The effect of instruction on the acquisition of conservation of volume

Abstract

AbstractPerformances of fourth and sixth grade children who had been in a program based on Science—A Process Approach were compared with performances of control groups on two conservation‐of‐volume tasks. The fourth grade children who had had Science—A Process Approach performed at a higher level than the control group on one of the tasks. There were no other significant differences between groups.The volume tasks were analyzed and learning hierarchies devised. A test based on the hierarchies was constructed and administered to all (189) children. An instructional program based on the hierarchies was carried out with approximately half of the children in each school at each grade level. All children were then post‐tested on the volume tasks and the tasks of the learning hierarchies. All groups who had deceived instruction had higher mean scores on the Learning Hierarchies Test but no group made a significant improvement on the volume tasks. Performance of the volume tasks was found to be related to age and score on the Learning Hierarchies Test.