Children's Typically-Perceived-Situations of Floating and Sinking
International Journal of Science Education, Volume 31, Issue 1 January 2009 , pages 101 - 127
Yong Jae Joung
Monash University, Australia
DOI: 10.1080/09500690701744603
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to explore children's typically-perceived-situations (TPS) of 'floating' and 'sinking'. TPS refers to the situation rising spontaneously in an individual's mind when they first think of a phenomenon or concept. Data were collected from 148 Year 5 Korean children. As a result of analysing the data according to three categories - 'spatial background', 'main object', and 'position of main object' - the children mainly thought of a river or a sea with a human or a boat on the water surface or half-submerged as a floating situation; and a river or sea with a boat or a human on the bottom or mid-way between the water surface and the bottom as a sinking situation respectively. Considering the whole context of children's TPS, the contexts of 'a boat is on the water surface of the sea or river' and 'a boat is half-submerged in the sea or river' were the most frequent ones, as a floating and as a sinking situation respectively. In addition, it appeared that these children's TPS affect their judgment of floating and sinking, in that they showed stronger tendency to regard the situation where an object is just beneath the water as a floating situation, while the position of a main object in their TPS of a sinking situation was nearer to the bottom of the water. Based on these results, several suggestions for science education are given.
Showing posts with label conceptions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label conceptions. Show all posts
2008-12-16
2007-11-29
Ehrlén - IJSE 2008
Children's Understanding of Globes as a Model of the Earth: A problem of contextualizing
Karin Ehrlén
Stockholm University, Sweden
DOI: 10.1080/09500690601185956
International Journal of Science Education, Volume 30, Issue 2 February 2008 , pages 221 - 238
Abstract
Visual representations play an important role in science teaching. The way in which visual representations may help children to acquire scientific concepts is a crucial test in the debate between constructivist and socio-cultural oriented researchers. In this paper, the question is addressed as a problem of how to contextualize conceptions and explanations in cognitive frameworks and visual descriptions in cultural contexts. Eleven children aged 6-8 years were interviewed in the presence of a globe. Those children who expressed views of the Earth that deviated from the culturally accepted view did not show any difficulties in combining these different ideas with the globe model. The way that this is possible is explained using a model of conceptual development as a process of differentiation between contexts and frameworks. The child must differentiate not only between the Earth as an area of flat ground in a common-sense framework and the planet Earth in a theoretical framework, but also between these frameworks and the framework of the representation. It is suggested that a differentiation on a meta-level is needed to distinguish which problems and explanations belong to which cognitive framework. In addition, the children must contextualize the visual description of the Earth in the globe in a cultural context to discern which mode of representation is used.
Karin Ehrlén
Stockholm University, Sweden
DOI: 10.1080/09500690601185956
International Journal of Science Education, Volume 30, Issue 2 February 2008 , pages 221 - 238
Abstract
Visual representations play an important role in science teaching. The way in which visual representations may help children to acquire scientific concepts is a crucial test in the debate between constructivist and socio-cultural oriented researchers. In this paper, the question is addressed as a problem of how to contextualize conceptions and explanations in cognitive frameworks and visual descriptions in cultural contexts. Eleven children aged 6-8 years were interviewed in the presence of a globe. Those children who expressed views of the Earth that deviated from the culturally accepted view did not show any difficulties in combining these different ideas with the globe model. The way that this is possible is explained using a model of conceptual development as a process of differentiation between contexts and frameworks. The child must differentiate not only between the Earth as an area of flat ground in a common-sense framework and the planet Earth in a theoretical framework, but also between these frameworks and the framework of the representation. It is suggested that a differentiation on a meta-level is needed to distinguish which problems and explanations belong to which cognitive framework. In addition, the children must contextualize the visual description of the Earth in the globe in a cultural context to discern which mode of representation is used.
2007-10-30
Taber - IJSE 2007
Conceptual Resources for Learning Science: Issues of transience and grain-size in cognition and cognitive structure
International Journal of Science Education (1):1-27. (2008).
Keith Taber
Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, UK
Abstract
Many studies into learners' ideas in science have reported that aspects of learners' thinking can be represented in terms of entities described in such terms as alternative conceptions or conceptual frameworks, which are considered to describe relatively stable aspects of conceptual knowledge that are represented in the learner's memory and accessed in certain contexts. Other researchers have suggested that learners' ideas elicited in research are often better understood as labile constructions formed in response to probes and generated from more elementary conceptual resources (e.g. phenomenological primitives or 'p-prims'). This 'knowledge-in-pieces perspective' (largely developed from studies of student thinking about physics topics), and the 'alternative conceptions perspective', suggests different pedagogic approaches. The present paper discusses issues raised by this area of work. Firstly, a model of cognition is considered within which the 'knowledge-in-pieces' and 'alternative conceptions' perspectives co-exist. Secondly, this model is explored in terms of whether such a synthesis could offer fruitful insights by considering some candidate p-prims from chemistry education. Finally, areas for developing testable predictions are outlined, to show how such a model can be a 'refutable variant' of a progressive research programme in learning science.
Extra information:
This paper cites David Hammer and Andrea diSessa a lot, building a connection between a p-prims/resources/knowledge-in-pieces approach (quotinga across the literature) and the alternative conceptions world (quoting mainly from the 80s literature, I feel). For those interested in a continuation of Hammer's 1996 papers on "p-prims vs. misconceptions" or Scherr's "Modeling Student Reasoning" papers, this is a good read.
International Journal of Science Education (1):1-27. (2008).
Keith Taber
Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, UK
Abstract
Many studies into learners' ideas in science have reported that aspects of learners' thinking can be represented in terms of entities described in such terms as alternative conceptions or conceptual frameworks, which are considered to describe relatively stable aspects of conceptual knowledge that are represented in the learner's memory and accessed in certain contexts. Other researchers have suggested that learners' ideas elicited in research are often better understood as labile constructions formed in response to probes and generated from more elementary conceptual resources (e.g. phenomenological primitives or 'p-prims'). This 'knowledge-in-pieces perspective' (largely developed from studies of student thinking about physics topics), and the 'alternative conceptions perspective', suggests different pedagogic approaches. The present paper discusses issues raised by this area of work. Firstly, a model of cognition is considered within which the 'knowledge-in-pieces' and 'alternative conceptions' perspectives co-exist. Secondly, this model is explored in terms of whether such a synthesis could offer fruitful insights by considering some candidate p-prims from chemistry education. Finally, areas for developing testable predictions are outlined, to show how such a model can be a 'refutable variant' of a progressive research programme in learning science.
Extra information:
This paper cites David Hammer and Andrea diSessa a lot, building a connection between a p-prims/resources/knowledge-in-pieces approach (quotinga across the literature) and the alternative conceptions world (quoting mainly from the 80s literature, I feel). For those interested in a continuation of Hammer's 1996 papers on "p-prims vs. misconceptions" or Scherr's "Modeling Student Reasoning" papers, this is a good read.
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