Étude de l'acquisition et du réinvestissement du concept de surface portante

Abstract

Investigating how the concept of a “lifting surface” is acquired and applied An exploration of how 11 year old pupils (6th grade) in a biology class acquired the concept of a “lifting surface” (as used in the context of animal flight) showed that only 15 % of them could apply the concept properly after tuition. A new teaching strategy was designed to overcome the three target obstacles that had been identified. Three weeks after having been taught the lifting surface concept by means of this new stragegy, pupils were given a test that required them to solve novel problems involving application of the concept. The results showed that the concept had been acquired by 75 % of the pupils. However, in the control groups (who either received no further instruction or had the basic animal flight course repeated), the proportion of pupils who acquired the concept remained unchanged. In a follow up study, it was shown that the proportion of teachers or teacher educators who were hindered by one of these epistemological obstacles was similar to the proportion found for school students. In such cases, instituting a socio-cognitive “debate” may lead to a positive conceptual change. This study helps to show the potential advantages in biological education of focussing upon the actual process of concept acquisition when evaluating pupils’ scientific knowledge.