The Conceptual Change through Hybrid Evaluation among High School Students in Life and Earth Sciences

Abstract

According to the literature, conceptual change is a primary challenge in science education. Several studies have indicated that learners use their intuitive conceptions even after science instruction. Therefore, our study aimed to create working conditions that would support learners' achievement of conceptual change. We hypothesized that integrating learners into the teaching-learning process in a collaborative setting will positively impact their performance to reflect the degree to which they achieve conceptual change. After the realization of a course respecting the official instructions and the curriculum of life and earth sciences, we proposed to the students of a public high school to pass a hybrid evaluation of this subject where we asked them to realize collaboratively in small groups, presentations of the synthesis of the course that they had received, in the form of a video capsule. This method has already been approached in other research works. The difference in this work is that the student's presentation was asynchronous, leaving the student the right to make mistakes and self-correction. A written evaluation in class completed this work to verify the achievement of the conceptual change in them. The analysis of the student's results in the hybrid evaluation and their comparison with the results they obtained in the first semester showed a considerable improvement in the level of the students, especially for those who had an average or even weak mastery according to the marks obtained in Life and Earth Sciences during the first semester. The collaborative work in small groups was an opportunity for exchange, sharing, and mutual help among the students, who were more motivated and showed great interest in this method.