 |
Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 19, Issue 1, Article 14 (Jun., 2018) |
Scientific information is only effective when it is taught based on concepts. Previous studies show how essential it is to ensure students learn conceptually (Bodner, 1986; Nakhleh & Mitchell, 1993; Markow & Lonning, 1998; Harrison & Treagust, 2001). Conceptual learning is just as important in physics teaching as it is in other fields. Physics includes abstract concepts such as heat and temperature, which are difficult to understand and associate with other concepts (Reiner et al., 2000). Misconceptions may occur related to such abstract concepts.
According to the literature on misconceptions, the difference between heat and temperature is one of the concepts with which students of all levels have the most difficulty (Erickson & Tiberghien, 1985; Linn & Songer, 1991). Misconceptions on this subject make it more difficult to obtain scientific knowledge at every level. For this reason, it is necessary to understand reasons behind such misconceptions and then we can eliminate them.
Various examinations were designed and carried out on learning basic concepts related to thermodynamics, which is one of the important subjects of physics (Carlton, 2000; Kalem et al., 2002; Leite, 1999; Sözbilir, 2003; Taber, 2000; Warren, 1972; Wiser & Carey, 1983). Based on various studies focusing on the misconceptions regarding heat and temperature (Aydoğan et al., 2003; Eryılmaz & Sürmeli, 2002; Gümüş et al., 2003), various teaching techniques and approaches related to the subject were quantitatively compared (Başer, 2006; Başer & Geban, 2007; Gürses et al., 2002; Niaz, 2006; Olgun, 2008; Shayer & Wylam, 1981; Şenocak et al., 2003; Tanahoung et al., 2009; Yeo & Zadnik, 2001; Zacharia et al., 2008). Although quantitative studies provide useful information about conceptual learning, they are unable to reveal the nature of learning sufficiently. Compared to quantitative studies on conceptual change in particular, qualitative studies on conceptual learning (Adawi et al., 2001; Clough & Driver, 1985; Frederic et al., 1999; Harrison et al., 1999; Jones et al., 2000; Laburu & Niaz, 2002; Lewis & Linn, 1994; Luera et al., 2005; Niaz, 2000; Paik et al., 2007; Thomas & Schwenz, 1998; Thomaz et al., 1995; Wiser & Amin, 2001) produced more effective results in terms of understanding how the basic concepts in question are learned. One of the most important results of previous studies is that students use the heat concept and temperature concept interchangeably (Niaz, 2000; Thomaz et al., 1995). To the best of our knowledge, there is no study in the literature which compares the heat concept with thermal energy.
In the conceptual change approach, the concept expresses the network of relationships that an individual constructs in his/her mind rather than a classification (Ceylan, 2008). In time, two different theories have been put forward as an alternative to the classic conceptual change approach that Posner put forward. The first of them is the ontological approach and the other one is the social/affective approach (Duit and Treagust, 2003). However, there are some common methods that are developed in accordance with the conceptual change approach, whichever the theory is based on.
The constructivist approach is largely consistent with the classical conceptual change approach. It is now known that the constructivist approach emphasizes that students are not classmates with free memory when they come to class, but they also incorporate various prior knowledge and experiences into the classroom (Smith, diSessa and Roschelle, 1993). However, unlike the classical conceptual change approach, the constructivist approach is expressed in the form of knowledge reorganization or knowledge refinement, not as a modification of learning information. Therefore, now, it is used in the literature as a remediate of the information with the effect of the constructivist approach, instead of the information change or dispelling of misconceptions which are used in the past.
Various researchers have attempted to classify types of conceptual change using different names. For example, Hewson and Hewson (1981) named them as conceptual capture and conceptual exchange, Posner et. al (1982) named them as assimilation and accommodation, Vosniadou (1994) named them as enrichment and revision, Duit and Treagust (2003) named them as weak knowledge restructuring and strong/radical knowledge restructuring. But these classifications meet in common aspects.
The conceptual change model has two major components: the conditions that need to be satisfied for a person to experience conceptual change and the person's conceptual ecology that provides the context in which the conceptual change occurs (Hewson and Thorley, 1989). According to Posner et. Al. (1982), conceptual change depends on four conditions: (i) There must be dissatisfaction with a currently held conception. (ii) The alternative conception must be intelligible. (iii) The alternative conception must appear plausible. (iv) The alternative conception must appear fruitful.
Concept maps, analogies, animations, simulations, refutation texts, conceptual change texts can be given as examples of conceptual change methods and techniques. The literature of conceptual change is quite extensive.
According to huge literature on conceptual change, for instance, conceptual change texts is one of the most used technique in conceptual change strategy after 1985. However, most of the studies on physics education which examines the success of the conceptual change texts have not varied and some of them just represent the material. In addition, some studies indicate that misconceptions of students can be continued however, they read conceptual change texts (Baser ve Began, 2007, Dilber, Karaman ve Duzgun, 2009). So, the success of this technique should be questioned.
It can be reached by a lot of studies on the other methods and techniques of conceptual change. But student-centered constructivist methods can be used to provide conceptual change. Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is one of them. If four conditions of conceptual change are provided, conceptual change can be done. The problem situations in the PBL are unstructured problems that require the student to find additional relationships between the facts and concepts in the problem, which need additional resources to learn and to understand the various solutions of the problem (Lohman and Finkelstein, 2000). In short, PBL is a method that emphasizes the meaning of the superficial interpretation (Prpic and Hadgraft, 2003). With PBL, learners logically understand related concepts and solve problems more easily by establishing links between previous knowledge and information they will learn in the learning process (Holen, 2000). In some studies, learning processes were conceptually investigated with PBL and beneficial results were obtained.
It seems that studies on the basic concepts of thermodynamics revealed various misconceptions. We can also say that students have certain problems with making connections between concepts. For this reason, it is necessary to determine what goes through students minds when thinking about the process of the change of heat. The purpose of this study is to examine the process of conceptual change over time regarding the heat concept and provide an analytical assessment. The resulting analytical assessment may be useful in determining reasons behind misconceptions related to the subject.
In this study, we used PBL to provide the conceptual change in heat concept. We discuss how a student learns heat concept in PBL process and what happened in the students' mind in the process. Interviews were made with the Socratic method to ensure that four conditions of conceptual change were achieved. Researchers in this study used classical conceptual change models.
