to move; and (4) nonlandform interpretation of terms. Particular aspects of the intervention that could explain these changes are discussed.