Conceptual Learning In Science Research Articles

Inhibitory control and the understanding of buoyancy from childhood to adulthood

Intuitive conceptions represent common obstacles to conceptual learning in science. A growing number of studies demonstrate that when learning occurs, these intuitive conceptions are not replaced by scientific conceptions but rather coexist with them and thus need to be inhibited to prevent systematic errors. However, to date no study has demonstrated that the increasing ability to mobilize a given scientific conception is rooted in the increasing ability to inhibit the intuitive conception that interferes with it. In the current study, we investigated whether the increasing ability from childhood to adulthood to solve a scientific problem regarding the buoyancy of marbles of different sizes and densities is rooted in the increasing ability to inhibit the “bigger objects sink more” intuitive conception. To do so, we designed a negative priming paradigm in which 11-year-old children, 17-year-old adolescents, and 24-year-old adults were asked to choose which of two marbles of various sizes and densities sinks more. Negative priming effects reported in children and adolescents suggest that, unlike adults, they must inhibit the “bigger objects sink more” intuitive conception to determine, for instance, that a small marble with high density (e.g., small lead marble) will sink more than a bigger marble with a lower density (e.g., big wooden marble). We also found that the amplitude of negative priming effects decreased with age, suggesting that the level of exposition to the scientific knowledge of buoyancy (increasing with age) may decrease the need to inhibit the “bigger objects sink more” intuitive conception.

Challenges in designing and assessing student interdisciplinary learning of optics using a representation construction approach

ABSTRACT There is a growing interest in the value of teachers guiding students to generate their own representations to support conceptual learning in science and across complementary subjects such as mathematics. However, this approach to an interdisciplinary focus poses challenges for programme design and learning assessment. In this paper, we report on a 10-week study with a class of Year 5 students designed to (a) facilitate learning of key concepts in the topic of optics (e.g. reflection), and (b) make meaningful links between these concepts and relevant mathematical ones (e.g. symmetry and angles). Students were expected to construct, evaluate and refine representations to explain various experienced phenomena. We report on an assessment framework developed and applied to student work. Our findings indicate (a) some subject and interdisciplinary learning gains, and (b) specific challenges around designing this kind of programme, student learning assessment and teacher understanding to support this learning.

Collaborating between Writing and STEM: Teaching Disciplinary Genres, Researching Disciplinary Interventions, and Engaging Science Audiences

Collaborating between Writing and STEM: Teaching Disciplinary Genres, Researching Disciplinary Interventions, and Engaging Science Audiences

Inhibition and Conceptual Learning in Science: a Review of Studies

Recent research about the learning of science has suggested that misconceptions are not replaced by scientific conceptions and extinguished once conceptual change has occurred. Rather, misconceptions still exist alongside the acquired scientific conceptions and must be suppressed in order to use scientific conceptions. Our goal in this review is to understand the conditions under which the executive function of inhibition plays a role in conceptual learning in science domains. We reviewed 18 articles in the extant literature that report investigations involving students at different educational levels, from primary to higher education, in order to identify how inhibition and science conceptual learning are measured and the conditions in which a link between the executive function and the outcome variable emerges. Part of the reviewed studies are based on behavioral data, while the others are based on both behavioral and brain imaging data. The review shows that the majority of the studies at each educational level reveal that inhibition contributes to topic-specific learning in science domains, or to overall academic achievement in science. Neuroscientific studies provide evidence that inhibition is recruited during the execution of tasks that require suppression of misconception interference. Comprehensive models of conceptual change should consider inhibitory control, which may also account for individual differences in this process.

Writing and Conceptual Learning in Science: An Analysis of Assignments

This systematic review of 46 published articles investigates the constructs employed and the meanings assigned to writing in writing-to-learn assignments given to students in science courses. Using components of assignments associated with the greatest learning gains—meaning making, clear expectations, interactive writing processes, and metacognition—this review illuminates the constructs of writing that yield conceptual learning in science. In so doing, this article also provides a framework that can be used to evaluate writing-to-learn assignments in science, and it documents a new era in research on writing to learn in science by showing the increased rigor that has characterized studies in this field during the past decade.

Self-generated Analogical Models of Respiratory Pathways

Self-generated analogical models have emerged recently as alternatives to teacher-supplied analogies and seem to have good potential to promote deep learning and scientific thinking. However, studies of the ways and contexts in which students generate these models are still too limited to allow a fuller appraisal of these models’ effectiveness in enhancing conceptual learning in science. This study explores how biology students aged 15–17 generated physical concrete models to represent their understanding of the respiration pathway after learning about it through a conventional flow diagram model. The analogies portrayed in students’ self-generated models provide teachers with a supplementary channel to explore students’ conceptual understandings of this complicated topic and allow students to reflect on ways in which the abstract pathway portrayed in textbooks actually makes sense to them.

Supporting students’ conceptual development of light refraction by simulation-based open inquiry with dual-situated learning model

Although light is an everyday phenomenon that we constantly observe, a numerous researches have reported that students often displayed learning difficulties and hold unscientific understanding on physics concepts of light wave. To address the situation, inquiry-based learning process with a support of computer simulation has been proved its benefits on development of student’s conceptual learning in science. This paper presents the effects of simulation-based open inquiry with dual-situated learning model on forty 11th grade students' conceptual understanding of light refraction phenomena and change of their conceptions through mixed research methodology. The concurrent mixed methods strategy of one-group pre-, post-, and retention-quasi-experimental design and phenomenological research design was used in this study. The result showed that the students’ conceptual understanding scores for pre-, post-, and retention tests were significantly different and their understanding could be improved after participating with the learning program, which is consistent with a result regarding the quantity of conceptual change. The evidence also indicated that mechanism of conceptual change induced the students’ progression of scientific conceptual understanding of light refraction. Moreover, the result revealed that the later scientific understanding obtained after the participation was preserved within the students’ cognitive structure of conceptual knowledge. This finding suggests that the learning program of simulation-based open inquiry with dual-situated learning model could be used to support a more meaningful learning in science concepts through the process of conceptual change.

Executive Functions and Academic Achievement: Current Research and Future Directions

Executive Functions and Academic Achievement: Current Research and Future Directions

The Conceptual Learning of Physics in Slovenian Secondary Schools

The Conceptual Learning of Physics in Slovenian Secondary Schools In the last decade, educational researchers have been intensively searching for new, innovative teaching approaches. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has a great didactic potential and project COLOS (Conceptual Learning of Science) encourages the use of ICT in the contemporary educational process. In this paper we present the conceptual learning of Physics. With experimental research we investigated the effectiveness of such learning in Slovenian secondary school. Two groups of third-year students who were enrolled in an introductory Physics course participated in the study. In the experimental group students were taught through the conceptual learning and in the control group a traditional expository instruction was used. We examined the knowledge of students after carrying out lessons specifically on the topic of Electricity. Five thinking processes were assessed - Knowledge (Recall), Analysis, Comparison, Inference and Evaluation. We found that the conceptual learning was more effective than the traditional instruction.

DEVELOPING AN UNDERSTANDING OF IONS IN JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL CHEMISTRY

There is growing research interest in the challenges and opportunities learners face in representing scientific understandings, processes and reasoning. These challenges include integrating verbal, visual and mathematical modes in science discourse to make strong conceptual links between representations and classroom experiences. Our paper reports on a project that aimed to identify practical and theoretical issues entailed in a representation-intensive approach to guiding students’ conceptual learning in science. We focus here on a teacher developing students’ understanding of the formation of ions and molecules. We argue that the representations produced by students in this process met the criteria for representational competence proposed by diSessa (Cognition and Instruction, 22, 293–331, 2004) and Kozma & Russell (2005). The students understood that an effective representation needed to show relevant information, focus on pertinent points, be self-sufficient in its claims about the topic and provide coherent links between different parts of the representation. The final activity showed that their representations reached Kozma & Russell’s (2005) highest level of competence, where the students were able to use specific features of their representations to critique their suitability for explaining bonding and were able to show how their representation linked to the periodic table as a representation. We conclude by considering the implications of these findings.

Quest for effective use of computer technology in education: From natural sciences to medicine

AbstractSome of the reasons for relatively low impact of computer technology on university education are discussed. Promising approaches of the CoLoS (Conceptual Learning of Science) consortium 1 to teaching natural sciences are presented. Then some new tools that could further impact the efficiency of teaching in various domains are discussed. Finally the question is raised how to extend the application of computer technology into domains outside of natural sciences. Medical education, which still relies on in‐residence random opportunity training is singled out. An example of training on virtual patients that can be subjected to an unlimited number of critical illnesses is demonstrated. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 11: 116–131, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com); DOI 10.1002/cae.10046

Quest for understanding sciences

Understanding scientific principles generates many benefits. Comprehension is the key to creativity. It is highly unlikely that an individual without the command of basic principles will be the author of scientific breakthroughs. Understanding the conditions in which mathematical tools of science have been developed is the key to efficient research. The scientist or the engineer who lacks such understanding often ends up in dead end pursuits. Understanding the principles of operating machinery or apparatuses is the key to diagnosing their malfunctions. An individual who cannot come up with the correct diagnosis cannot be an efficient problem solver. Finally, the understanding of scientific principles by the general population is the best defense against fear of the unknown. This fear often stands in the way of technological progress and our improved well being as well. Armed with this insight, and pondering the questions that are seldom asked and even less often answered in science classes, the project CoLoS (Conceptual Learning of Science) was developed.

Some classroom applications of current ideas on conceptual learning in science

Evidence collected so far seems to substantiate the contention that the constructivist approach to teaching has assisted students in their ability to interact with and internalize scientific concepts. The meanings attached to these concepts has become personalized in accordance with the learner's level of cognitive development. The question of intellectual growth is less decisive in the absence of more extensive long term studies.