Using drawings to examine undergraduate students’ mental models of the greenhouse effect: a factor analysis approach

Abstract

ABSTRACT Research on students’ understanding of the greenhouse effect and global warming has been focused on identifying and overcoming misconceptions. However, to date, very few studies have looked into the ways in which student conceptions are organised and interrelated from a model-based perspective. In this study, we investigated student-generated drawings (N = 130) of the greenhouse effect from two universities in Taiwan. The goals were to explore student mental models, which underlie and organise their visual representations, and further examine whether and how these mental models are associated with other important climate-related knowledge. For our purposes, computer-based grouping was used instead of the common practice of human expert-based inspection. Four mental models emerged in the process of factor analysing salient characteristics of student drawings, and showed some commonalities and differences compared with previous findings. Further correlation analysis revealed significant, positive relationships between the Textbook-like model and climate system knowledge, and between the Sources (of greenhouse gases) model and climate action knowledge. These results provided some fresh insight into existing knowledge about student mental models of the greenhouse effect. The relationships of students’ conceptualisation of the greenhouse effect and global warming can serve as a basis for instructional considerations in climate change education.