Confronting the Need for Conceptual Change in Pre-Service Science Education

Confronting the Need for Conceptual Change in Pre-Service Science Education Marc S. Schwartz I. I. Shapiro Bruce Gregory

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Confronting the Need for Conceptual Change in Pre-Service Science Education 2013 Higher Education Studies 10.5539/hes.v3n5p11 schwartz2013-confronting-the-need-for-conceptua schwartz2013-confronting-the-need-for-conceptua.txt, the project's staged copy a31af4c7c527a76b1f54e03d9fb619535852946c open-access science-education

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0 spans located by searching the stored text for the quote's exact words, allowing any whitespace between them critique Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. pre-service science teachers' understanding of scientific models Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. practice-report practice-report Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. mechanisms years of schooling built on algorithm-centred worksheets and tests instil the belief that the algorithm is what matters in science, so students attend to the algebra rather than to the model behind it Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. mechanisms expanding state standards make students and teachers accountable for ever more content, which cuts the time available for building conceptual understanding Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. mechanisms the failure on the final demonstration is attributed to the difficulty of transferring an idea into a new problem or context Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Data from the first two years of the course were not kept, so the reported distributions cover only three of the five years what this limits: the reported distributions: TABLE 1 DISPLAYS THE SUMS OF THESE DISTRIBUTIONS FOR THE LAST THREE YEARS ... WE DID NOT RETAIN DATA FROM THE FIRST TWO YEARS Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. The intervention's own effect was positive but limited, and only for some students what this limits: the size of the intervention's effect: OUR APPROACH DID HAVE A POSITIVE BUT LIMITED IMPACT ON DEVELOPING IN SOME STUDENTS A RICHER UNDERSTANDING Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. The expectation held and then reversed: the motivation the design depended on appeared as predicted and did not last, which the authors report as a surprise. what this limits: the motivational premise of this kind of intervention: the students were disturbed and motivated as assumed, but the authors report the interest was often short-lived Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. The conditions the field's standard model of conceptual change rests on are reported as necessary but insufficient, with three named reasons. what this limits: designing instruction on Posner et al.'s conditions for conceptual change: this paper quotes the position that the conditions may be necessary but are insufficient, that experiments often fail to generate the requisite data, and that cognitive limitations eclipse experimental evidence Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. The evidence for the central claim is a teaching observation over five years rather than a measurement: students with undergraduate science degrees failed to generate correct predictions from a model they could otherwise manipulate, illustrated by one worked case (Archimedes' principle, floating and sinking). Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. the students' own first-questionnaire answers presented back to them, confirming the degree of agreement on each answer eliminates: the researchers' reading of a consensus that the students would not recognise - showing them their own answers is the check that the agreement is theirs · outcome (stated by the tagger, no quotation): held Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. nature of science nature of science Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. conceptual change conceptual change Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. measurement error measurement error Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. algorithms algorithms Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. evidence evidence Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. inference inference Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. understanding - AS THE STUDENTS EVALUATED IT: recalling terms, recognising a principle, and demonstrating algebraic competency with mathematical representations Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. understanding - AS THE COURSE REQUIRED IT: something reachable only by giving up those criteria, so the intervention asks students to change what counts as understanding, not just to learn more Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. using a model - distinguished here from knowing one: students with science degrees found it 'especially difficult to use a model to correctly generate predictions', which is the capacity the course tested and the degrees did not Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. evidence - AS THIS PAPER FIXES IT: Nature's behavior itself, the thing a model is about and not any statement about it Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. inference - AS THIS PAPER FIXES IT: our models of Nature's behavior; the paper's whole teaching problem is that students collapse this into evidence Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. builds-on → Posner, Strike, Hewson and Gertzog (1982) conceptual change framework; Kuhn (1962); Vosniadou (2008) Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. replicates → Potgieter and colleagues (2012) Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. replicates → McGoey and Ross (1999) Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. algorithms —distinct-from→ conceptual change algorithms conceptual change strength of the relation: 0.9 · note: THE PAPER NAMES THE INFERENCE IT IS ATTACKING AND CALLS IT DECEPTIVE: 'the DECEPTIVE…'. The record already carries the two readings of 'understanding' as senses - as the students evaluated it, and as the course required it - and this edge is the gap between them stated as a relation the paper denies. Audit 2026-09-28: DOUBTFUL - read against its full span and kept, but the span calls the belief that algorithm success leads to conceptual change deceptive; distinct-from is loose. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. evidence —distinct-from→ inference evidence inference the relation itself is separately evidenced · strength of the relation: 1 · note: THE DISTINCTION IS THE PAPER'S SUBJECT AND NOTHING CARRIED IT. The record already held 'algorithms -distinct-from-> conceptual change' and two readings of 'understanding', but the pair those rest on - evidence against inference - had no concept, no sense and no edge. The parenthetical IS the definition: 'evidence (Nature's…'. Weight 1.0 because the sentence is unhedged and the goal statement at @3738 names the same distinction as objective (1) of the course. · the relation stated: the paper makes the separation a precondition of understanding science at all, not a nicety Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. mean mean Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. frequency distribution frequency distribution Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Students averaged 91% on Questionnaire I. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Students averaged 49% on Questionnaire II over the course's final three years. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Despite nearly six class hours on Archimedes' principle, nearly all students reverted to other ideas about forces and buoyancy. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Of all the predictions and justifications offered in the final demonstration, exactly one invoked Archimedes' principle. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Almost all the students, despite holding undergraduate science degrees, did not understand the basic structure of science. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Students' interest was often short-lived; many grew frustrated at not closing the algorithm-conceptual gap quickly. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Most students were relieved when the floating-and-sinking unit ended, though they said it raised more questions than answers. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Archimedes' principle Archimedes' principle Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. disequilibrium disequilibrium Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. kind of knowledge kind of knowledge Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. student predictions student predictions Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. over 100 students — number of graduate students taught in the Nature of Science course over the five-year period Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. around 20 students — typical class size each year, with roughly equal numbers of women and men Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 12 hours — total instruction time of the floating-and-sinking unit: eight 90-minute classes spread over four weeks Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 91% — average score on Questionnaire I (density/algorithm items) over the final three years Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 49% — average score on Questionnaire II (conceptual floating-and-sinking items) over the final three years Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. approximately 32% — score that random guessing would have produced on Questionnaire II, i.e. the chance baseline Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. only one — number of student responses in the final demonstration that referred to Archimedes' principle Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Roughly half the class — share of students predicting the glass would go down when a finger was placed in the water Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. No student — number of students who predicted that the balanced glass would rise Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution.

The full text of this article is not redistributable, so it is not included here. The evidence sentences are withheld with it; the tag layer and its grounding status remain. The article itself is at https://doi.org/10.5539/hes.v3n5p11.