I den här studien undersöks gymnasielevers förståelse av samhällsvetenskapliga undersökningsmetoder. I skolans styrdokument lyfts vikten av att elever får kunskaper i både vetenskapsteori och hur kunskap genereras inom vetenskapen. Eleverna ska få den kunskapen för att kunna delta i och aktivt bidra till vårt demokratiska samhälle samt komma väl förberedda till studier på högre nivå. Forskning visar att studenter på universitetsnivå har svårt att greppa olika typer av vetenskapliga begrepp och förstå kvalitéerna hos olika typer av undersökningsmetoder. Det är till och med ofta så att de väljer sida, föredrar en viss typ av metoder och motsätter sig andra. För att undervisningen inom det här området ska bli framgångsrik är det viktigt att utgå från den kunskapsnivå gymnasielever möter undervisningen med. Studien visar att eleverna ofta har förståelse för de båda metodtyperna på en grundläggande nivå och att det är vanligt att eleverna tycker att den ena metodtypen är mer vetenskaplig än den andra. Tre typer av förståelse kopplad till undersökningsmetoderna identifieras, jämnviktsförståelse, obalans i förståelsen samt diffus förståelse. Undervisningen inom det här ämnesområdet bör utifrån studiens resultat inriktas både på att etablera en övergripande förståelse för hur kunskap genereras inom samhällsvetenskap samtidigt som eleverna förbättrar förståelsen om begrepp kopplat till olika undersökningsmetoder.

A dynamic research strategy was employed to track the development of mental models of simple DC circuits and reasoning patterns of students learning these concepts for the first time. The medium for research and instruction was a computer tutorial that allowed students to explore their ideas and beliefs as they manipulated simple materials. The study utilized structured observations generated from videotaped data and transcribed analysis of students' verbal commentaries. Verbal protocol analysis (Ericsson and Simon, 1994) provided data for the development of conceptual maps (Dykstra, Boyle, and Monarch, 1992) from which students' conceptual frameworks and mental models were inferred. The sequence and types of changes the models underwent were illustrated by the changes in the conceptual maps as the subjects progressed from a naive understanding towards a more scientific understanding. Both assimilation and accommodation occurred to different degrees: from the acquisition of a single, simple idea (or separation of a single, minor idea) to the development of elaborate and inter-related ideas. In both cases, the process was not simple nor straight forward. Rather, the process is better described as a painful negotiation and renegotiation of conflicting beliefs. The "path" from naive towards expert understanding goes in both directions, with subjects moving backward (toward personal theories) as easily, if not more so, as forward (toward expert understanding). Studying conceptual change in physics learning is necessary in order to develop appropriate instructional materials and strategies that take into account students' preconceptions and how those preconceptions change during instruction. / Ph. D.

The following dissertation is comprised of three manuscripts presenting a theory-to-practice design for studying the nature of knowledge change. Knowledge change—as defined for this dissertation—is an exploration of the quantitative and qualitative change in how knowledge is used over a period of time. Knowledge change is derived from the broader scholarship on conceptual change; that is, how people develop, organize, and then re-organize knowledge (Vosniadou, 2013). Conceptual change has been widely used to describe the cognitive process behind how a novice acquires and organizes knowledge in order to become an expert (Carey, 1985), particularly in the hard sciences (e.g. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, or 'STEM' subjects) (Vosniadou, 2008, 2013). However, more recent research has been dedicated to establishing the need to explore conceptual change in the social sciences (Murphy and Alexander, 2008). The present research was designed to explore knowledge change as one specific component of the conceptual change process. The research is presented in three manuscripts. The first manuscript details how the researcher blended conceptual change learning with the disciplinary domain of the present study, leadership studies. The second manuscript chronicles the design of a continuous case study, the primary tool for data collection used in the present study, as well as the methodology used. The third and final manuscript offers an overview of the first study undertaken using the collected data; that is, an exploration of the nature of knowledge change within an undergraduate peer leadership course. / Ph. D.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(地域研究) / 甲第24016号 / 地博第295号 / 新制||地||114(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院アジア・アフリカ地域研究研究科東南アジア地域研究専攻 / (主査)教授 玉田 芳史, 教授 片岡 樹, 准教授 TANGSEEFA Decha / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Area Studies / Kyoto University / DFAM

Orientador: Jair Lopes Junior / Banca: Kester Carrara / Banca: Sérgio Dias Cirino / Resumo: O modelo de mudança conceitual,de reconhecida difusão na área do Ensino de Ciências,foi alvo de diversas críticas e revisões ao longo dos mais de vinte anos desde sua proposição inicial. oder-se-ia afirmar,no entanto,que tanto os proponentes do modelo quanto seus críticos apresentam um enfoque restritivo no tratamento das medidas comportamentais correspondentes à ocorrência ou não de mudança conceitual. Admite-se,como hipótese deste trabalho,que o Behaviorismo Radical propicia ferramentas capazes de uma avaliação da pertinência das críticas dirigidas ao modelo e da própria proposta de avaliação dos resultados obtidos através de sua utilização,tal como apresentada por seus proponentes . Para tanto, o presente trabalho concentrou ênfase na tentativa de,considerando estudos que ilustram a difusão posterior do modelo em trabalhos empíricos,descrever as medidas comportamentais que parecem fundamentar inferências sobre a ocorrência ou não da mudança conceitual,analisando se e como o tratamento de tais medidas foi considerado em alguns dos artigos que expressam uma revisão crítica do modelo Argumenta-se que tais artigos falham em descrever semelhanças e diferenças dos instrumentos e das interações que definem a obtenção das medidas comportamentais de conhecimentos prévios e posteriores à intervenção,bem como as intervenções intencionalmente planejadas e as condições de avaliação que sucedem a tais intervenções. / Abstract: The conceptual change model, well-known spread in Science Teaching, has been reviewed and criticized, since its initial proposal, for over twenty years. It could be argued, however, that either authors or critics present a restrictive view concerning the behavioral measures related to the absence or occurrence of conceptual change. The hypothesis within this paper is that Radical Behaviorism provides tools that can assess the pertinence of criticisms toward the model as well as the result evaluation proposal obtained from their application, as referred to by their proponents. Thus, the emphasis of this paper, taking into account studies that illustrate the posterior spreading of the model in empirical applications, is the attempt to describe the behavioral measures that seem to support inferences about the occurrence or absence of conceptual change, analyzing whereas and how the treatment of such measures were considered in some articles expressing a critical revision of the model. We understand that such articles have failed to describe similarities and differences concerning the instruments and interactions that define the achievement of behavioral measures from the knowledge (and not about responses) before and after the intervention, as well as intentionally planned interventions and the assessment conditions subsequent to the interventions. / Mestre

Concepções alternativas são compreensões não científicas estáveis e bastante resistentes a mudanças, forjadas pela experiência cotidiana dos indivíduos. Pesquisadores têm mobilizado esforços para entender como elas interagem com os conteúdos científicos presentes no contexto escolar e universitário. Tem ficado evidente que a mudança conceitual não depende apenas de processos puramente cognitivos. O ensino capaz de promover verdadeiramente uma mudança conceitual, deve integrar formas de aumentar o engajamento emocional dos estudantes, de modo que esta relação afetiva com o conhecimento faça com que suas crenças e pré-concepções sejam modificadas. Evidências tem demonstrado que processos cognitivos são fortemente influenciados tanto por aspectos racionais quanto emotivos. As emoções, por sua vez, são acompanhadas de marcadores somáticos, isto é, reações corporais fisiológicas, mediadas pelo sistema nervoso autônomo. Segundo alguns autores, elas são fundamentais nos processos de tomada de decisão. O presente estudo teve por objetivo desenvolver uma ferramenta para investigação do processo de mudança conceitual bem como aspectos fisiológicos desse processo. Para tanto, desenvolvemos um questionário que permite diferenciar biólogos de não-biólogos através de seu desempenho e identificamos 5 tipos diferentes de conceitos em biologia, quanto à sua compreensão e adoção. Avaliamos o vínculo afetivo que biólogos e não-biólogos possuem com concepções alternativas e científicas, através da resposta de condutância da pele. Verificamos que os não-biólogos apresentam maiores alterações na resposta de condutância da pele independentemente de estarem visualizando uma concepção alternativa ou científica. Mostramos, também, que questionários de resposta forçada, tão utilizados no ensino em geral, geram aumento da atividade eletrodérmica independentemente da formação do respondente, como uma possível resposta à condição de estresse / In students, misconceptions, or spontaneous conceptions, are comprehensions of natural phenomena forged by daily experience. These non-scientific viewpoints regarding the world are both solid and resistant to change. Besides the attempt to map misconceptions regarding a vast amount of natural phenomena, research in Science Education has also been dedicated to understanding how they interact with the scientific content in school and college programs. Some researchers have proposed that conceptual change is not dependent on purely rational processes. Evidence has shown that cognitive processes, such as perception, attention, learning, memory, decision-making, and problem resolution, are all strongly influenced by both rational aspects and emotional factors. Furthermore, the latter are accompanied by somatic markers, namely, corporal physiological reactions that act in the construction of emotional perceptive experiences. These markers are extremely important in the decision-making process, and it is hypothesized that before rationalizing a decision in terms of value analysis, they are instrumental in the unconscious reduction in the number of options that occurs. In this study, we developed a questionnaire that allows to differ biologists from non-biologists through its score and identified 5 different kinds of biological concepts, for their understanding and adoption. We evaluated the affective bonding that biologists and non-biologists have with the misconceptions and scientific conceptions, by its skin conductance response. We found that non-biologists presented higher skin conductance responses regardless of visualizing a misconception or a scientific conception. We showed that questionnaires with forced answer, so used in teaching, generates an increase on skin conductance responses, as a prospective response to stress condition

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of modeling instruction over traditionally designed physics instruction on students&rsquo / understanding of projectile motion concepts and their attitudes towards physics. In addition, the effects of gender difference on their understanding of projectile motion concepts and attitudes towards physics were explored. Furthermore, students&rsquo / views on the nature of science were searched. The subjects of this study included 88 tenth grade students of four classes instructed by two teachers in a private high school. One of two classes of each teacher was randomly assigned to experimental group and other classes formed control group. The modeling instruction was applied in the experimental group to teach the topic of projectile motion, it was taught with traditionally designed physics instruction in control group. Projectile Motion Concept Test, Attitude Scale towards Physics, Science Process Skill Test, and Views on Science-Technology-Society test were administered to both groups. In addition, student interviews and classroom observations were conducted. The hypotheses of the research were tested by using ANCOVA and two-way ANOVA. The results revealed that the mean score of experimental group students&rsquo / on both concept test and attitude scale was significantly higher than the mean score of control group students. Furthermore, gender was not a significant factor affecting the concept acquisition related to projectile motion and students&rsquo / attitudes towards physics. However, science process skill was determined as a strong predictor in conceptual understanding. Lastly, experimental group students had more realistic views on some basic tenets of nature of science.

This research explored Chinese college English teachers’ beliefs and conceptual change in relation to the government-mandated shift from the traditional grammar-based approaches to language teaching to communicative language teaching (CLT). This study employed an ethnographic approach and was conducted at a university in China. Six Chinese college English teachers agreed to participate in a three-month study during which their classroom teaching was observed and they were interviewed about their teaching experiences, understanding of the new teaching methods, and interpretations of the curriculum change. Three patterns of conceptual change were found in their beliefs about language teaching and learning: (a) change in teaching methods but no significant change in conceptions and beliefs, (b) change in both teaching methods and conceptions accompanied by painful conceptual conflict, and (c) change in both teaching methods and beliefs and an acquisition of broader curriculum perspectives. The stories and experiences of the participants indicate the complex, non-linear nature of conceptual development in their beliefs about language teaching. They struggled to expand their conceptual space by dwelling in the Zone of Between—between Chinese and Western educational traditions, between social, cognitive, and psychological processes of conceptual growth, between teaching and educating, and between curriculum-as-plan and curriculum-in-use. This study is expected to have suggestions for ongoing college English teaching in China, provide insight for the research of teachers’ beliefs related to curriculum development in other cultural contexts, and inform language teacher education and development programs. / Thesis (Ph.D, Education) -- Queen's University, 2008-08-17 09:08:34.638

The purpose of this study was to investigate the difficulties encountered by the grade ten township learners with respect to the concept of electricity. More specifically, the study attempted to explore the learners’ scientific knowledge by investigating their conceptions or alternative conceptions about electricity; the influence of learners’ age, career interests and gender issues on their conceptions of electricity and; the effectiveness of concept mapping (a pedagogic tool designed by Novak in the 1970s) in facilitating the learners’ understanding of electricity. The study was premised on socio-cultural constructivism as well as meaningful learning as espoused by Ausubel (1968). A Pre-Test-Post-Test Control Group Design was adopted in the study in which two comparable groups were used. The data was analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative research methods and the instruments that were used included a conception of electricity (COET) (originally adopted and administered in the Western Cape, Northern Cape provinces and in Norway in 1999 for the purpose of Science and Technology Literacy Project (STLP) with the hope that their reliability and validity was guaranteed); selected learner interviews and evaluation forms. The summary of findings has suggested that the Grade ten learners held misconceptions about the concept of electricity even after they were exposed to intervention that included concept mapping. In terms of the gender issues, there was no significant difference in performance between the boys and girls though the females outperformed their male counterparts at both groups. The underachievement of the older learners compared to the younger ones has also surfaced and that is against expectation since a number of studies carried out earlier (see Ogunniyi (1999)) have already corroborated such findings. With respect to career interests, what the learners indicated as their future dreams, i.e. what they intend to do and become, seems to have been influenced their performance at the pre- and post-test stages. / Magister Educationis - MEd

<p><font size="3"> <p>The purpose of this study was to investigate the difficulties encountered by the grade ten township learners with respect to the concept of electricity. More specifically, the study attempted to explore the learners&rsquo / scientific knowledge by investigating their conceptions or alternative conceptions about electricity / the influence of learners&rsquo / age, career interests and gender issues on their conceptions of electricity and / the effectiveness of concept mapping (a pedagogic tool designed by Novak in the 1970s) in facilitating the learners&rsquo / understanding of electricity. The study was premised on socio-cultural constructivism as well as meaningful learning as espoused by Ausubel (1968). A Pre-Test-Post-Test Control Group Design was adopted in the study in which two comparable groups were used. The data was analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative research methods and the instruments that were used included a conception of electricity (COET) (originally adopted and administered in the Western Cape, Northern Cape provinces and in Norway in 1999 for the purpose of Science and Technology Literacy Project (STLP) with the hope that their reliability and validity was guaranteed) / selected learner interviews and evaluation forms. The summary of findings has suggested that the Grade ten learners held misconceptions about the concept of electricity even after they were exposed to intervention that included concept mapping. In terms of the gender issues, there was no significant difference in performance between the boys and girls though the females outperformed their male counterparts at both groups. The underachievement of the older learners compared to the younger ones has also surfaced and that is against expectation since a number of studies carried out earlier (see Ogunniyi (1999)) have already corroborated such findings. With respect to career interests, what the learners indicated as their future dreams, i.e. what they intend to do and become, seems to have been influenced their performance at the pre- and post-test stages.</p> </font></p>